Fewer Whole Books, More Isolated Learning Experiences

Fewer Whole Books, More Isolated Learning Experiences
Thursday, August 20 | 7:00–8:00 p.m. ET

What does interaction with books in the classroom mean for teachers navigating change every day? Join this free webinar, open to members and nonmembers. Registration is required to attend.

Register today!

Join NCTE Historian Jonna Perrillo and Andrew Newman, coauthors with Jeremiah Piña of Atomized English: Fewer Whole Books, More Isolated Learning Experiences, for a timely conversation with Sarah Esberger, assistant professor at Longwood University and a former Tennessee educator with more than 20 years of classroom experience, and Noelle Cammon, a California educator and literacy leader with more than 20 years of experience. Jonna Perrillo is also the author of Uncensored: Educators Speak Out on Teaching in a Time of Book Bans.  

Moderated by NCTE President Antero Garcia, professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, this panel will explore how educators are navigating censorship from inside the classroom. Drawing on their own experiences and those of educators across the country, the panelists will discuss how book bans and other forms of censorship are reshaping English language arts classrooms, limiting opportunities for students to engage with complete works of literature, and influencing literacy, critical thinking, and student learning. 

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, school leader, teacher educator, or advocate for literacy, this webinar will provide timely perspectives, practical insights, and meaningful conversation about one of the most pressing challenges facing education today. 

Learning Objectives:

• Gain insights from the recent study Atomized English: Fewer Whole Books, More Isolated Learning Experiences, and explore the use of whole books, analog and digital reading, and students’ access to collaborative literacy engagement. 
• Identify pedagogical strategies educators are using to push against restricted access to books in English language arts classrooms. 
• Examine the role that online learning platforms and scripted curricula play in censorship debates and how they contribute to more fragmented, atomized reading experiences for students. 
• Explore the relationship between equitable access to whole-class texts and student learning and discuss the implications of disparities in students’ opportunities to engage with complete works of literature. 

MODERATOR

Antero Garcia is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and current NCTE President. His research explores the possibilities of speculative imagination and healing in educational research. Prior to completing his PhD, Garcia was an English teacher at a public high school in South Central Los Angeles. His recent research explores learning and literacies in tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons and the civic learning possibilities in various learning environments. Based on his research, Garcia co-designed the Critical Design and Gaming School—a public high school in South Central Los Angeles. His recent books include All through the Town: The School Bus as Educational Technology, Everyday Advocacy: Teachers Who Change the Literacy Narrative (coauthored with Cathy Fleischer), and Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom (coauthored with Nicole Mirra). Garcia currently coedits La Cuenta, an online publication centering the voices and perspectives of individuals labeled undocumented in the US.

SPEAKERS

Jonna Perrillo is an education historian and professor of English education at the University of Texas, El Paso, where she teaches courses on secondary ELA methods, young adult literature, and the history of English Language Arts instruction. She is the author of three books: Uncivil Rights: Teachers, Unions, and Race in the Battle for School Equity; Educating the Enemy: Teaching Nazis and Mexicans in the Cold War Borderlands; and Uncensored: Educators Speak Out on Teaching in a Time of Book Bans. Her scholarship has been published in numerous academic journals, including Research in the Teaching of English and The Council Chronicle.

Andrew Newman is professor and interim chair of the English Department at Stony Brook University, where he teaches courses on American Studies and the history of English education. Research toward his book project, Book Learning: The American Experience of High School English, has appeared in English Journal, Inside Higher Ed, The Conversation, Public Books, and English Literary History (forthcoming). With Jonna Perrillo, he is the three-time co-director of a Summer Institute for Teachers sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, “Making the Good Reader and Citizen: The History of Literature Instruction in American Schools.”

Sarah Esberger ended a seventeen-year career as a Tennessee high school English teacher in 2025. She now teaches in the Reading, Literacy, and Learning graduate program at Longwood University in Farmville, VA where she is also co-director of the Southside Virginia Writing Project. Aside from her contributions to Uncensored: Educators Speak out in a Time of Book Bans, Sarah was also published in English Journal. Currently, Sarah is working on a book chapter with two former teacher colleagues that chronicles their innovative use of inquiry questions, choice books, and authentic writing assignments.

Noelle Cammon has been teaching for 20 years and currently serves as an English teacher at a suburban high school in California. Passionate about literature and student engagement, she has developed innovative approaches to literacy instruction and professional development. She is committed to fostering a love of reading and writing in her students while supporting fellow educators in their growth.