(Re)Viewing the Field

English Education

All Reviews

(Re)Viewing the Field

Welcome to English Education’s book review section. Here, you’ll find bite-sized, thoughtful considerations of different books that hold interest for those in the field of ELA teacher education.

Since English Education does not accept unsolicited reviews, please complete the journal’s interest form or contact Melanie Shoffner, editor, at EnglishEd@ncte.org, if you are interested in writing a review or extending the conversation on a published review.

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August 2022

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Living Poets in the Classroom: A Spell Book for Teaching Contemporary Poetry

Sian Charles-Harris
University of Connecticut

Book review of Illich, L., & Alter Smith, M. (2021). Teach living poets. National Council of Teachers of English.

Lindsay Illich and Melissa Alter Smith’s Teach Living Poets invites us into ELA classrooms where the teachers, students, and poets who make up the #TeachLivingPoets community participate in learning experiences that capture the “magical qualities of the language in poems” (p. 12). Their approach pays special attention to students’ sociopolitical development and the goals and challenges educators face when it comes to teaching poetry in the current sociopolitical climate. The poems, strategies, and ideas presented in the well-sourced chapters will appeal to English teacher educators, preservice teachers, and novice and experienced educators who want to unlock the pedagogical possibilities of contemporary poetry in their classrooms and ignite within themselves and their students a love and enjoyment of poetry.

The chapters include a wealth of practical strategies and activities, examples of student work, and detailed guides for teaching a variety of subgenres within contemporary poetry. Chapters 1 through 3 orient the reader to the Teach Living Poets approach and to ways of discovering and reading contemporary poetry. Chapters 4 through 8 focus on teaching contemporary poems, with sections dedicated to unpacking key ideas in the teaching of poetry, such as “what is poetry” (p. 40), teaching tone (p. 47), and annotating a poem (p. 58). Each topic is accompanied by lesson plans and suggested poems. Chapter 9 encourages educators to connect by joining the #TeachLivingPoets online community.

Teach Living Poets also addresses theoretical implications (which teacher educators will find compelling) to give readers insights into the contemporary poetry scene. In Chapter 3, the authors urge educators to resist the lures of teaching literary devices—which they contend renders a poem down to a closed interpretation—and instead teach poetry through a “lens of moves” to help students understand, analyze, and critique poems. This chapter also helpfully discusses common contemporary poetic moves, explicates common subgenres that may be unfamiliar to readers, and provides classroom-tested lists of selected poems that feature each move.

As a former high school English teacher, I appreciate how the authors provide a detailed pedagogy of and for contemporary poetry that highlights how the #TeachLivingPoets approach positively impacts students’ critical reading and writing development and creates opportunities for self-expression and social-emotional learning. As a teacher educator, I appreciate how the authors articulate the importance of shifting the interpretive authority in reading poetry from teacher to student. On this point, the book provides a model for teacher educators to engage preservice teachers in deeper discussions about what it means to relinquish power in relation to students.

In my work with preservice teachers, I foreground the political and philosophical aspects of teaching literature while emphasizing what should be taught and how it should be taught. In my methods courses, we discuss power, value, and purpose in teaching literature and the impact of these curricular and pedagogical choices. While the #TeachLivingPoets approach positions teachers as “skilled anthologists, culling poems from everywhere for the small audience they know best, their students” (p. 12), I didn’t find that the chapters adequately confronted issues of power, value, and purpose for teachers assuming the role of anthologist. The authors aim to empower teachers to choose the texts they want to teach in order to satisfy curricular needs, but, for this empowerment to occur, teachers must examine the political and ethical dimensions of text selection. I suspect the authors intend for this process of empowerment to be further developed in virtual community; however, this book would benefit from including these kinds of analyses or prompts in each chapter.

That said, Teach Living Poets offers practical advice for reading and teaching contemporary poetry and details practical classroom activities that engage students as meaning-makers and knowledge producers. Not only an engaging how-to guide for appreciating poetry, it is also a call to action and a philosophical meditation on the alchemy that occurs between selves, words, and worlds when we share the experience of interpreting poetry.

August 31, 2022

Sian Charles-Harris is a doctoral candidate at the University of Connecticut, and her research focuses on secondary English teachers’ sociopolitical development and how it impacts the teaching of literature in secondary schools. She has been a member of NCTE since 2019.

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A Window on Evidence-Based Writing Practices

Bridgette B. Davis
Walden University

Book review of Dean, D. (2021). What works in writing instruction: Research and practice (2nd ed.). National Council of Teachers of English.

In What Works in Writing Instruction, Deborah Dean answers the titular, age-old pedagogical question by examining evidence-based writing in five independent chapters focused on climate, structures, practices, content, and tasks. To link the chapters and writing areas together with real-world application, the author utilizes “sketchnotes,” which transform traditional note-taking into an interactive and engaging process. These sketchnotes also functionally mimic the graphic organizers and thinking maps used in many classrooms—including my own—to brainstorm and spark creativity when beginning the writing process or further developing an idea.

Also essential to the text and its tethering of real-world application to pedagogical theory are “windows” that are introduced as glimpses into classrooms through space allotted for teachers to share stories from implementing evidence-based practices. These windows helpfully provide testimonials and pedagogical tools which translate into my classroom as the sharing of my books and personal writing process with students. What Works in Writing Instruction also features the challenges encountered when applying the practices and consideration of how the needs of students lead to adaptations. In other words, despite the usefulness of evidence-based practices, the resounding message of the book is that not all practices work the same for all students.

The book has numerous strengths. For example, Dean leaves us with the feeling of sharing ideas with a colleague over hot coffee or of two friends gleaning evidence-based practices from one another’s classroom experiences. This sense strengthens the idea of collaboration among peers, which leads to a greater impact on students. Another strength nestled in these pages is how the text encourages teachers to share and show vulnerability to their students through their writing. The personal windows provide teachers the comfort of knowing other teachers share similar experiences in their classrooms. Dean also provides examples of how teachers can integrate the windows into their student’s writing process. Overall, the author accomplishes her goal of providing readers with glimpses into real classrooms, filled with real students and teachers overcoming real challenges, as they develop real writers.

One minor criticism of the book is the insertion of the “Research Toolbox” feature, which gives credit to those whose research contributed to this publication. The placement throughout the book proved to be more of a distraction than a bibliographical enhancement while reading. The purpose of the feature is unclear and seems redundant.

As a veteran educator, I hope a book of this type encourages ELA teachers to relax, have fun, enjoy the writing process, and make it fun for their students. In addition, realizing that no prescriptive writing format or evidence-based practice produces the same result for all classes or students may lessen the pressure felt by many ELA teachers. What Works in Writing Instruction equips ELA teachers with a resource and a support tool for implementing writing in their classrooms. Teacher educators could also use this book with preservice teachers as a resource for implementing writing ideas and adaptive concepts to meet their students’ needs. Finally, the book may reduce the anxiety that new ELA teachers feel and give them a starting point when beginning the writing process in their classrooms.

Ultimately, Dean does a great job of answering the question of what works in writing instruction—teachers’ work, students’ work, and the work of using evidence-based practices, even if that means adapting them to meet students’ needs.

August 31, 2022

Bridgette B. Davis is a twenty-plus-year educational veteran who has been a member of NCTE since 2020. She currently serves as a district MTSS and assessment coordinator for an inner-city state charter school. She previously served as an instructional coach in reading and social studies for six years. Her background is in elementary education and adult education.

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Teachers Who Persist

Abigail Kindelsperger
University of Illinois at Chicago

Book review of Rodriguez, T. L, Hallman, H. L, & Pastore-Capuana, K. (Eds.). (2020). Invested stayers: How teachers thrive in challenging times. Rowman & Littlefield.

Although written before the pandemic, the narratives of teacher resistance featured in Invested Stayers: How Teachers Thrive in Challenging Times resonate right now. Through in-depth consideration of why teachers persist despite the stressors they face, this edited collection offers hope and wisdom. Using a model of “relational reflection,” each chapter is coauthored by at least one practicing PK–12 teacher and one teacher educator, an approach which “highlights the reciprocal nature of learning and the power of relational ways of knowing and being” (p. xviii). While the editors are seasoned English educators, the chapters feature a variety of voices, including teachers of English, science, math, social studies, special education, and English as a Second Language that span early childhood through college. Taken collectively, these essays disrupt the negative dominant discourse about teacher retention. Rather than highlight the problems that cause teachers to exit the field, the selected stories reveal how professional relationships and institutional supports can sustain teachers’ careers.

As the title indicates, the collection focuses on “invested stayers,” or teachers who persist in the field, a label which directly counters Glazer’s studies of “invested leavers,” defined as credentialed teachers who exit the career after more than three years (2018a, 2018b). Unlike typical stories that situate resilience as an individual endeavor, the narratives of this book are clearly situated within broader conflicts and changes in the field, which the editors call “landmark catalysts” (p. xii).

The twelve chapters are organized into three sections. Part 1: Social Landscapes emphasizes the value of learning from and about local school communities to teach in culturally relevant and sustaining ways. All four chapters in this section highlight mentorship from teacher educators after graduation as a key element in professional growth. The chapters in Part 2: Political Landscapes tell narratives of agency in which teachers persist because they can push back against or work around educational reforms they deem as constraining or harmful. A notable theme of this section is the importance of collegiality and connection with others, such as through teachers’ unions or communities of practices. Like Part 1, the chapters in Part 3: Disciplinary Landscapes emphasize the value of university and school collaboration. These stories showcase how inquiry (such as practitioner research) and innovative practices (such as redesigning curriculum and utilizing digital tools) motivate and sustain careers.

While positioned as a book for PK–12 teachers and teacher educators, the narratives speak most directly to secondary education teacher educators, highlighting the importance of mentorship and collaboration between universities and local schools. As a teacher educator, I found myself considering how my program could better support teachers after graduation and nurture invested stayers through collaborative partnerships or research. I was also struck by the narratives of teacher educators who reflect on the mutual benefits of collaboration. These teacher educators intimately reveal how their own pedagogical practices have been impacted, thanks to their ongoing work with practicing teachers. For me, few of the chapters shared particularly groundbreaking insights on why teachers persist; however, I find this book’s coauthored structure compelling. Given the increasingly challenging times, I would love to see a follow-up collection about teacher resilience in the context of the pandemic.

References

Glazer, J. (2018a). Leaving lessons: Learning from the exit decisions of experienced teachers. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 24(1), 50–62.

Glazer, J. (2018b). Learning from those who no longer teach: Viewing teacher attrition through a resistance lens. Teacher and Teacher Education, , 62–71.

August 31, 2022

Abigail Kindelsperger is a lecturer and associate director of English education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Previously, she taught high school English for more than a decade. She joined NCTE in 2004.

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Literary Literacy: A Pragmatic Guide to the Teaching of Literature

Jonathan Marine
George Mason University

Book review of McCann, T. M., & Knapp, J. V. (2021). Learning to enjoy literature: How teachers can model and motivate. Rowman & Littlefield.

In Learning to Enjoy Literature: How Teachers Can Model and Motivate, Thomas M. McCann and John V. Knapp offer a series of structured approaches for ELA teachers to utilize in teaching (and modeling for) students the procedures for reading and understanding literature. The basis of their argument is that common approaches to teaching literature fail to give proper “attention to teaching students how to read” (p. 2). My own experiences as a teacher of literature lead me to believe that McCann and Knapp’s advocacy for an expanded conception of the literate activities that undergird students’ efforts to write about literature is a promising contribution to ELA educators and education. It is particularly useful for both “teachers-in-training [and] teachers currently on the job” (p. xi) in need of practical approaches to help students treat literary interpretation as a collective, collaborative, social, and intellectual activity.

Presented as the praxis-oriented follow-up to McCann and Knapp’s previous, more theoretical book for ELA teachers, Teaching on Solid Ground: Knowledge Foundations for the Teacher of English (2019), this volume offers detailed descriptions of specific instructional sequences often focused on particular literary works. For example, Chapter 3 suggests leading with a student survey on “fairness scenarios” (i.e., hypothetical school-based situations) that invites students to contemplate their own personal conceptions of fairness. By engaging students with the values—which then help them to navigate the myriad ethical and moral complexities in works such as The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Great Expectations, and Things Fall Apart—the authors are urging ELA teachers to more sensitively attend to how their students read. Chapter 4 encourages students to consider competing interpretations by first thinking about authorial intention and then accounting for the alternative interpretations that arise from small-group discussions with peers before agreeing, as a class, on explicit rules of notice and signification (i.e., how and what readers notice and what constitutes a key feature of a narrative).

Chapter 5 directs teachers to perform read- and think-alouds of short passages in order to “wonder out loud” (p. 66) and thereby model for students how a mature reader thinks about the complex prose and narrative arcs of literature. These detailed descriptions are de facto lesson plans, with pragmatic, accessible activities that teachers could implement and build on in their own classrooms. Further, the activities all seek to cultivate an understanding of students’ own perspectives first, which can then connect to literary experiences with an amplified emphasis on the social, dialectical exchanges that help to develop and reinforce students’ ability to write about and respond to literature.

One drawback of the book is the inlaid presumption that this teaching of literature will take place in traditional face-to-face environments. In a contemporary educational context that increasingly values progressive pedagogies focused on marginalized experiences, and which is addressed to students deeply immersed in a digitally connected and multimedia world, these efforts can feel a bit dated. It is incumbent upon all of us to, on the one hand, continue to modernize and sensitize our teaching practices and, on the other, not lose sight of the conveyable lessons of the literary past or the literate procedures for accessing them.

As a mid-career ELA teacher, I found Learning to Enjoy Literature: How Teachers Can Model and Motivate at its most valuable when it challenged me to reconsider the value of explicit instructional methods which attend to the often-occluded skills that amalgamate to form the literacy and literary ability of the students in my classroom. McCann and Knapp are to be commended for balancing a delicate spectrum of demands by centering on how to teach literature in a world that continues to question its value.

Reference

McCann, T. M., & Knapp, J. V. (2019). Teaching on solid ground: Knowledge foundations for the teacher of English. Guilford Press.

August 31, 2022

Jonathan Marine is a doctoral student in writing and rhetoric at George Mason University and has been a member of NCTE since 2019. He can be contacted via email at jmarine@gmu.edu and on Twitter at @JonathanMMarine.

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June 2022

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Reading Together: Crafting a School Culture to Support Multilingual Students

Stacia L. Long
University of Georgia

Book review of Vu, D. (2021). Life, literacy, and the pursuit of happiness: Supporting our immigrant and refugee children through the power of reading. Scholastic.

As an English language arts (ELA) teacher, I spent a lot of time thinking about the culture of the learning community I built with students. However, what we built together was limited to the four walls of our classroom, separate from other subject areas. Likewise, there wasn’t continuity from my class to the next ELA class the following year. While I sought collaborative educators among the other ELA teachers, I never thought much beyond my departmental setting. Don Vu’s (2021) Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Supporting Our Immigrant and Refugee Children Through the Power of Reading challenges teachers like me to think bigger.

In this slim volume, Vu reflects on his work as an elementary school principal who worked alongside teachers to shape the school into a place dedicated to student literacy. The book sits nicely within the conventions of practitioner texts: it has a catchy title, an accessible length (144 pages), clear headings, bright images, framing narratives of both the author’s life and the school community, book recommendations, and an optimistic tone even when acknowledging the difficulties educators may face.

In sharing the ideals and practices that fed this work, Vu draws on a wide range of foundational thinkers in the field of critical education (e.g., Paulo Freire, Rudine Sims Bishop), proponents of reading workshop (e.g., Lucy Calkins), reading researchers (e.g., Richard Allington), and current practitioner voices (e.g., Kelly Gallagher, Steven Layne, Donalyn Miller). Quotations from other public voices—including Vice President Kamala Harris, James Baldwin, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar—introduce each chapter, previewing how reading is connected to identity, community, or freedom.

In Part One: Life, Vu introduces himself as an educator who came to the United States as a Vietnam refugee in 1975, which illustrates his connection to immigrant and refugee students and demonstrates how literacy circulates in people’s lives. This reflection on his culture precedes his account of creating a campus-wide reading culture, the importance of this work, the challenges that educators may face, and the conditions necessary for a schoolwide reading culture: “commitment, clock, collection, conversation, connection, and celebration” (p. 30).

Part Two: Literacy focuses on the material conditions Vu and his colleagues established to support students and teachers as they developed reading lives. For instance, Vu offers book recommendations and descriptions of the steps he took to create time and space for reading. He also describes how parents and children’s book authors were invited to the school to support literacy practices beyond the campus. These strategies may be familiar to teachers, but by going beyond the school, he refreshingly offers a broader take.

In Part Three: Pursuit of Happiness, Vu makes visible his belief that reading is inextricably bound to achieving the American Dream while highlighting how books help readers better understand themselves and the world. Admittedly, this gave me pause. Vu leans heavily on the American dream as an aspiration for students without thinking critically about its flaws that are steeped in individuality and meritocracy or how social conditions constrain the prospects for many students to achieve it. This book was also written and published during the resurgence of the Reading Wars, the global pandemic, and racial violence. Vu neatly sidesteps these complex issues, instead offering a cursory discussion of how the pandemic increased the visibility of discrimination and inequality in education and American life.

Nonetheless, this book engages principals, teachers, and literacy leaders in the effort to develop a school reading culture that rests upon core values and is maintained through regular work. Readers will appreciate the window into a long-term project of school change that supports authentic literacy lives for all school stakeholders.

June 23, 2022

Stacia L. Long is a doctoral candidate studying English education at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on how English language arts teachers talk and teach about sexual violence. She has been a member of NCTE since 2010.

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Developing Racially Literate Readers

Janelle Jennings-Alexander
Saint Augustine’s University

Book review of Borsheim-Black, C., & Sarigianides, S. T. (2019). Letting Go of literary whiteness: Antiracist literature instruction for white students. Teachers College Press.

In Letting Go of Literary Whiteness, Carlin Borsheim-Black and Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides explore pathways for developing educators’ racial consciousness by interrogating literary works through the lens of critical race theory (CRT). Nowadays, any association with CRT is fraught, but Borsheim-Black and Sarigianides propose that CRT is necessary because it asks readers to acknowledge that “literature does not simply reflect race and racism in . . . society; literature has played a role in constructing race and racism in . . . society” (p. 7). As I think about my own identity as a black woman educator, both on the delivering and receiving end of educational experiences that center whiteness, I found this text validating, interesting, and engaging. But most of all, I appreciated Borsheim-Black and Sarigianides’s demand of teachers to address and unpack student responses when encountering texts that reflect on race, racism, and white supremacy.

Written with secondary English teachers and English teacher candidates in mind, Letting Go pushes against impulses to prescribe when and how teachers address racism in the classroom. To this end, the book encourages teachers to embed antiracist literature instruction throughout the curriculum and center the material prominently within classroom discussions and formative and summative assessments. The first chapter establishes base assumptions: that white texts need to be decentered, that colorblindness is inherent in teaching, and that racism needs to be interrupted in educational settings. The other six chapters focus on theories that support this argument—namely, reader response theory and critical race theory—and provide examples of how to adopt antiracist approaches to teaching texts and crafting assignments. The authors address the use of both canonical, white-authored novels, such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird, and those less anthologized, such as works from Kwame Alexander, Sherman Alexie, and Elizabeth Acevedo.

This book does two things well. First, in Chapters 2 and 7, it offers practical guidance for implementing antiracist approaches, including the development of learning objectives and assessments. Unit plans, guiding questions, and classroom activities in each chapter aid in this work. Second, the book provides real accounts from classroom teachers to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of antiracist literature instruction as a method for racial literacy development and deep literary interpretation. For example, Chapter 2 features a teacher who investigates the racist tropes present in a political cartoon. In this example, Mrs. Kinney makes a noble effort to approach the work but stumbles because of student resistance and misreading, her own apprehensions and race-evasive practices, and her missteps in scaffolding the assignment. Borsheim-Black and Sarigianides share measured advice that helps support teachers and students through these challenges. Because white readers “need instruction for uncovering ways whiteness operates ideologically to shape our responses to literature” (p. 46), this text outlines approaches, such as counter-storytelling, and assignments, such as scaffolded race talks and collaborative glossaries, to generate structured points of entry into these discussions.

Letting Go outlines important opportunities for the future of literary study, including the need to develop citizens capable of navigating conversations about racism. Because of my own subject position, I found myself drawn to the few moments in the book that brought students of color into the conversation. As much as I found this book useful, I would have loved more attention to exploring not simply how white students are impacted by a focus on whiteness, but also how all students are affected. By doing so, this groundbreaking research can acknowledge that, since most literature curriculum is oriented toward whiteness, the anti-blackness and othering that occurs as a result impacts all students in significant ways. Thus, antiracist teacher training and pedagogical approaches offer an important benefit to students and educators from all backgrounds, including—and perhaps especially—those whose anti-blackness has a significant impact on their own self-worth.

June 23, 2022

Janelle Jennings-Alexander (@ProfessorJJA) is a scholar-educator whose teaching and training explore opportunities for increasing racial literacy and engaging learners in critical discourse through the study of African American–authored fiction. Janelle is a 2018 recipient of the NCTE Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award and currently serves as a success coach with Write the Damn Dissertation. She joined NCTE in 2017.

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Critical Conversations in Troubling Times

Christian George Gregory
Saint Anselm College

Book review of Schieble, M., Vetter, A., & Martin, K. M. (2020). Classroom talk for social change: Critical conversations in English language arts. Teachers College Press.

Classroom Talk for Social Change tackles pedagogies of classroom discourse surrounding thorny issues that create tension and anxiety for teachers and students alike. Written for classroom teachers, the work is divided into eight accessible chapters that provide theory, research, key terms, and firsthand narratives. Additionally, each chapter contains reflective questions for personal or group use and a well-curated list of topical readings focusing on power, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and teacher talk. Though there are many books about classroom discussion, this carefully researched volume is an invaluable go-to guide for teachers eager to address critical conversations responsibly.

While the initial chapters lay the groundwork for discussions of power, privilege, reflection, and racial literacy, Chapter 4 provides methods of establishing a critical learner stance or a “mindset that embraces the possibility for challenging, rethinking, or developing nuanced understandings about knowledge” (p. 14). Through engaging in self-reflection, teachers can best prepare for conversations about confronting power and more ably guide students to examine white privilege and dominant, oppressive narratives related to gender or class.

In Chapter 5, the authors examine discourse spaces that encourage a more equitable flow of ideas, habits of critical listening, and lines of questioning and response. The chapter’s focus on vulnerability and discomfort gives weight to affective responses in complex discussions, and the authors provide a thoughtful, stepped approach to navigate “tension and model repair” (p.66). Since reparative work seems uncommon (or absent) on social media platforms, the authors include verbal and written cues to enable students to identify their feelings and respond to complex topics. At the same time, they encourage teachers to join in critical conversations through collegial affinity groups to reveal bias, combat prejudice, and disrupt beliefs.

A trio of chapters then provides additional methods of practice and reflection for critical conversations. Chapter 6 provides teachers with varied tools to navigate critical conversations about race, gender, and sexuality. First, the authors offer protocols to humanize discussion—to de-essentialize ideas, encourage mindful language, and listen critically to others. Second, they name methods for teachers to address racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic discourse and invite the class to name how identity politics (e.g., focused on race, class, gender, or sexual orientation) can shape ideas and events, interrupt existing power structures, surface systemic oppression, and strategize ways to combat such systems in support of equity. Chapter 7 examines how four teachers’ talk moves—those that pose essential questions, disrupt status quo mindsets, render discourse more inclusive, and facilitate gateways to civic action—form the basis of critical conversations. Last, Chapter 8 invites teachers to consider how collegial inquiry groups afford teachers a safe space to reflect on critical classroom conversations. This chapter provides a practitioner model for inquiry groups, based on the authors’ experience of recording and transcribing conversations, identifying each teacher’s reflexive position in discussion, and breaking down the spoken, unspoken, and unremarked that can occur with complex conversations.

This work’s great strength is how it balances the context of critical conversations with a practical guide for teachers before entering classroom discussions about race, gender, sexuality, and ability. As a former secondary school teacher, I have observed how easily classroom conversations can diffuse into vague abstractions or sharpen regrettably into personal attacks. As a college professor, I notice students retreating from controversial topics into the dangerous safety of neutrality. Thankfully, these authors encourage teachers to engage, rather than retreat, from critical discourse—to create safe spaces of discourse, articulate ground rules, and practice inquiry and disruption, rather than battle in debate and defense. By doing so, they provide what many teachers have yearned for amid the sound and fury: an equitable and mindful framework for classroom discussion on topics relevant to the lives of our students.

June 23, 2022

Christian George Gregory is an assistant professor of education at Saint Anselm College and a former lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests include queer theory and pedagogy, classroom discourse, and expanding the canon in English education. He has been a member of NCTE since 2010.

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Reckoning with the Other R in Education

Shelley L. Esman
Western Michigan University

Book review of Picower, B. (2021). Reading, writing, and racism: Disrupting Whiteness in teacher education and in the classroom. Beacon Press.

Bree Picower’s book Reading, Writing, and Racism: Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education and in the Classroom speaks to the curricular choices, textbooks, assignments, and teaching strategies that harm Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in classrooms. Detailing how Whiteness can be enacted in classrooms through silence, saviorism, white privilege, and white fragility, Picower asserts that an inaccurate and racist curriculum is shaped by emphasis, omission, and/or outright lies. Her research provides specific, recent examples of systemic racism, as well as specific assignments and classroom activities.

The foreword by Bettina L. Love is followed by an introduction that connects Picower’s work to current research explaining how “oppression operates on four overlapping levels: ideological, institutional, interpersonal/individual, and internalized” (p. 11). In Chapter 1, Picower examines curricular Whiteness by providing specific examples from current classrooms, such as when a fifth-grade teacher in Bronxville, NY, had white students bid on Black classmates in a mock slave auction. Chapter 2 shares perceptions of Whiteness and racism through case studies of four white teachers who come from varying backgrounds (Picower’s former students).

By reframing understandings of race within teacher education, Chapter 3 provides more examples of teachers who show their bias through words and actions, such as when teachers in Idaho dressed up for Halloween as stereotypes of Mexicans behind a border wall with a sign saying “Make America Great Again.” In Chapters 4 and 5, the book concludes with possible designs for teacher education programs that disrupt Whiteness, reaching from admission to induction. Throughout, Picower’s examples urge readers to look at their own practices.

This book was mentioned to me as part of a book study through the Diversity, Inclusion, Justice, and Equity (DIJE) group of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English. We have read and discussed How to Be an Antiracist (Kendi, 2019) and Cultivating Genius (Muhammad, 2020), as well as other texts that disrupt Whiteness. In my work as a doctoral graduate assistant teaching English education courses, Reading, Writing, and Racism has provided an additional foundation for preparing my preservice teachers to stop the cycle of harm. Teachers, teacher educators, and preservice teachers must examine their own identities and recognize their own potential to further marginalize their future students.

This book leaves the reader with a deeper understanding of the connections between recent research on antiracism, Whiteness, and the educational system and explains the urgency of providing effective teacher education programs that instill an undeniable belief that “regardless of how Whiteness manifests in classes, it must be disrupted” (p. 120). Teacher educators must provide opportunities for their students to examine their own identities and the relationship between individual teachers’ racial beliefs and their instructional practices, since “teacher education is one such institution that has the capacity to disrupt the racial ideology of large numbers of teachers before they enter the field poised to cause damage” (p. 62). It is essential for “teacher education to explicitly address and transform racial ideology as part of the curriculum design” (p. 82).

References

Kendi, A. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.

June 23, 2022

Shelley L. Esman is an English education doctoral student at Western Michigan University. She began her education journey as an elementary school teacher (twenty years) and then an instructional coach (ten years) with a master’s in reading and literacy with the K–12 literacy endorsement. Her research focuses on instructional practices that support diversity as well as understanding of the Holocaust through literature and writing. She is the Elementary chairperson of MCTE; an active member of the DIJE subcommittee’s work on diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity; and co-director of the Third Coast Writing Project at WMU. She has been a member of NCTE for two years.

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April 2022

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Inquiry and Empathy with Young Adult Literature

Alisha M. White
Western Illinois University

Book review of Hays, A. D. (2021). Engaging empathy and activating agency: Young adult literature as a catalyst for action. Rowman & Littlefield.

As a teacher educator, I am always searching for engaging ways to blend social justice topics and social-emotional learning with skill instruction and concept development. Alice D. Hays has provided one such approach in Engaging Empathy and Activating Agency: Young Adult Literature as a Catalyst for Action (2021) by presenting a curriculum for using young adult (YA) literature to teach empathy and develop students’ agency for active problem-solving in their communities and society.

I was curious about this book for use with my undergraduate English education students because I assign contemporary YA titles, representing a variety of author and character identities (e.g., in terms of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and mental health status) to engage them in discussions of inequality, critical literacy, and social action. I was particularly interested in how this book might expand the social action aspect of my curriculum.

Hays presents a curriculum that develops language arts skills and social-emotional learning through YA literature circles and inquiry into social justice topics. In Chapter 1, she describes lessons for introducing concepts related to identity, privilege, and inequality—for example, inviting students to brainstorm topics they are interested in reading about and researching. In fact, each chapter offers concrete steps and ideas for implementing the curriculum, such as activity overviews (what the teacher does and what students do), student work templates, and teacher resources.

Chapter 2 provides a rationale for using contemporary YA literature with characters experiencing the inequalities that students chose, then outlines how to set up literature circles in the classroom and provides a sample calendar to illustrate helpful structures for those literature circles. While traditional research papers often focus on skill development, the inquiry project described in Chapter 3 builds students’ empathy by having them conduct research related to their YA novel reading and share the inquiry of their chosen social justice issue with school community members and stakeholders. Chapter 4 outlines how to guide students in developing and implementing an action plan while offering flexibility in assessing student learning and holding students accountable for accomplishing the goals they set for themselves.

The voices of teachers and their students are highlighted throughout the book in sections titled Putting Theory into Practice. In Chapter 5, Hays presents interviews with two teachers and a student who experienced the curriculum. The book concludes with an appendix containing annotations of suggested Books for Social Justice Issues organized by topic.

Teacher educators will find this book an accessible way to introduce critical literacy, culturally responsive teaching, and anti-racist curriculum through studying contemporary YA literature, building research and writing skills, and developing social-emotional learning. Through sample projects and descriptions of instructional practices, as well as educational theories and scholarship that support the curriculum, Engaging Empathy and Activating Agency serves as a resource for beginning (and experienced) teachers who want to help students “consider and discuss their own positionality, identity, and their society around them so that they might thoughtfully consider how they can and would want to positively impact the world” (Hays, 2021, p. 2).

April 4, 2022

Alisha M. White brings critical literacy and young adult literature to her English education courses at Western Illinois University. She has been an NCTE member since 2007 and has served as co-chair of the NCTE/ELATE Commission on Arts and Literacies. Her most recent works have appeared in English Journal, The ALAN Review, and A Symphony of Possibilities: A Handbook for Arts Integration in Secondary English Language Arts (edited by Katherine J. Macro and Michelle Zoss).

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Toward a More Inclusive Diversity: Critical Considerations of Living, Being, and Teaching Rural

Chea Parton
The University of Texas at Austin

Book review of Petrone, R., & Wynhoff Olsen, A. (2021). Teaching English in Rural Communities: Toward a Critical Rural English Pedagogy. Rowman & Littlefield.

Eckert and Petrone’s (2013) call for the field to devote more attention to rural English language arts (ELA) teaching and teacher preparation hit really close to home. Even though I have attended and taught in rural schools, it was the first piece of scholarship I had ever read that explicitly mentioned rural ELA teaching and considered the specific affordances and constraints associated with it. Since then, rural-focused ELA scholarship has still been hard to come by, so Petrone & Wynhoff Olsen’s Teaching English in Rural Communities: Toward a Critical Rural English Pedagogy (2021) provides a much-needed opportunity for teachers and teacher educators to consider and challenge the dominant narrative that positions rural people as “Rednecks. Inbred hicks. Toothless hillbillies. Racists and homophobes clinging to guns and Bibles” (Kruger, 2020).

Petrone and Wynhoff Olsen’s text provides both the theoretical underpinnings for critical rural English pedagogy (CREP) and examples of how to employ the theory in practice. The authors outline CREP as a pedagogy designed to help students (a) analyze and critique discourses and ideologies related to rurality and (b) create texts that disrupt dominant deficit notions of rural people and places—something I struggled to do in my own rural classroom. Further, it offers “a ‘from the ground up’ and accessible approach to insert, humanize, and recalibrate the place of rural teachers and contexts within English Education” (p. 3).

In its balanced organization, the book features three theory-building chapters that frame three practice-focused chapters, each of the latter co-written with rural ELA teachers and including unit structures, lesson plans, and examples of students’ work. To open, Petrone and Olsen outline CREP’s major tenets, discuss the need for it, and situate it within current academic scholarship. After introducing CREP as pedagogy, Chapter 2 situates CREP in practice, discussing a unit designed to question and disrupt notions of rurality, while Chapter 3 centers Indigenous ruralities, asking who is included and excluded when we say “rural.” In the final practice-based chapter, the authors offer a broader view of activities used by teachers to specifically address topics that teachers find challenging to bring into their rural classrooms (e.g., notions of land ownership; LGBTQIA+ identities; poverty; alcohol and drug abuse and addiction).

The last two chapters broaden their considerations to address specific affordances and challenges of teaching and using CREP in rural ELA classrooms. Chapter 5 gives particular attention to race and addresses the invisibility of Native, Black, and Latinx rural populations and the importance of making their experiences visible across rural and sub/urban places. In the final chapter, Petrone and Wynhoff Olsen imagine a way forward for CREP, exploring possibilities for incorporating it into all levels and places of ELA instruction, as well as policies that impact education.

Because there are precious few texts like it, Teaching English in Rural Communities is an important book for the field. However, its focus on rurality does have limitations. Rural teachers need professional literature like this to help them bring a critical place-based lens to their rural students. Throughout the book, including Valerie Kinloch’s foreword, CREP is situated as an important read for educators across all geographic classifications; however, and perhaps understandably so, there is very little attention given to how CREP could be used in urban classrooms to further decenter urbanity in a way that can make rural experiences more visible than they currently are.

There are more than 9 million rural students in the US (Showalter et al., 2019), but most educational scholarship is metrocentric. As a former rural student and rural ELA teacher, I wish I would have had the learning and teaching opportunities this book offers—namely, to both appreciate and critique rurality and my experiences of it. With this book, Petrone and Wynhoff Olsen offer a critical disruption to an overwhelmingly metrocentric field and invite current and future scholars to take up this work alongside them.

References

Eckert, L. S., & Petrone, R. (2013). Raising issues of rurality in English teacher education. English Education, 46(1), 68–81.

Kruger, P. (2020, April 9). What don’t most liberals realize. Quora. https://www.quora.com/What-dont-most-liberals-realize

Showalter, D., Hartman, S. L., Johnson, J., & Klein, B. (2019, November). Why rural matters 2018–2019: The time is now. Rural School and Community Trust. http://www.ruraledu.org/WhyRuralMatters.pdf

April 4, 2022

Chea Parton is a farm girl and former rural student and teacher. She currently teaches future English teachers, researches the role of place in teacher preparation, and advocates for the teaching of rural young adult literature through her website Literacy in Place. She has been a member of NCTE since 2008.

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March 2022

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Co-Opting the World to Cultivate the Word: On Place-Based Writing Pedagogy

Jessica Eagle
North Carolina State University

Book review of Montgomery, R., & Montgomery, A. (2021). A place to write: Getting your students out of the classroom and into the world. National Council of Teachers of English.

I’d like you to think back to your own classroom writing experiences. Which do you remember most—and why? It’s likely that your most memorable written products were authentically inspired from your own emotional and experience-based connections to the content and context. The most rewarding classes encourage construction of your own knowledge, learning how to think for yourself, and how to share your knowledge with others. A teacher cannot simply transmit known information; authentic knowing isn’t created from simply absorbing another’s knowledge (Blau, 2011).

As an educator, I often question how we might offer such an experience to our own students. Rob and Amanda Montgomery’s A Place to Write: Getting Your Students out of the Classroom and into the World provides a theoretically grounded yet pragmatically oriented discussion of what it means to use space and place as fulcrums to cultivate authenticity in the teaching and learning of writing.

Montgomery and Montgomery present the transformative potential of place-based writing to “save traditional writing from itself” (p. xii) and allow students “to do authentic and meaningful work in a way other writing struggles to achieve” (p. xiii). The book begins with an initial roadmap of what can be accomplished with a place-based writing approach (e.g., strengthening self-worth through identity-centric environments). Specifically, the first chapter problem-poses traditional pedagogical practices for writing, explains how place-based writing encourages the concept of authenticity in student writing, and provides a framework teachers may adopt for creating place-based writing activities that are valuable for their individual learning communities. By way of evidencing the framework’s practical application, the second chapter provides two complete units, including activity materials that the chapter’s author (a fourth-grade teacher) successfully implemented with her students.

In line with Dewey (2005), who argued that students can truly learn only through experience and contended that an experience arises out of, and is distinct from, our many everyday experiences, Montgomery and Montgomery call for educators to situate writing activities as part of students’ sense of identity. Speaking to what makes a given location meaningful, the authors challenge us to consider how its particularities impart “the emotional attachments that make them resonate with people” (p. 10). Thus, this book is set apart from other place-based writing guides in that it does not center an environmentalist standpoint; rather, it details how this approach can be used for a variety of instructional purposes.

Chapters 3 through 8 are each dedicated to different locations that help teachers consider the range of students’ possible experiences. From in-school locations (e.g., the cafeteria), to community sites (e.g., playgrounds), and even virtual spaces (relevant and timely, given the navigation of COVID-19 policies), this section of the book illustrates how each place can foster inclusivity and become a site of authentic inquiry. Each of these chapters is complemented with adaptable lesson ideas and practical examples of activities and assignments that target unique purposes for writing (e.g., writing argumentative narratives).

This theoretically aligned how-to guide for place-based writing bridges complex literacy skill development and aesthetic fulfillment. In an era when public schools often marginalize the abstract and revere that which can be held to accountable standards, the book scaffolds the knowledge and dispositions necessary for empowering students to actively encounter and impact real-world situations. As a former teacher determined to motivate my students to delight in writing, and presently a teacher educator abruptly charged this past year with helping my student teachers negotiate the health and safety implications of working within various spatial conditions, I view this work as a valuable support for student engagement and the use of outdoor and alternative learning environments. Suited for use in professional development situations and methods courses alike, the authors’ writing style will capture and sustain the attention of any who are searching for a succinctly structured, yet substantial, toolkit for progressive best practices in the teaching of writing.

References

Blau, S. (2011). Fostering authentic learning in the literature classroom. In J. O. Milner & C. A. Pope (Eds.), Engaging American novels: Lessons from the classroom (pp. 3–17). National Council of Teachers of English.

Dewey, J. (2005). Art as experience. Berkley.

March 24, 2022

Jessica Eagle is a doctoral candidate in English education and literacy in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include the use of computational methods in English language arts, subscreenic literacies, writing pedagogies, secondary English teacher education, and the role of emotion in learning contexts. She has been a member of the NCTE since 2015.

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December 2021

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Planning with Purpose: A Comprehensive How-To Guide

Erika Watts
University of South Florida

Book review of Roseboro, A. J. S., & Marschall, C. A. (2021). Planning with purpose: A handbook for new college teachers. Rowman & Littlefield.

Roseboro and Marschall’s Planning with Purpose: A Handbook for New College Teachers reads as a how-to guide for the first year of teaching college students even as it advises new teachers of challenges they may face as they start in their profession. It is full of easily accessible, step-by-step lesson plans, allowing teachers of any course to bookmark a lesson to teach on the spot. The authors emphasize the need for flexibility as a college educator; accordingly, while providing how-to lessons, they also discuss ways to adapt and fit them to the needs of all students.

The book’s layout presents as an easy-to-follow handbook for new college teachers entering into teaching. The authors offer sample assessments, tips for selecting relevant texts, homework suggestions, and, of course, engaging lessons to use in the classroom. The activities provided throughout the book often allow students to write and receive feedback on their writing, which is vital to a student’s growth as a learner and a writer.

While many of these lessons center on writing, they can also be used to build community in the classroom by allowing students to network and collaborate. The authors offer suggestions for how to pair students and enhance class engagement—concepts that might be challenging for a first-year college teacher. When I first began teaching at the high school level, I avoided pairing my students for writing activities due to fear of losing control of the classroom. Letting high school students loose from teacher-led instruction to critique each other’s work seemed quite intimidating to a first-year teacher fresh out of undergrad. I worried they would give overly harsh feedback, get off topic during discussion, or act out with their peers. I eventually worked past these concerns and realized how much they could learn about their own writings by talking to one another. Had I had this book in my first years of teaching, I would have used the techniques in Chapter 4 right away.

Planning with Purpose further extends the teaching of writing by offering lessons on creating multimodal presentations (as shown in Chapter 8) that allow students to showcase using media and public speaking to make their writing come to life. The authors provide examples for new educators that can help students see the relevance in writing by using what might be considered more “real-life” examples, such as understanding bibliographies and examining scientific procedures in writing. Roseboro and Marschall also provide guiding techniques for student–teacher writing conferences. Even as a veteran teacher, techniques like those in Chapter 6 were interesting for me as they demonstrated how conferencing before grading would make students more focused on the critiques and thus further engaged with their writing.

While Planning with Purpose provides helpful examples and techniques for teachers, it is limited by its lack of justification for different activities. Notes at the ends of chapters contain citations for research, but they would have been more effective if implemented throughout the text in order to offer additional resources and scholarly references for new teachers. Overall, however, this book provides an easily accessible guide for beginning (and even veteran) teachers to explore or expand ways of teaching. The detailed lesson plans and consistent explanation of expectations create a wonderful toolkit for educators to modify for their classroom. Though the book is geared toward new college teachers, I found the lessons and tips beneficial for teachers of any grade level with a bit of adaptation. I look forward to taking this handbook into my high school classroom and revamping my lessons to better assist my students.

December 29, 2021

Erika Watts is a doctoral student at the University of South Florida, studying curriculum and instruction in English education. She has been a member of NCTE since 2019 and is currently a high school English teacher in Florida.

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Netflix, Headlines, and Street Signs: Practical Lessons for 10 Grammar Concepts

Karen Morris
Penn State Altoona

Book review of Crovitz, D., & Devereaux, M. D. (2020). More grammar to get things done: Daily lessons for teaching grammar in context. Routledge.

In More Grammar to Get Things Done: Daily Lessons for Teaching Grammar in Context (2020), Darren Crovitz and Michelle D. Devereaux model how to teach grammar in a way that focuses on function over memorization, an approach they describe as “reality-based grammar in context” (p. 27). The book is split into two sections: three chapters that provide an overview of why and how to teach grammar—a term they acknowledge they use to encompass conventions of style, usage, and mechanics—and one chapter with 10-day lesson plans for 10 grammatical concepts. These lessons demonstrate how playing with language can give students more control over the meaning and purpose of their writing.

The core of this book consists of the 10-day lesson sequences on grammar concepts. Topics range from conjunctive adverbs to noun phrases and nominalization. Every lesson includes an explanation of each concept’s rhetorical purpose, a script for teaching lessons, and a guide for student assessment. The authors make it clear, however, that teachers should revise, remove, and rework lessons to meet the needs of their students. The lessons are short, taking 5 to 15 minutes to complete, so teachers can connect them to ongoing classroom instruction. This recursive design lets students return to work completed in previous lessons and units. The lessons’ texts for students to analyze come from the authors’ own writing as well as out-of-school texts, such as Netflix movie summaries and newspaper coverage of current events.

This book would be helpful for preservice teachers who are unfamiliar, or perhaps uncomfortable, with including grammar instruction in their teaching practices. Teachers new to language analysis might struggle to understand the content of the first three chapters, which includes the difference between grammar, usage, and mechanics; why instruction should focus on how language is being used; what standardized English means; and how language is power. This is a lot of material to dig through alone, but Crovitz and Devereaux’s writing is playful and concise, making the content accessible, even for a novice.

As the authors stress, writing is an active process. This book provides preservice teachers with exemplars for how to teach grammar concepts so students can make grammar a part of that process. In addition, the book can serve the dual purpose of modeling recursive lessons and teaching grammar concepts with which preservice teachers may be unfamiliar. What I found most appealing about Crovitz and Devereaux’s lessons was the focus on the why of grammar. Why might I use a fragment? Why might I use an appositive instead of a dependent clause? The lessons in this book provide a way to teach grammar so it appears no longer as a collection of random rules, but rather as choices in language and sentence structure that give students more control over the meaning and impact of their writing.

As a former high school English teacher, I wondered whether students would be able to transfer many of the grammar concepts to writing literary analysis essays and research papers, the genres that dominated the curriculum where I taught. When teaching college undergraduates this past year, however, I found ways to address some of the grammar concepts in my instruction more easily than I thought I would. For example, while writing research papers, my students learned how conjunctive adverbs, dependent clauses, complex sentences, and subordinating conjunctions could be used to show the relationship between facts when students synthesized content from multiple sources. While I could not implement all of the activities, because of limited class time, the lessons provided a common language for us to discuss how small grammatical choices can have large rhetorical effects.

December 29, 2021

Karen Morris, a former high school English teacher with a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Penn State, currently teaches in Penn State Altoona’s English department. Her research focuses on preservice teacher education and the teaching of writing. Karen has been a member of NCTE since 2016.

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Swimming in Story and Writing for Truth

Kate Hope
California State University, Stanislaus

Book review of Stewart, M. (Ed.). (2020). Nonfiction writers dig deep: 50 award-winning children’s book authors share the secret of engaging writing. National Council of Teachers of English.

My seven-year-old daughter lives for books about animal predators. Each morning, she rattles off a list of facts; as our family soaks up this new information, she importantly raises her pointer finger to say things like, “Mom, did you know wolf pups have babysitters?” and “Great white sharks use about 50 teeth in a single chomp!”

My daughter’s obsession with books about predators has shown me the impact of a passionate writer. Her books hold stories about real life, crafted by writers who find motivation through their own wonderings about the world. Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep, a collection edited by Melissa Stewart, presents essays from 50 award-winning nonfiction children’s authors who share their writing processes and what inspires them to explore the topics found in their books. The essays in this collection show how authors craft true, and often very personal, stories, brilliantly modeling for young writers how to tell true stories infused with wonder.

Through both reading selections and writing lessons, Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep serves as a multidimensional resource for teacher educators. In organization and content, this collection is highly accessible, especially for teachers who want to reach for a text to find the tool or sample they need. Each chapter includes teaching methods and a Teacher Timesaver table for teachers to select the essays most pertinent to their topic and grade level.

In the first chapter, authors model their processes of selecting and researching a topic, effectively expanding traditional notions of nonfiction writing instruction to share the feelings and memories that draw them to the topics they select. This thread is woven through every mentor essay: crafting nonfiction stories requires an emotional connection because nonfiction writing is a deeply personal task.

Chapter 2 illuminates the writing process as unpredictable and fluid while demonstrating how professional writers take their next steps to chisel out an area of focus. The brief narratives in this chapter give voice and realistic approaches to the writing process through the stories that lead each writer down their unique path toward a final product.

The final chapter addresses plagiarism, an issue expressed “again and again . . . on teachers’ lists of significant roadblocks” (p. 118). Because students often simply copy down facts from the nonfiction texts they read, forgetting their obligation to storytelling, Stewart encourages teachers to embed a few critical steps into the prewriting process. This approach includes designing activities in which students “evaluate, assimilate, analyze, or synthesize the information they’ve gathered” (p. 172), which invites young writers to “add a piece of themselves to their drafts” (p. 172) rather than regurgitating encyclopedia-style informational texts.

As a textbook that supports teaching methods, Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep provides important theoretical perspectives as well as specific moves made by professional writers. I look forward to using this text in my Writing for Teachers course to model nonfiction writing instruction by inviting my preservice teachers to work in stations. Each area will contain a poster board for collective note-taking, a mentor essay displayed in a sign holder, and two nonfiction books written by the same author. Teams will read each text aloud, and as they move from station to station, they will add notes on a poster board, creating a list of strategies the authors used in their writing. After each team has visited every station, we will come together as a class to decide on the most critical strategies for teaching students to engage in nonfiction writing. This activity allows students to collect a wealth of instructional strategies from the Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep text, while inviting them to critically examine these strategies for their future classroom settings.

December 29, 2021

Kate Hope began her journey as a high school English teacher in Queen Creek, Arizona, where she taught for seven years. Today, she teaches English education courses at California State University, Stanislaus, in Northern California. She joined NCTE in 2005.

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August 2021

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Real-Life Writing: Encouraging Students to Use Their Words to Make the World Better

Beth Spinner
Western Michigan University

Book review of Witte, S. (Ed.). (2020). Writing can change everything: Middle level kids writing themselves into the world. National Council of Teachers of English.

Shelbie Witte’s edited book Writing Can Change Everything: Middle Level Kids Writing Themselves into the World offers glimpses into writing classrooms where teachers and students are doing important work. Each teacher-contributor uses parts of NCTE’s position statement Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing (2016) in their chapter to explain how their examples support the beliefs presented in the statement and aim to bring the statement to life in classrooms. The teachers describe units, lessons, activities, and conversations that happen when students’ creations promote active participation in the world and writing promotes agency. The contributors also describe how their students create poetry, public narratives, blogs, comfort notes, board games, and other real-world writings that foster student empowerment and community engagement.

Writing Can Change Everything contains examples of student work, such as memoir poems that explore identity and board games that reflect collaboration. These examples demonstrate how teaching ideas are implemented in practice. While the book offers examples that could be put to use immediately, it also emphasizes the importance of taking time to reflect. Each chapter includes examples of how teachers reflect on their practice and the needs of their students before implementing new writing ideas. For example, a teacher using public narratives describes how he tried to incorporate matters that were important to students in his curriculum, but, upon reflection, realized his students needed to be cocreators of the curriculum. Readers are encouraged to reflect in similar ways to consider their practices and what their own students need.

While the book provides many real-world writing examples, it could focus more on informational or research writing. Students will likely encounter this genre in their world, as well as in Common Core State Standards, which focus on informational writing and research. Although the text includes some examples, such as a student researching bat boxes and proposing that his community purchase them, it focuses mainly on the genres of poetry and narrative writing. The teacher-writers do, however, make clear how these genres fit into everyday writing that can change the world. For example, Chapter 3 explains how poetry can be used to create social change, and Chapter 6 describes how public narratives can motivate people to take action.

Writing Can Change Everything provides a guide for preservice teachers who want to encourage students’ voices. Each chapter incorporates ample research to support the practices being used in the classroom, as well as specific lesson ideas, examples of student work, and reflection to demonstrate how these concepts unfold in real classroom settings. Reading about this process of implementing real-world writing provides opportunities for preservice teachers to see how they might implement similar ideas.

In my work with preservice English teachers, I try to offer many classroom scenarios to make the theories presented throughout the course as relevant as possible. This book would provide my students with scenarios of teachers implementing real writing instruction strategies in their teaching. Our methods class often talks about helping middle and high school students learn to write for the real world; using examples from this book would help preservice teachers see what middle and high school student work might look like when they are learning writing skills. Preservice teachers often talk about how they can make their curriculum meaningful, and Witte’s Writing Changes Everything serves as a model for how they can make a difference through teaching writing.

Reference

National Council of Teachers of English. (2016, February 28). Professional knowledge for the teaching of writing [Position statement]. https://ncte.org/statement/teaching-writing/.

August 3, 2021

Beth Spinner is a doctoral student at Western Michigan University, and her research focuses on secondary English teachers encouraging social action in the classroom. She has been a member of NCTE since 2019.

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Reading Conversation Journals: A Strategy to Inspire

Amber Deig
University of Florida

Book review of Rose, D., and Walsh, C. (2020). Talking through reading and writing: Online reading conversation journals in the middle school. Rowman & Littlefield.

Rose and Walsh’s Talking through Reading and Writing: Online Reading Conversation Journals in the Middle School presents online reading conversation journals (RCJs) as a tool for the modern literacy classroom. Daniel Rose, a middle school literacy educator with twenty years of classroom experience, and Christine Walsh, a literacy researcher and educator, see RCJs as tools for igniting the love of reading within middle school students. RCJs help teachers save classroom time, promote instructional differentiation, and create space for ongoing assessment. For students, RCJs provide opportunities for engagement in a low-risk environment, self-progress monitoring over time, and personalized book suggestions and feedback from teachers.

This text is composed of twenty-two chapters organized into four sections. The authors devote Part I to describing the benefits of RCJs, which include efficiency, privacy, and differentiation. In Part II, they explore how RCJs enhance teacher-student relationships by establishing rapport through authentic conversations on literature. The authors then depict, in Part III, how RCJs promote expanded definitions of text, highlighting the possibilities for poetry, art, and Snapchat to invite student participation in literacy practices. Finally, in Part IV, they outline how RCJs can increase reading engagement and self-awareness through mindfulness. Rose and Walsh conclude with a discussion on the use of RCJs for ongoing assessment. Several themes are woven throughout the book, including opportunities for differentiation, record keeping, and authentic teacher-student relationships.

The authors present RCJs as a strategy for inspiring all students to engage with texts, even those who do not choose to read on their own. This work is supported by extensive and frequent excerpts from RCJs that demonstrate the potential of the strategy. By presenting a how-to guide on digital reading conversation journals for practitioners and providing extensive examples of how teachers use them to connect and engage in texts with students, the authors describe how RCJs can be leveraged to promote literacy learning in well-equipped brick-and-mortar classrooms, although the strategy is relevant in remote learning settings as well.

However, there are a few notable weaknesses in the book. First, it describes technology use by students as “second nature” (p. 4), which frames students as digital natives (Prensky, 2010) even though this perspective has been demonstrated as problematic (see Bennett et al., 2008). In addition, though RCJs require use of technology, this book does not explore existing inequities concerning access to technology across educational settings (Morrell & Rowsell, 2019). Rose and Walsh also indicate that RCJs offer students access to a multitude of resources via the Internet, but they do not acknowledge contemporary concerns around 21st century literacies, such as Internet navigation and information literacy skill sets.

Additionally, the book claims the online nature of RCJs provides a “level playing field academically, socially, and emotionally” (p. 4) for English language learners (ELLs) without exploring the constraints and affordances of online literacy engagement for ELLs—a complex topic in my experience. As a teacher of ELLs and now a researcher, I have witnessed firsthand many ELL students’ frustrations surrounding the navigation of technology and the Internet using English. RCJs require proficiency in reading and writing in addition to knowledge of computers, word processors, and the Internet.

From reading this book, I view RCJs as a high-quality option for students who possess the technological tools and literacy skills to engage in them, but I cannot ignore the difficulties RCJs present for students who do not. Yet, the authors present a strategy that could work well in both face-to-face and online settings, along with helpful features to promote easy implementation for practitioners, including an appendix responding to teachers’ frequently asked questions about digital RCJs, suggested resources by current educators, and reading recommendations for students. As a result, this book is a timely addition to the field.

References

Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The “digital natives” debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775–786.

Krashen, S. D. (1993). The case for free voluntary reading. Canadian Modern Language Review, 50(1), 72–82.

Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO.

Morrell, E., & Rowsell, J. (Eds.). (2019). Stories from inequity to justice in literacy education: Confronting digital divides. Routledge.

Prensky, M. R. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real learning. Corwin.

August 3, 2021

Amber Deig is a PhD student at the University of Florida studying curriculum and instruction with a specialization in ESOL/bilingual education; before beginning her doctoral studies, she worked as an elementary school teacher and as an ESL teacher. Her research interests include emergent bilingual learners in US K–12 settings, multimodality, multimodal composing, and activity theory. Amber joined NCTE in 2021.

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June 2021

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Leveling Up Literacy: Games in the ELA Classroom

Caitlin Donovan
North Carolina State University

Book review of Garcia, A., Witte, S., & Dail, J. S. (Eds.). (2020). Playing with Teaching: Considerations for Implementing Gaming Literacies in the Classroom. Brill Sense.

As a student, I dreaded the inevitable end-of-year board game project: a hastily colored contraption of cardboard, with low-level novel facts bleeding through the back of construction paper cards. Perhaps if my teachers had used the theory-based practice found in Playing with Teaching: Considerations for Implementing Gaming Literacies in the Classroom, they would have better leveraged the instructional power of gaming to improve literacy. Editors Antero Garcia, Shelbie Witte, and Jennifer S. Dail have curated a series of chapters that illustrate possibilities for critical literacies through play that will appeal to both novice and experienced educators seeking to bring gaming into their classrooms.

Assembling seven diverse chapters that highlight the strengths of both design and fun found in games, the collection interrogates the interconnectedness between literacies, pedagogies, and play. The goal is clear: share specific strategies to help classroom educators use games effectively. The editors explain their framework of playful pedagogical content knowledge (p. 5), asking readers to consider the ways in which gameful, playful engagement with complex systems can help teachers rethink curriculum, the conversation surrounding games, and how games can be used as texts. The chapters engage with a broad range of specific examples, from video game construction to tabletop activities and live-action role-playing, efficiently demonstrating the breadth of possibilities of gaming as a literacies framework. Representing K–16 classrooms, the authors share their expertise and demonstrate how the narrative elements of games can extend inquiry and criticality. Furthermore, the authors add legitimacy to the joyful engagement that games garner among students.

The chapters, consistently well-sourced and referenced, are each unique in topic and mode of gaming implementation. All authors are transparent in their data, with rich figures adding depth and feasibility to enacting the practices. These authors implement literacy practices that highlight how a games-based pedagogy can be useful in a classroom. For example, Rachel Kaminski Sanders intentionally redesigns the end-of-year board game activity that haunted my childhood; her research provides thoughtful, theory-centered analytic and creative instruction, treating students to the criticality and design principles inherent in games (p. 31).

Too often, research on engaging literacy practices is positioned in out-of-school, supplemental spaces. Of all the chapters here, however, only one takes place outside the classroom, and even then, the rich descriptions, artifacts, and analysis clearly show how an educator could implement those processes with their own students.

While the first half of the book shows gaming literacies in practice, the second half of the collection focuses more on the theoretical implications of a games-based pedagogy. If you are already game positive, you might not need the framework for applying a critical lens to your practice. Whether you are experienced in implementing gaming or starting at Level 1, this book is an excellent addition to the library of any literacy educator. Although it is primarily framed as a hands-on resource for teachers and teacher educators, it also serves as justification for the inclusion of games to administrators and curriculum specialists, as well as a perfect starting point for literacy researchers.

Playing with Teaching: Considerations for Implementing Gaming Literacies in the Classroom is the book I needed when my middle schoolers were justifying where they put the characters from Lord of the Flies on the Dungeons & Dragons character alignment chart. My principal did not understand the theoretical background or the pedagogical potential that came from incorporating games into literacy practices. With this book, I could have advocated for my instruction with well-supported, trustworthy examples of how to implement an array of gaming literacies in the classroom and how teachers can prepare themselves for the task of engaging students with the fun, critical inquiry found in gaming.

June 23, 2021

Caitlin Donovan is a doctoral student in literacy and English language arts education at North Carolina State University and has been a member of NCTE since 2012. She can be contacted via email at cdonova@ncsu.edu and on Twitter at @DonovanTeacher.

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Advocacy Knowledge: Moving beyond Content and Pedagogical Knowledge in Teacher Preparation

Nicole Ann Amato
University of Iowa

Book review of Fleischer, C., & Garcia, A. (2021). Everyday advocacy: Teachers who change the literacy narrative. W. W. Norton.

For some, the word advocacy invokes images of marching, protesting, and grand legislative action. It can, at times, elevate teachers’ fears about performance evaluations and job security. Cathy Fleischer and Antero Garcia offer teachers and teacher educators a revision of the images and dread frequently framing advocacy work in Everyday Advocacy: Teachers Who Change the Literacy Narrative (2021). Fleischer and Garcia define everyday advocacy as “the day-to-day actions teachers can take to change the public narrative regarding schools, teachers, and learning” (p. 9). Drawing attention to statistics of teacher burnout and declining enrollment in teacher education programs amidst a backdrop of deprofessionalizing curricula and assessment mandates, the authors argue for a “new golden rule” (p. 3) in teacher education that looks beyond content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge by explicitly preparing teachers with advocacy knowledge.

Fleischer and Garcia strive to construct clear, concise, and accessible discussions of literacy and ELA practices rooted in advocacy, its empirical and theoretical grounding, and its instructional implications. They argue there “is no one way to do advocacy” as it is “never formulaic or exacting” (p. 33). Advocacy must “constantly be made and remade depending on the context of particular communities, the comfort level of teachers, and the politics surrounding the specific issues of concern” (p. 33). Everyday Advocacy offers a variety of pathways and models for weaving theories and practices of advocacy into classroom curriculum, professional development, and teacher education programs.

A slim and accessible volume at just under two hundred pages, Everyday Advocacy is organized into three parts: defining everyday advocacy, centering advocacy in secondary ELA instruction, and centering advocacy in English teacher education. The introduction, Chapters 1 and 2, and the conclusion outline the historical and theoretical frameworks that warrant attention to advocacy as a type of knowledge necessary for teachers. The remaining thirteen chapters feature vivid and engaging essays written by secondary ELA teachers (Part II) and English educators (Part III) sharing moments of everyday advocacy through assignments, projects, and personal reflections. This structure underscores that everyday advocacy is teacher-centered, teacher-driven, and already happening every day, with and without the language of advocacy.

These chapters also illustrate the three core values the authors unpack in chapter 1: the importance of story, the importance of identifying and framing an issue, and the importance of grassroots, situational approaches to change. Each teacher-written essay concludes with a reflection written by Fleischer and Garcia that includes bulleted lists of takeaways and observations highlighting how the work of these teachers can serve as models for advocacy knowledge. After each bulleted observation, they pose questions to help readers consider how to engage and extend the work offered in the chapter. In the context of professional book clubs, department meetings, or methods courses, these questions are rich and layered, prompting critical thinking and generative talk.

As a former high school English teacher, I appreciate that this book offers the necessary language and tools for seeing content and pedagogy as intimately bound to the school-based issues and national news cycles affecting students. Early in my career, I was reprimanded harshly for challenging a misogynistic, transphobic dress code policy that impacted students walking at graduation. A few years later, I was reprimanded again when my students performed a series of spoken word poems about police brutality at a faculty meeting. In both instances, I lacked the framing language and skills to foster community engagement that would have helped me think about how to plan for and carry out these moments of advocacy. Appealing, engaging, and accessible, Everyday Advocacy makes a strong addition to the corpus of materials available to literacy, ELA, and teacher educators who seek to develop advocacy skills.

June 23, 2021

Nicole Ann Amato is a former high school English language arts teacher and a current doctoral student in the Literacy, Language, and Culture program at the University of Iowa, where she teaches courses in children’s and adolescent literature to preservice teachers. Nicole joined NCTE in 2010. She can be reached at nicole-a-amato@uiowa.edu.

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March 2021

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Creating Curious, Enthusiastic Inventors: Maker Spaces in Middle School

F. Seyma Kizil
Syracuse University

Book review of Fulton, S., & Urbanski, C. U. (2020). Making middle school: Cultivating critical literacy and interdisciplinary learning in maker spaces. NCTE.

There is an increased need for in-depth examples of connecting activities and practical projects in maker spaces to develop 21st-century skills such as collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills that provide access to learning for all students and transform our classrooms. Making Middle School: Cultivating Critical Literacy and Interdisciplinary Learning in Maker Spaces approaches maker spaces through concepts of critical literacy and interdisciplinary learning as a way to create space for middle school students’ creativity and focus on critical literacy and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics).

Fulton and Urbanski connect Freire’s (1997) understanding of emancipatory education and Vygotsky’s (1978) idea of learning through play to their exploration of middle school ELA teachers creating an interdisciplinary space for “curious, enthusiastic inventors” (p. 3). Drawing on the connected learning principles of Dewey (1986) and Montessori (2013), they define make as “inviting students to make things with words, with natural and human-made materials, and with their own and others’ ideas of how to make their worlds” (p. 3). The authors posit that current students need “to explore, to play, to tinker, and, most of all . . . to think” (p. 21).

Starting with Brannon and Manship’s foreword, the book consists of eight chapters. The first chapter defines terms like make, hacktivism, and tinkering for beginners, while the second chapter provides brief details about the project’s theories and history. In the third chapter, the authors explain hacktivism as students finding a way into the community through something previously unavailable to them in order to make life easier. Hacktivism has to do with repurposing and reseeing materials, as Fulton and Urbanski show by exemplifying students’ voices through their blackout poetry created from grammar texts. To develop a maker identity, the fourth chapter focuses on connecting critical literacy with maker spaces through funds of knowledge and ways of knowing and being (Moje, Collazo, Carillo, & Marx, 2001). The fifth and sixth chapters are devoted to inspirational make examples of cardboard city and pop-up books created by students as a process connecting their learning and creativity, while the last chapter offers assessments and information for educators to implement maker projects in their classrooms. The book also contains a list of recommended works, supportive examples, and useful appendices that will help enhance instruction skills and support hands-on learning.

Maker spaces’ focus on hands-on learning has been promoted for active learning in math and science for years. We as teachers and teacher educators should start to focus on literacy-oriented maker spaces to create student-driven literacy engagements. I particularly recommend using the Intersections Partnerships and World of Making websites for examples in building classroom maker spaces. Preservice teachers and teacher educators should use this book to make practice with different make examples and raise awareness on the current needs of students. They can build informal spaces for “make” in schools beyond the traditional classes. This book invites teachers and teacher educators to think about how we can transform the classrooms to engage with all students and promote accessibility through creating informal spaces in the formal life of education.

As an educator committed to culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy and conscious of a diverse society’s expectations and needs, I believe in fostering critical literacy and science with maker spaces as a unique and innovative approach. Diverse communities will benefit in terms of their critical literacy and STEAM work. In particular, maker spaces can help culturally diverse students who need a space to share their stories and teachers who want to provide spaces for these funds of knowledge that are not part of the standard curriculum.

March 5, 2021

Fatima Seyma Kizil (Sheyma) is pursuing a PhD in literacy education at Syracuse University. Her research interests include culturally and linguistically diverse students, children’s and young adult literature, and reading motivation. She has been a member of NCTE since 2020 and can be reached at fskizil@syr.edu.

References

Dewey, J. (1986, September). Experience and education. The Educational Forum, 50(3), 241–252.

Fleming, L. (2015). Worlds of making: Best practices for establishing a makerspace for your school. Corwin Press.

Fleming, L. (2017). The kickstart guide to making great makerspaces. Corwin Press.

Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.

Moje, E. B., Collazo, T., Carrillo, R., & Marx, R. W. (2001). “Maestro, what is ‘quality’?”: Language, literacy, and discourse in project‐based science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching: The Official Journal of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 38(4), 469–498.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.

Montessori, M. (2013). The Montessori method. Transaction Publishers.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

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Assignments and a Partial Map: Utilizing Rhetorical Reading to Move toward Disciplinary Literacy

Todd F. Reynolds
University of Wyoming

Book review of Wilner, A. F. (2020). Rethinking reading in college: An across-the-curriculum approach. NCTE.

In high school, I argued with my math teacher. I correctly solved a problem one way, but he wanted me to solve it a different way. I argued that there were two ways to get there; he disagreed. I mention this tale of youthful hubris because the idea of multiple journeys to the same destination applies to Wilner’s (2020) Rethinking Reading in College: An Across-the-Curriculum Approach. Her destination is laudable: a focus on rhetorical reading and disciplinary awareness for classes campus-wide. However, her journey may not convince those who would agree with the proposal.

Wilner focuses on rhetorical reading, which “helps readers construct a kind of frame around the text by imagining such contextual aspects as the persona of the author, the occasion for writing, the intended audience, and the conversation being joined” (p. 40). Rhetorical reading, taught college-wide and especially in first-year composition, can help students see, understand, and use a variety of genres from various disciplines. Wilner attacks the myth of autonomous texts, instead asking students to understand the larger context. Throughout the book, she shares quality assignments from English and other subject areas to foster students’ skills in rhetorical reading. Wilner’s argument is compelling, especially as it incorporates disciplinary literacy and the idea that every professor should be explicitly teaching disciplinary languages and strategies.

However, as my math teacher and I argued, sometimes there is more than one path to the same destination. Throughout the book, Wilner equates assignments with pedagogy. While she describes fantastic assignments, she rarely delves into the actual teaching of the rhetorical reading practices. For example, when describing a close reading assignment for reading fiction, she refers to modeling the process and utilizing group work, which are both important, especially for English educators, but she does not fully explain what that process entails, or how to recreate it.

Wilner also both criticizes students and questionably defends lists of knowledge that are “part of the intellectual capital of liberally educated citizens” (p. 72). She argues strongly and forcibly that remedial reading should be appropriately rigorous and should engage students in high-quality practices and content. However, she also seems to discount students’ backgrounds, practices, and education, praising a yet-to-be-realized ideal student who would meet all professors’ needs with rhetorical reading strategies. Additionally, she goes on an extended defense of the problematic novel To Kill a Mockingbird and lists that prioritize traditional and canonical concepts of knowledge.

Morrison (2019) writes, “[y]et of what use is it to go on about ‘quality’ being the only criterion for greatness knowing that the definition of quality is itself the subject of much rage and is seldom universally agreed upon by everyone at all times” (p. 163). Morrison’s point is useful here: If rhetorical reading can be applied to any text, there are more appropriate, valuable, and engaging texts for students than those suggested. Indeed, utilizing a windows and mirrors approach to text selection (Bishop, 1990) could help students at any level buy in to these activities and bolster Wilner’s case.

These moments aside, there is a good argument that could help impact disciplinary teaching in both secondary and college education. Rhetorical reading and disciplinary awareness, if cornerstones of every class, could help students grapple with the invisible processes of disciplinary comprehension and grow their understanding and knowledge base. For English educators, Wilner’s book could be a guide toward embracing disciplinary literacy. Even though the book lacks explanations of explicit teaching, Wilner does articulate some quality assignments, and a potential path forward to reenvision classes and help our students.

March 5, 2021

Todd F. Reynolds is an assistant professor of secondary English education at the University of Wyoming. He focuses on dialogic instruction and disciplinary literacy. He has been a member of NCTE off and on throughout his career as an educator, which began in 1998.

References

Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and using books for the classroom, 6(3), ix–xi.

Morrison, T. (2019). Mouth full of blood: Essays, speeches, meditations. Chatto & Windus.

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November 2020

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Beyond the Label “LTEL”: Humanizing Pedagogy for Our Long-Term English Learners

Diana Liu
Teachers College, Columbia University

Book review of Brooks, M. D. (2020). Transforming literacy education for long-term English learners: Recognizing brilliance in the undervalued. NCTE and Routledge.

As classrooms become more diverse, teachers are challenged to examine their positionality in choosing which narratives should be present. As bell hooks (1994) acknowledges, transformative pedagogy must be rooted in respect for multiculturalism, and for this to occur, each voice within the classroom must be honored. In Transforming Literacy Education for Long-Term English Learners: Recognizing Brilliance in the Undervalued, Maneka D. Brooks argues that students who are labeled as long-term English learners (LTELS) need to be recognized for their complex racial and linguistic identities, as well as for the knowledge they bring into the classroom, through a humanizing pedagogy. Furthermore, through rethinking and reshaping how labels are used, educators have the power to reconstruct existing deficit narratives of students and reenvision who our students are and what potential they possess.

My student’s ELL label in my English class did not do justice to the critical thinking skills she demonstrated in her native language. Similarly, my students labeled as “struggling readers” demonstrated their acute reading abilities through music videos, song lyrics, and poems. Educators must identify how students are reading outside of the classroom and acknowledge that meaning making of texts goes beyond simply comprehending the language to creating a transaction between the multiple identities of the reader to create the literary experience (Rosenblatt, 1965). As a result, literacy instruction should recognize students’ social aspects through acquired background knowledge, culture, and experiences, which encompasses Brooks’s humanizing pedagogy in Chapter 1.

This book consists of six chapters centered around the stories of five adolescent Latinx students. Through her research, Brooks highlights the importance of valuing their complex linguistic abilities beyond the label of long-term English learners through the intersections of race, language proficiency, and language abilities.

Chapter 2 reconsiders what constitutes bilingualism and practices of translanguaging and code-switching, and it suggests how students’ languages can be additive to the classroom space. Chapter 3, “Local Texts,” examines text choices through an “opportunity to learn lens,” which takes into account the students’ prior knowledge and reader goals in a setting that facilitates an environment for success (Brooks, 2020, p. 39). Brooks proposes the use of text sets to create opportunities to read different text types and build on students’ background knowledge to read more challenging texts. In Chapter 4, “Strong and Loud Readers,” she suggests ways for students to see the relevance of independent and silent reading by acknowledging ways in which students already do these activities.

Students’ identities bring linguistic capabilities and resourcefulness that we must recognize and create space for in the English classroom. My students are musicians, religious advocates, animal rights activists, translators, gamers, and so much more. Through various activities, I invite students to value their languages beyond academic English to honor the multiple facets of their identities. The importance that we place for diverse voices in the classroom can disrupt notions of power and primacy of the English language (hooks, 1994) and refute assimilation teaching practices (Ladson-Billings, 1994).

A work that reflects the humanity and multidimensionality of students, Transforming Literacy Education for Long-Term English Learners: Recognizing Brilliance in the Undervalued is pivotal in advocating for students who are labeled as LTELs to be seen beyond a singular label and acknowledged for their experiences and abilities in order to create a humanizing framework for developing reading instruction. By doing so, in the words of Delpit (1995), we can learn from our students as individuals who help us navigate among cultures and “better learn how to become citizens of the global community” (p. 69).

November 25, 2020

Diana Liu is an English education doctoral student in the Department of Arts and Humanities at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has taught ELA and ESL at the secondary level. Her research interests include critical literacy, queer studies in English education, Asian American students, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and what this could mean for teacher preparation. She has been a member of NCTE since 2018.

References

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. The New Press.

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. Jossey-Bass.

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1965). Literature as exploration. Modern Language Association of America.

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Creativity and Chaos in the Crescent City: Reflecting on a Decade of Progressivism in New Orleans

Anita Dubroc
Louisiana State University

Book review of Suhor, C. (2020). Creativity and chaos: Reflections on a decade of progressive change in public schools, 1967-77. New South Books.

After Hurricane Katrina, public education in New Orleans was gutted and reformed into a system of charter schools, leaving public schools in the Recovery School District, the remnant of the Orleans Public School System. Public school teachers are now required to focus on mandated, often scripted curriculum for high-stakes testing, in opposition to previously progressive educational ideas. Charles Suhor’s Creativity and Chaos: Reflections on a Decade of Progressive Change in Public Schools, 1967–77 (2020) speaks to the progressive movement in New Orleans, shining light on a time when teachers, schools, and school districts worked together to create a public school curriculum that broadened students’ understanding of English and its related subjects.

Suhor draws on his career in education—first as a public high school English teacher, then district English supervisor with the Orleans Public School System—to analyze the progressive reform movement in New Orleans’s schools from 1967 to 1977. He worked alongside teachers, administrators, and curriculum supervisors to bring creative teaching methods, subjects, and programming into New Orleans’s public schools. Their efforts included introducing the arts, including jazz and theater, into classrooms, featuring students on local public television programming, and revising the writing and grammar curriculum. They especially focused on local culture and media that was uniquely New Orleans, such as the creation of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, known for its creative writing and jazz programs.

Suhor brings to mind a city where imaginative teaching and creative knowledge were valued at a time when other states focused on testing as an end result. These projects would regrettably be dismantled during the back-to-basics period that followed, which abandoned creative arts programs and emphasized mastery learning. New Orleans’s public schools were brought in line with the conservative trends in education, drawing them away from unique initiatives that incorporated the city’s culture to engage students’ interests.

Creativity and Chaos’s focus on the coming together of minds to create engaging curriculum and school programming for students is compelling. Suhor paints an inspiring picture of collaboration between teachers, administrators, and district personnel, quite different from today’s teachers advocating for engaging curriculum and programs for their students, and districts desperate to attain high test scores to secure funding and resources. As a teacher educator, I see these divisions play out in relationships with my student teachers as they navigate their passion to teach with the curriculum requirements placed on them and their students. I encourage them to find moments for collaboration with their mentor teachers and within their cohorts. I also urge them to find moments for creativity while still meeting curricular standards. I did not realize until reading Suhor’s text that doing so made me a progressive educator, but I am happy to take on this label.

In 1977, Suhor left New Orleans to serve as executive deputy director of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). In his epilogue, he notes, “I hope that this book will bring attention to the sound teaching practices that were adopted then but prematurely abandoned, turned into dry formulas, or pushed aside because they were not adaptable to mass testing” (pp. 225–226). The progressive movement in New Orleans showed that creative programming in English classes can and did work. These efforts were supported by the district’s central office and positively received by students. This is Suhor’s invitation to educators: to bring back progressive teaching to extend the curriculum; cross-curriculate with other content areas, especially the arts; rethink ELA instruction; and seize innovations when they come. Suhor challenges teachers, supervisors, and school districts to bring the creativity and chaos back into their classrooms.

November 25, 2020

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September 2020

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Possible Symphonies: Creating Artistic Spaces in the ELA Classroom

Nina Schoonover
North Carolina State University

Book review of Macro, K. J., & Zoss, M. (Eds.) (2019). A symphony of possibilities: A handbook for arts integration in secondary English language arts. NCTE.

In their edited book, A Symphony of Possibilities, Katherine J. Macro and Michelle Zoss (2019) challenge English education’s focus on assessment by offering the possibility of arts integration for the secondary English language arts (ELA) classroom. They argue that “the arts allow the learning experience to truly become part of the individual in ways that solely reading and writing a text cannot do” (p. xvii). In calling for arts integration, the book presents research and theory, as well as strategies and resources, for educators of all levels to take a “defiant” stance on integrating art in ELA.

Each chapter of the book begins with justification for integrating different art media as well as strategies and examples shared by scholars and educators dedicated to this work. It begins with music and Timothy J. Duggan’s chapter on musical adaptations and his M.A.S.T.E.R. framework, followed by Christian Z. Goering and Amy Matthews’s integration of protest songwriting with students in Arkansas. Readers then find the art of language in Wendy R. Williams’s work with spoken word projects, and in Laura B. Turchi and Pauline Skowron Schmidt’s classroom play with Shakespeare. The book moves across the “symphony of possibilities” of artistic work, ranging across music, poetry, drama, and visual art. Macro’s chapter discusses the creative entanglements of drama in the ELA classroom as the arts reveal themselves across the discipline. Toby Emert explores Dadaism and found poetry, translating theory into practice, and Alisha M. White presents specific steps and strategies for implementing visual responses to literature.

The culminating chapters of the book from Michelle Zoss and Stephen Goss reflect ways of bringing the public into the classroom. Zoss shares work with large-scale visual projects, exploring murals and wall-length images, and Goss discusses the power of audiences for students’ creations. In its conclusion, the book thoughtfully provides an extensive list of resources organized by these different artistic forms (drama, music, poetry, and visual art), and concludes with a glossary of terms to help illuminate the argument that ELA classes should embrace “what students create” (p. 177) as a core part of the curriculum. Chapter 8’s authorial team of educators consisting of Pamela M. Hartman, Jessica Berg, Brandon Schuler, and Erin Knauer lays out aesthetic strategies that they found meaningful in integrating artistic responses as a way to share their pedagogical practice with readers. As a former secondary ELA teacher, I appreciate how this book highlights helpful resources and serves as a guide for arts integration without feeling scripted.

In my current work with preservice teachers, I can draw from this book to set the stage for why I too believe ELA teachers need to integrate the arts. The frameworks and strategies the book provides in each chapter are both specific enough to be implemented, but broad enough to reach a wide audience of educators. As a teacher, I often seek more concrete or explicit steps to teaching strategies, so the amount of text in this book may feel overwhelming to others who want clearly structured lesson plans. However, the authors offer a research-based and thoughtfully explained overview of arts integration with examples from actual classrooms. Instead of a step-by-step process, this book leaves room for classroom teachers to play with the arts in the new and innovative ways that will work for them. I found that how this book showcases the different forms and shapes the arts may take in the classroom helps to highlight how we can each distinguish ourselves as unique ELA teachers. For educators wanting to defy the testing culture, this book is a vital resource for creating the space necessary to offer artistic possibilities for our teachers and students.

September 25, 2020

Nina Schoonover is a doctoral candidate studying literacy and English language arts education at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on arts integration, arts-based pedagogy, and visual literacy. She has been a member of NCTE for three years.

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Reality Shapers: Teaching Adventurous Thinking to Co-Construct a Revolution

James Joshua Coleman
San José State University

Book review of Blackburn, M. V. (2019). Adventurous thinking. Fostering students’ rights to reading and writing in secondary ELA classrooms. NCTE.

“Youth is the Age of Revolt” writes Blackburn (2019), echoing the 1981 and 2009 iterations of NCTE’s The Students’ Right to Read (p. 2). A provocative assertion, this fundamental belief in young people’s revolutionary potential drives Mollie V. Blackburn’s new Principles in Practice text Adventurous Thinking: Fostering Students’ Rights to Read and Write in Secondary ELA Classrooms. An edited volume, the text highlights pedagogical approaches to English education that center how reading and writing can ignite a social revolution led by the young.

Because of my own commitments to youth-centered education, I found myself enticed by the invitation to center young people’s acts of revolt, doing so, as Blackburn asserts, “to deny, oppose, and resist” (p. 2) the racism, sexism, xenophobia, queerphobia, transphobia, and ableism that continue to structure US schooling. However, the relegation of revolt to a youthful endeavor raised new concerns for me: aren’t we educators, as adults who share today’s realities with our students, equally responsible for revolting against oppressive systems? I worried that such a statement might be read as justification for inaction, for relegating justice to the provenance of young people in ways that elide English educators’ own complicity in maintaining oppressive educational systems. Adventurous thinking, however—defined as a form of critical inquiry that exceeds “indoctrination” (NCTE, 2018, p. ix)—challenges such systems through the cultivation of “criticality, community, and connections” that heal, humanize, and forge solidarity (Blackburn, 2019, p. 109).

Each of the teachers spotlighted in this text as “reality shapers” highlights the importance of co-constructing revolution, of holding close the responsibility of building a more just reality through incisive English language arts (ELA) pedagogy. Arianna Talebian, for example, in her chapter “Black Lives Matter: Disrupting Oppression by Identifying Hidden Narratives in the English Language Arts Classroom” demonstrates how personal narratives can reshape a literary canon. Nestled within a larger unit on racial justice, Talebian invites students to pick an index card that, on one side, holds the name of a Black or Brown person and, on the other, an “outcome” (p. 48). Circulating around the room, students begin to share those names and stories and soon face the hard reality that each has been lost to police brutality. Weighted by pain, shock, and sadness, the stories do, however, keep moving, gaining speed and movement in pursuit of revolutionary change.

As a white, queer educator committed to antiracist pedagogy, I found in Talebian’s story a kindredness and, more important, a locus for solidarity building. In the first years of my own K–12 teaching in the Deep South, I was expressly forbidden from teaching queer texts. I came to understand this recommendation—no, mandate—from a caring department head as protection from an administration that would rather fire me than allow me to teach about any queer life, including my own. A point of connection, my and Talebian’s situations were neither equal nor the same, each shaped by their own historical weight and present realities; however, they resonate. Talebian drew upon personal narratives with pedagogical expertise to honor painful histories of her community of BIPOC individuals; I, however, allowed the histories of my community to remain hidden in the marginalia of curriculum (Coleman, 2019). Cultivating adventurous thinking, Talebian engaged alongside her students in a “praxis” of reading and writing, infusing an all-white ELA curriculum with silenced stories and with the joy of Black and Brown life (Love, 2019) and, in so doing, foregrounded the revolutionary truth that “[h]ealing and humanizing classrooms matter most” (Talebian, 2019, p. 52).

Addressing xenophobia, anti-Muslim sentiment, rural conservatism, queer exclusion, and the erasure of disability, each featured educator in Adventurous Thinking harnesses pedagogical tools to invite adventurous thinking to reshape oppressive relatives: together, student and teacher revolt! The book concludes with two final revolutionary sparks: an interview with Angie Thomas (the author of The Hate U Give) and Millie Davis’s “protection plan” for students’ rights to read and write, both of which provide further strategies for English educators to harness “the teaching and learning of writing and reading as not just a right, but also an art, a revolutionary art” (Blackburn, 2019, p. 9). A work of revolutionary art itself, Adventurous Thinking provides pedagogical approaches needed for ELA students and teachers to co-construct revolution, reshaping past and present realities into a future defined by justice.

September 25, 2020

James Joshua Coleman (Josh) is an assistant professor of English education at San José State University. His research interests include critical literacy, queer studies in education, affect studies, and children’s literature. He has been a member of NCTE since 2016 and can be reached at james.coleman@sjsu.edu.

References

Blackburn, M. V. (2019). Adventurous thinking: Fostering students’ rights to read and write in secondary ELA classrooms. NCTE.

Coleman, J. J. (2019). Digital innocence: Queer virginity, painful histories, and the critical hope of queer futurity. Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, 2(1), 1–18.

Love, B. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press.

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). (2018, October 25). The students’ right to read. https://ncte.org/statement/righttoreadguideline/

Petrone, R. (2015). Learning as loss: Examining the affective dimensions to learning critical literacy. NCTE Annual Convention, Minneapolis, MN.

Talebian, A. (2019). Black lives matter: Disrupting oppression by identifying hidden narratives in the English language arts classroom. In M. V. Blackburn (Ed.), Adventurous thinking: Fostering students’ rights to read and write in secondary ELA classrooms (pp. 42–56). NCTE.