A Symphony of Possibilities explores arts-based pedagogies for secondary teachers of English language arts. Drama music poetry public art and visual art are explored in detail by experts in their fields sharing proven methods of instruction with secondary students and teachers.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/><br/>In an educational environment that privileges scripted curricula and intensive preparation for high-stakes tests the arts offer a more hands-on approach to learning and problem solving challenging students to approach course material in personal and interactive ways. In A Symphony of Possibilities experts in their fields explore in detail arts-based pedagogies for secondary teachers of English language arts focusing on drama music poetry public art and visual art and sharing proven methods of instruction. Through the arts we see teachers and researchers who explore and expand on comprehension memory issues of identity and culturally relevant pedagogies and we see students excited by their active learning. Editors Katherine J. Macro and Michelle Zoss and their contributors provide creative approaches that help teachers accommodate the diversity of their students and their needs as well as move their students into innovative and thoughtful learning spaces. This book goes a long way toward answering the question What is the role of the arts for English teachers?

Grounded in NCTE’s position statements “The Students’ Right to Read” and “NCTE Beliefs about the Students’ Right to Write” this book focuses on high school English language arts classes drawing from the work of seven teachers from across the country to illustrate how advocating for students’ rights to read and write can be revolutionary work.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/><br/>Drawing from the work of high school teachers across the country Adventurous Thinking illustrates how advocating for students’ rights to read and write can be revolutionary work. Ours is a conflicted time: the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements for instance run parallel with increasingly hostile attitudes toward immigrants and prescriptive K–12 curricula including calls to censor texts. Teachers who fight to give their students the tools and opportunities to read about and write on topics of their choice and express ideas that may be controversial are in editor Mollie V. Blackburn’s words “revolutionary artists and their teaching is revolutionary art.” The teacher chapters focus on high school English language arts classes that engaged with topics such as immigration linguistic diversity religious diversity the #BlackLivesMatter movement interrogating privilege LGBTQ people and people with physical disabilities and mental illness. Following these accounts is an interview with Angie Thomas author of The Hate U Give and an essay by Millie Davis former director of NCTE’s Intellectual Freedom Center. The closing essay reflects on provocative curriculum and pedagogy criticality community and connections as they get taken up in the book and might get taken up in the classrooms of readers. The book is grounded in foundational principles from NCTE’s position statements The Students’ Right to Read and NCTE Beliefs about the Students’ Right to Write that underlie these contributors’ practices principles that add up to one committed declaration: Literacy is every student’s right.

Already Readers and Writers: Honoring Students' Rights to Read and Write in the Middle Grade Classroom is meant to help all middle school educators encourage their students to build literate lives both within the classroom and well beyond it.

Veteran middle school teacher Jennifer Ochoa has brought together middle school teachers and teacher leaders children’s author and We Need Diverse Books cofounder Ellen Oh children’s literature scholar Kristin McIlhagga reading and writing workshop teacher-author Linda Rief and censorship expert Millie Davis to examine current middle school literacy practices that support students’ rights to read and write.

By showcasing their experiences and activities and positioning NCTE policy statements—The Students' Right to Read and NCTE Beliefs about the Students’ Right to Write—as foundational guiding documents Ochoa and her colleagues prove that even in today’s standards-driven environment authentic reading and writing practices can create literacy-rich middle school classrooms.

As a bonus teachers who don’t have strong support in their schools to implement these practices will find a myriad of suggestions for developing a virtual personal learning network—a grassroots professional development tailored to their needs and interests—that will support them in their efforts to help kids as readers and writers.

About Principles in Practice

Books in the Principles in Practice imprint offer teachers concrete illustrations of effective classroom practices based in NCTE research briefs and policy statements.

Each book discusses the research on a specific topic links the research to an NCTE brief or policy statement and then demonstrates how those principles come alive in practice: by showcasing actual classroom practices that demonstrate the policies in action; by talking about research in practical teacher-friendly language; and by offering teachers possibilities for rethinking their own practices in light of the ideas presented in the books.

Beyond Standardized Truth included in the Principles in Practice imprint is the result of the author’s own efforts to bridge the gap between valuing reading and being able to respond with appropriate instruction or evaluate growth in reading. 

Scott Filkins brings us into his classroom and the classrooms of his colleagues to demonstrate how high school teachers across the disciplines can engage in inquiry-based reading assessment to support student learning. Based in the IRA–NCTE Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing Revised Edition the classroom portraits highlight the importance of incorporating genuinely formative assessment into our instruction. 

Filkins unpacks his own history with assessment through engaging “confessions” of his early practices and eventual growth toward a framework that situates reading assessment in an inquiry model. Throughout the book he showcases his colleagues’ attempts to use an inquiry framework including the various tools and documentation methods that help them inquire into their students’ habits and thoughts as readers use formative assessment to fuel the gradual release of responsibility framework and use reading assessment as a means of professional reflection. 

Finally Filkins challenges us to broaden the conversation about assessment to a wider range of stakeholders and offers a vision of assessment as an expression of care for the students in our charge.

A deep dive into the rich resources available for teaching Shakespeare’s plays Bring on the Bard is for every high school teacher—early career to veteran—looking for new hands-on activities to draw students of all ability levels into the work and world of Shakespeare. 

Shakespeare didn’t write his plays for readers; he wrote individual “cue scripts” for actors who hadn’t read the entire play but had to perform on the fly with almost no rehearsal. Those cue scripts have become the written form of his dramas compiled originally in the First Folio of 1623. And the actors’ cues for meaning emotion and emphasis are still embedded in Shakespeare’s language ripe for discovery by today’s students. 

Shakespeare’s plays rightly remain a staple of the ELA curriculum but evolving standards and youth culture itself challenge teachers to put students—not a text—at the center of a reading experience in order to support diverse readers and learners.

How can we do this? 

Experienced educators Kevin Long and Mary T. Christel introduce us to the Folio technique which builds on active drama approaches that position students to engage with a rich text through low-risk speaking and improvisation activities. Without requiring students to become actors the Folio technique helps them to discover the clues the Bard built into his works that allow actors to efficiently understand their characters’ text context and subtext. Teachers can use excerpts from the First Folio along with a mass market paperback or digital edition of a play to help students get closer to Shakespeare’s intentions; understand the language action and emotions of the characters; and perhaps even explore the challenges the Bard’s modern editors face.

The book offers suggestions for using parallel text graphic and abridged editions of Shakespeare’s works as well as activities using cue scripts and a variety of viewing experiences. 

The proverbial “lost art of conversation” has become more than a cliché. Once young people learned the art of conversation outside of the classroom—in their homes in organized social groups and with their peers—but today such human encounters are limited partly because of the ubiquitous presence of technology. Face-to-face conversation offers a different and vital kind of connection one that is at the core of our humanity and essential for a democratic society. As teachers we have a responsibility to help our students find their voices and truly listen to the voices they hear. The strategies and activities described in this book are easily integrated into an already existing curriculum and will allow students to become not only better speakers but better writers better thinkers and better human beings.

Classrooms should be spaces where every child feels safe to bring their whole self to school. This book shows how to set up preK–grade 6 classrooms that support student agency independence and choice. The results of classrooms designed with these goals in mind include: 

• Greater student engagement with curriculum
• Students who know themselves and are empowered as learners
• Students who feel valued and care about their learning as well as the learning of others
• A more cohesive authentic and accepting community of learners
• Opportunities for choice and decision-making by all learners

With examples drawn from real classrooms the authors demonstrate how to make choices in seating materials used books read and more. Special attention is paid to the design of classroom libraries in which a variety of diverse quality books anchor so much of the work in helping young readers and writers grow and learn.

The book is richly illustrated with photos and samples to provide an inside look at classrooms in which children are centered and the teacher is responsive to creating spaces with student agency in mind.

172 pp. 2023. Grades PreK–6

Aimed at accomplished veteran teachers Continuing the Journey offers practical advice encouragement and cutting-edge ideas for today’s English classroom. 

Coauthors Leila Christenbury and Ken Lindblom well-known teachers writers and former editors of English Journal are joined in this book by almost two dozen classroom teachers and researchers. Together they present real strategies for real classrooms and offer teachers ideas insights and support. Focused on literature and informational texts this lively book (the first in a series) is a road map to professional renewal and to becoming a better teacher. Topics include: 

• Changes in you your classroom and your school
• What it means to be a better teacher
• Teaching literary texts and literary nonfiction
• And incorporating the study of informational texts and of social media in your classroom

An innovative feature of the book—the Ideal Teachers’ Lounge—invites the voices of many highly regarded teachers and scholars to engage inspire and inform you about the challenging world of professional teaching. Vignettes from real classrooms infuse the book with practicality. Inviting collegial and knowledgeable Leila and Ken share their experience stories and ideas flavored with drama and humor. If you are a veteran English teacher well beyond the first-year jitters and ready to focus fully on the success of your students and your own professional growth Continuing the Journey both book and series is for you.

In this third book in the Continuing the Journey series Ken Lindblom and Leila Christenbury explore teaching English language speaking and listening. Aimed at veteran teachers yet accessible to highly capable early career teachers this book offers practical advice encouragement and cutting-edge ideas for today’s English classroom.

Drawing on contemporary and foundational research to infuse classrooms with substance and energy the authors focus on authentic assignments with real-world value. 

Topics in this volume include: 

• Understanding and teaching language change and attention to culture
• Fostering audience-responsive communication
• Addressing today’s challenges for in-person and technology-enabled speaking
• Encouraging and assessing respectful talk and multimedia communication
• Managing heated conversations
• Grasping why deep listening may be a lost art and how we can recover it. 

Packed with classroom-ready approaches provocative ideas encouraging insights as well as the authors’ anecdotes and asides this book will entertain educate and inspire teachers who take seriously the importance of language speaking and listening in today’s dynamic world. 

As an added benefit teachers and scholars from across the country add their voices and experiences in the ideal Teachers’ Lounge providing important and diverse perspectives and advice. The Teachers' Lounge contributors: 

• Sydney Bryan
• Kelly Byrne Bull
• Tricia Ebarvia
• Christian Z. Goering
• Sharonica Nelson
• Molly S. Potas
• Kia Jane Richmond
• Jana L. Rieck
• Martha Sandven
• Brian Stzabnik
• Peter S. Willis

About Continuing the Journey 

Continuing the Journey is a five-book series on advanced approaches to teaching English language arts. Written for veteran teachers by Leila Christenbury and Ken Lindblom the books include “From the Teachers’ Lounge” an innovative feature that honors the expertise of both colleagues from the field and highly regarded scholars. Topics addressed in the series include literature and informational texts; language and writing; listening speaking and presenting; digital literacies; and living the professional life of a veteran teacher.

Named one of the 20 Best New Rhetoric Books to Read in 2021 by BookAuthority

Winner of the 2021 Vision Award from the Coalition for Community Writing 

Humanities scholar Aja Y. Martinez makes a compelling case for counterstory as methodology in rhetoric and writing studies through the well-established framework of critical race theory (CRT) reviewing first the counterstory work of Richard Delgado Derrick Bell and Patricia J. Williams whom she terms counterstory exemplars. Delgado Bell and Williams foundational critical race theorists working in the respective counterstory genres of narrated dialogue fantasy/allegory and autobiography have set precedent for others who would research and compose with this method.

Arguing that counterstory provides opportunities for marginalized voices to contribute to conversations about dominant ideology Martinez applies racial and feminist rhetorical criticism to the rich histories and theories established through counterstory genres all the while demonstrating how CRT theories and methods can inform teaching research and writing/publishing of counterstory.

About the CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) Series

In this series the methods of studies vary from the critical to historical to linguistic to ethnographic and their authors draw on work in various fields that inform composition—including rhetoric communication education discourse analysis psychology cultural studies and literature. Their focuses are similarly diverse—ranging from individual writers and teachers to classrooms and communities and curricula to analyses of the social political and material contexts of writing and its teaching.