Redesigning Composition for Multilingual Realities argues that students of English as a second language rather than always being novice English language learners often provide models for language uses as English continues to spread and change as an international lingua franca. 

Starting from the premise that “multilingualism is a daily reality for all students—all language users” Jay Jordan proceeds to both complicate and enrich the responsibilities of the composition classroom as it attempts to accommodate and instruct a diversity of students in the practices of academic writing. But as Jordan admits theory is one thing; practical efforts to implement multilingual and even translingual approaches to writing instruction are another. 

Through a combination of historical survey meta-analytical critique of existing literature and naturalistic classroom research Jordan’s study points to new directions for composition theory and pedagogy that more fully account for the presence and role of multilingual writers.

A reflective and practical guide for secondary school teachers on using innovative technologies in the classroom to support multimodal literacy development.

Living in a multimodal multimedia and multi-sensory world can be overwhelming. To prepare students to produce and consume the multimodal texts made possible through modern technologies Schmidt and Kruger-Ross advocate for a slower and more deliberate approach to thinking and planning for teaching literacies. They showcase how technologies can expand enhance and inspire the consuming and producing powers of secondary students by examining visual and aural literacies before multimodal literacies. 

Embedded throughout the book are the voices and materials of real practicing and preservice teachers via QR codes. Teachers of all experience levels will find new ideas to challenge extend and enhance their literacy practice.

Building upon the 2018 Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children’s and Young Adult Literature position statement Restorying Young Adult Literature spotlights how both teachers and students are using digital tools and technologies to re-read re-write and restory YAL today. 

Primarily this text provides pedagogical approaches and resources for English language arts (ELA) educators to integrate shifts in textuality and the availability of participatory digital networks into their classroom. We propose Digital YAL and Digital YA Culture as conceptual tools for teachers to learn from the digital restorying practices of young people and fellow educators and across the book we demonstrate how teachers can restory text selection digital access white curricula and multimodality in their classroom doing so in pursuit of more just teaching and learning for today’s digital era.

At the heart of Rethinking the “Adolescent” in Adolescent Literacy is a call to English language arts teachers to examine the very assumptions of adolescence they may be operating from in order to reimagine new possibilities for engaging students with the English curriculum. 

Relying on a sociocultural view of adolescence established by scholars in critical youth studies the book focuses on classrooms from diverse contexts to explain adolescence as a construct and how this perspective of youth can encourage educators to re-envision literacy instruction and learning. Working from and looking beyond Adolescent Literacy: An NCTE Policy Research Brief the authors explore the “myth” of adolescence and the possibility of a curriculum that positions youth as experts and knowledgeable advocates fully engaged in their own learning.

Rhetorical Ecologies invites you on a transformative journey through the history of writing and rhetoric studies’ adoption of ecology situating this history in rich discussions about: 

• the potential that ecology holds for rhetoric and writing studies; 
• the untapped potential of ecology in fostering inclusive equitable and justice-oriented approaches to rhetorical inquiry; and  
• the diverse and dynamic nature of rhetoric ecologies.  

Rhetorics of Overcoming addresses the in/accessibility of writing classroom and writing center practices for disabled and nondisabled student writers exploring how rhetorics of overcoming—the idea that disabled students must overcome their disabilities in order to be successful—manifest in writing studies scholarship and practices.

Allison Harper Hitt argues that rewriting rhetorics of overcoming as narratives of “coming over” is one way to overcome ableist pedagogical standards. Whereas rhetorics of overcoming rely on medical-model processes of diagnosis disclosure cure and overcoming for individual students coming over involves valuing disability and difference and challenging systemic issues of physical and pedagogical inaccessibility. 

Hitt calls for developing understandings of disability and difference that move beyond accommodation models in which students are diagnosed and remediated instead working collaboratively—with instructors administrators consultants and students themselves—to craft multimodal universally designed writing pedagogies that meet students’ access needs.

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.

Susanne Rubenstein shows how to focus on voice in the teaching of writing to help students take ownership of their work enjoy what they’re writing and produce writing that shows depth of thought and originality of expression.

As writing instruction becomes more standardized and structured student voices grow silent. Speak for Yourself: Writing with Voice places a new emphasis on voice in the teaching of writing. Armed with the philosophy and concrete teaching ideas offered in this book teachers can find the courage to speak up in order to create writing classrooms where students take ownership of their work enjoy what they’re writing and produce writing that shows depth of thought and originality of expression. This book acknowledges the pressures English teachers face in today’s educational climate but challenges teachers to rally their expertise and enthusiasm so that student writers develop voice and speak for themselves.

Edited by Detra Price-Dennis this first volume of Special Issues: Racial Literacy gathers some of the most compelling and practical recent articles across NCTE journals addressing the importance of racial literacy and its implications for curriculum pedagogy and policy. 

There’s a great deal of uncertainty discord and increased volatility across a number of critical institutions in our society. Each day on social media and TV news outlets we read listen to and/or watch events unfold that are linked to political economic health legal and educational inequities that can be traced to racist ideologies and practices. Public schools across the country are being subjected to pending state legislation and new laws that seek to limit how race—among other markers of identity—can be taught in K–12 classrooms. 

Editor Detra Price-Dennis has curated this collection to show how teaching from a racial literacy perspective is in conversation with antiracist culturally responsive equity-oriented frameworks that uplift curriculum design and instructional strategies. These articles can help educators (re)imagine the classroom as a space that supports the development of racial literacy skills and practices with their students.

About the Special Issue series:

Most teachers and students across the country are grappling with several important issues. We hear from many educators who are looking for compelling and engaging approaches racial literacy critical media literacy and trauma-informed teaching. 

NCTE is responding to these needs with Special Issues a series of books designed to directly address these pressing topics in K-12 and college classrooms today. The first volumes collect content on these topics from across all of NCTE’s journals in one place to make the most relevant material accessible and practical. 

Edited by expert practitioners in the field each volume contains teaching tips to help implement these approaches in classrooms. 

During a time of increased book banning and censoring of scrutiny of the word critical and even calls for surveillance of K–12 teachers the burgeoning field of critical media literacy is more important than ever. These new challenges demonstrate the importance of teaching media literacy to address some of the most pressing needs of our youth. This second volume devoted to critical media literacy picks up where the first volume left off as it continues the work of defining this important area of focus and looks for practical and innovative ways to bring these important topics into ELA classrooms. Editors William Kist and Mary T. Christel have curated and edited a wide range of original essays by leading educators in the field focusing on pedagogical directions of critical media literacy integrating it into reading writing and interdisciplinary instruction and new ways of teaching about and with media.