English Journal - Volume 104, Issue 2, 2014

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.

The question of who, exactly, is truly responsible for writing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a matter for debate. The CCSS website describes CCSS development in the following way: Building on the excellent foundation of standards states have laid, the Common Core State Standards are the first step in providing our young people with a high-quality education. It should be clear to every student, parent, and teacher what the standards of success are in every school.

This article explores questions about the ability for an assessment-driven approach toward education to foster creative, vibrant classrooms.

This author discusses how ELA instructors must practice subterfuge and resist standardization by using Personal Standards.

This article offers strategies for adjusting in-class curriculum to align with the CCSS, and how to increase fluency with the demands of standardized tests.

These authors highlight the push for reading the CCSS as a living document like any other, open to interpretation and creative implementation.

This article restores a voice to those teachers who do the important work of educating students in classrooms, highlighting the changes taking place during standardization.

This article chronicles work that is focused on content-area writing, as stressed in the CCSS, and partnered language arts teachers with career/technical educators.

This article interrogates some metaphors that CCSS proponents have used as arguments to characterize CCSS, and then checks the facts that others have amassed around the issue.

This author argues that NCLB has pressured writing teachers to underserve developing writers by replacing inquiry with an emphasis on product.

This article examines, both personally and historically, the deleterious effects of the decades-old movement toward standardization of both students and teachers.

Influenced by CCSS, the authors provide options for teachers who share the need to design curriculum to incorporate more perspectives in the classroom.

This article details a teacher’s journey from having an unhealthy relationship with the standards to redefining herself as a professional and using the standards to support sound instruction.

This article promotes project-based learning in English education as a way to combat the loss of cultural relevancy under the pressures of standardization.

Can deep reading into fictional worlds provide insight into our real-life experiences? Texts selected for the 2013 Honor List indicate that the answer is resoundingly affirmative.