NCTE

Sharon Mitchler argues for a reconfiguration of critical pedagogy to empower and engage American literature students in rural community colleges. She constructs a pedagogy that addresses the multiple positions of power and marginalization rural students occupy, often concurrently. 

Drawing on feminist pedagogy, critical pedagogy, and conceptualizations of rural places, she develops a theory of critical rural pedagogy that builds on the work of Kim Donehower, Charlotte Hogg, and Eileen Schell. Critical rural pedagogy actively seeks to engage rural students to bring their lived experiences to the college classes, not only to individual classrooms but to other forms of higher education as community college students transfer on to university settings. The book includes activities and examples to model classroom practice.

This book is written for K–5 educators who are interested in cultivating young writers by designing and facilitating writing instruction that begins with the resources that students bring to the classrooms from their families, homes, and communities. 

This kind of asset-based and individualized instruction is designed to meet the unique writing needs of each young writer. K–5 educators teaching in shifting contexts encounter an array of challenges daily, from restrictive language policies and mandates to heightened accountability measures that often dictate the design of their writing time and instruction.

This book focuses on elementary school teachers working with young writers in varying educational contexts, including dual language, bilingual, and English Only contexts, and in particular students who come from culturally and linguistically diverse settings. Part of the Principles in Practice series.

Part of the Principles in Practice series, this book also includes a robust list of resources for writing teachers, as well as helpful insights for:

• Getting multilingual students writing beyond the classroom walls
• Designing a writing community that works for all your learners
• Using writing conferences as a social practice
• Inviting the use of all linguistic, cultural, and experiential resources

Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning examines the function of classroom discussion as an essential element in inquiry and literacy learning.

McCann, Kahn, and Walter provide examples of classroom discussion activities that have been part of an ongoing partnership between university professors and high school English teachers. The book draws on their research into the effect of discussion on literacy learning and offers examples of activities and guidelines for activities that teachers can use in their own practice. Beyond demonstrating the strong impact that authentic discussions have on learning, the authors show how participation in discussions can be pleasurable and meaningful experiences for adolescents, especially when then can choose the focus for their shared inquiry.

This fun and practical book gives teachers of grades 3–5 teachers both the research and the day-to-day practical activities to expand and empower their students’ vocabulary. 

Upper elementary students will develop a deeper understanding of how the English language works, enrich their vocabularies, and improve their reading and writing skills through the information and lessons provided by veteran educators Mary Jo Fresch and David L. Harrison. 

Each chapter presents definitions and playful examples (in poetry and prose) to teach: 

• Antonyms, synonyms, acronyms, (and many more “nyms”)
• Similes and metaphors
• Common idioms
• Shades of meaning and word origins 

Practical lessons and activities for each category will engage students in joyful practice. A final chapter offers insights into language choices by eight well-known children’s poets and authors, including two former US Young People’s Poets Laureate—Kenn Nesbitt and Margarita Engle—and world-renowned Jane Yolen.

Teacher, researcher, and consultant Amy Benjamin challenges the idea of “skill and drill” grammar in the second edition of this lively, engaging, and immensely practical guide. 

Does grammar instruction have to elicit moans and groans from students and teachers alike? Only when it’s taught the old-fashioned way: as a series of rules to follow and errors to “fix” that have little or no connection to practical application or real-world writing.

Benjamin’s enlightened view of grammar is grounded in linguistics and teaches us how to make informed decisions about teaching grammar—how to move beyond fixing surface errors to teaching how grammar can be used as the building blocks of sentences to create meaning. By using sentence patterns, mapping, visuals, and manipulatives, Benjamin presents an approach to grammar instruction that is suitable for a variety of student populations.

Although she doesn’t advocate for teaching to the test, Benjamin acknowledges the pressures students face when taking high-stakes tests such as the SAT and ACT. Included is a chapter on how to improve students’ editing skills to help prepare them for the short-answer portion of these tests.

In this sequel to English Studies: An Introduction to the Discipline(s), editor Bruce McComiskey and contributors from a range of disciplines propose seven principles to reimagine English studies for increased relevance in an increasingly diverse and globalized world.

While social values outside of academia are changing from nationalism to globalization, much of English studies remains entrenched in nationalist discourses. 

From literature and theory to linguistics, writing, and rhetoric, English Studies Reimagined argues that English studies must shift from a limited national orientation to a more global and cosmopolitan one in order to remain culturally and academically relevant to students today.

McComiskey introduces seven principles to reimagine English Studies for increased relevance: 

• Conceive the discipline as a process
• Seek difference
• Expand what counts as literature
• Promote adaptive practices
• Value technology
• Embrace collaboration
• Take a public turn

Each chapter explores a different discipline within English studies from the perspective of difference: linguistics by Jacquelyn Rahman, rhetoric and composition by Victor Villanueva, creative writing by Sarah Sandman, literature and literary criticism by Richard C. Taylor, critical theory and cultural studies by Jeffrey J. Williams, and English education by Tonya B. Perry. All play vital and distinct but interrelated roles in this proposed shift toward a globally oriented English studies.

The authors share classroom vignettes, strategies, and resources for “going public” with literacy assessment through teacher collaboration with colleagues, with families, and with the community.

Teachers want assessment tools and strategies that inform instruction, engage students in the process, and invite families and community members to enter into the conversation about student learning and progress. When teachers work collaboratively with one another, they align beliefs and practices to generate new ideas that reflect the questions they are asking about literacy and learning. When students, families, and the community are invited to be active, engaged participants in these discussions, all stakeholders have an opportunity to create a shared vision for literacy learning and to construct assessment tools and strategies that help everyone answer the important questions: “How as teachers are we engaging with one another over our literacy assessment beliefs and practices?” and “How can we better bring families and communities into these conversations?” 

In this volume of the Principles in Practice Literacy Assessment strand of books, veteran educators Kathryn Mitchell Pierce and Rosario Ordoñez-Jasis share classroom vignettes, strategies, and resources for “going public” with literacy assessment through teacher collaboration with colleagues, with families, and with the community. Drawing from the IRA–NCTE Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing, Revised Edition, and their own extensive experience, the authors have compiled a set of collaborative assessment principles, as well as a model for teacher professional development around assessment, to guide teachers from assessment theory to practical implementation in the classroom. 

Teachers are at the heart of assessment conversations because they have up-close and personal experiences with how assessments impact their students. These experiences provide an invaluable perspective that is essential to all decision making about assessing student learning. But teachers don’t—or shouldn’t—stand alone. Their critical expertise is strengthened by the experiences and expertise of others invested in the success of our students—colleagues, families, communities, and students themselves.

Drawing from ethnographic data collected in Indonesia from 2009 to 2022, this book explores how an English-medium Indonesian PhD program in interreligious studies and three Muslim scholar-activists activate knowledge where languages intersect, a process mediated by material circumstances within Indonesia and voices past, present, and future that both are audience to and transcend the traditional geographic and discursive borders associated with them.

As they negotiate translingually to make meaning at the borderlands where seemingly discrete discourses intersect, they challenge false divides between rationality and spirituality; between the mind and body; between female agency and Islam; and between English and non-Western meaning-making. By exploring how these scholar-activists engage in translingual praxis to move knowledge from the discursive plane to the material plane and back again to effect social justice across multiple and intersecting languages, audiences, and contexts, this book opens up new ways of understanding translingual negotiation where feminist scholarly activism and Islamic belief intersect. CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric

Even from the earliest grades, children have the rights to read and write—not just in dominant American English, but also in their own languages and dialects.

Young children make meaning and make sense from the earliest years. They read facial expressions, engage in interactions, and read symbols across a variety of named languages. Historically narrow definitions of reading and writing, however, often prevent children of color and immigrants from having access to texts that reflect their diverse cultures and backgrounds. Classroom materials also often don't reflect the growing majority of multilingual children of color, compromising their right to access texts that reflect their cultural values, language practices, and historical legacies.

Promoting equitable, inclusive, and plural understandings of literacy, Mariana Souto-Manning and eight New York City public school teachers explore how elementary teachers can welcome into their classrooms the voices, values, language practices, stories, and experiences of their students who have been minoritized by dominant curricula, cultivating reading and writing experiences that showcase children's varied skills and rich practices.

Readers are invited to enter classrooms where teachers have engaged with the principles detailed in two NCTE position statements--NCTE Beliefs about the Students' Right to Write and The Students' Right to Read--in the pursuit of justice. Collectively, their experiences show that when teachers view the communities their students come from as assets to and in school, children not only thrive academically, but they also gain confidence in themselves as learners and develop a critical consciousness. Together, stepping into their power, they seek to right historical and contemporary wrongs as they commit to changing the world.

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.