NCTE

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.

Teach Living Poets opens up the flourishing world of contemporary poetry to secondary teachers.

It is designed to give advice on reading contemporary poetry, discovering new poets, and inviting living poets into the classroom, as well as sharing sample lessons, writing prompts, and ways to become an engaged member of a professional learning community. 

The #TeachLivingPoets approach, which has grown out of the vibrant movement and community founded by high school teacher Melissa Alter Smith and been codeveloped with poet and scholar Lindsay Illich, offers rich opportunities for students to improve critical reading and writing, opportunities for self-expression and social-emotional learning, and, perhaps the most desirable outcome, the opportunity to fall in love with language and discover (or renew) their love of reading. The many poems included in Teach Living Poets are representative of the diverse poets writing today.

Recipient of the 2025 Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research Publication

Teaching Literacy Online (TLO) is a practical guide for secondary and college teachers of English in digital and online environments. Like other, practical, “how to teach online” books, TLO includes an overview of good practices and guidelines for teaching in digital environments and provides detailed suggestions and samples. The suggestions portion of the book focuses on applying the online teaching guidelines to literacy educators who are concerned about teaching literacies through

• digital organization;

• engagement with materials;

• analysis and synthesis of information; and

• the production of texts in a multitude of media and modalities.

By focusing on the engagement, analysis, and production of texts, TLO puts literacy pedagogy as the driving force when making decisions about how to teach online and/or with various digital applications.

Macbeth, a story of ambition, terror, and conscience, speaks to our students and our era. Through differentiated instruction, Lyn Fairchild Hawks offers myriad ways to engage students with different readiness levels and interests in this timeless tale of fear and courage, order and chaos, guilt and remorselessness. The book offers a wide range of exciting lesson ideas to challenge your learners, including

• key scenes to teach,
• big ideas and essential questions,
• film analysis activities,
• close reading assignments,
• performance activities, and
• preassessments and summative assessments. Macbeth can come alive for all students through independent reading options linked by theme, activities and projects mirroring professional roles, and relevance "hooks" to meet students' interests. Also included are a unit calendar, DIY tips for lesson design, and a companion website with more than forty ready-to-use handouts.

Drawing on both the production aspects of theater and the generative learning elements of drama, Theater, Drama, and Reading provides language arts teachers the tools and resources they need to help students transform text from print to interaction and deeper understanding.

Judith Freeman Garey establishes a simple framework for how to read as an actor who builds characters’ lives, a set designer who constructs context, and a director who generates action. In the same way that theater artists engage in a rehearsal process to transform printed words into a world of people, space, sound, and action for the stage, readers can learn a modified version of this process to make text visible and concrete, unlocking its meaning. 

This significant and practical new resource for all language arts teachers details the components of these reading strategies, provides step-by-step examples from classroom practice, and clearly demonstrates how the strategies achieve the Common Core State Standards. Additionally, the book defines a unique approach to teaching dramatic literature, features a short overview of additional popular classroom drama strategies to engage students with written text, and integrates practical suggestions to convert all these strategies to online instruction.