Close reading, as Paula Moya (2016) writes, may remain the "most powerful discipline-specific tool we have at our disposal" (p. 9). At a time when the work of English teachers is threatened by many factors, including political polarization and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), close reading may be the soundest way of unifying and…

Despite the proliferation and use of literary lenses in English Language Arts classrooms, one lens still seems to be missing from theorization, formulation, and thus practical implementation: religion. This absence is well-noted in the field, as positive depictions of Christian themes in books are rare and religion is rarely discussed as an…

Students in the English Language Arts classroom have access to more author commentary than ever. While following authors on social media may deepen students' engagement with their assigned reading, it also threatens to subdue students' own interpretations of the authors' texts. This essay explains how educators can introduce basic aspects of…

"The Teaching Archive" shows us a series of major literary thinkers in a place we seldom remember them inhabiting: the classroom. Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan open up "the teaching archive"--the syllabuses, course descriptions, lecture notes, and class assignments--of critics and scholars including T. S. Eliot,…

For educators committed to promoting social equity, the question of how to address dialect hegemony is increasingly important. While linguists have long accepted the concept of dialect equality, educators have struggled with the issue, sparking a history of controversy and debate underscoring larger social issues of diversity and equity. For…

Today's students are inundated with popular culture and pop culture texts in their daily lives. One such form of pop culture is that of music. This medium is one that teachers must use as a way to connect to students and build a bridge to the curriculum. This article will discuss uses of music in the classroom from capturing students' attention…

Mark Twain is often read as a provincial realist or naturalist whose works are disseminated in simplified versions as children's stories or seen as humorous social criticism of the southern United States and its dialects. This article focuses on two of Twain's novels--"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889) and "No. 44,…

Currently, more than 50 of the top 100 YouTube channels feature gameplay, a popularity largely fueled by young audiences. Let's Play videos (often known simply as LPs) typically include gameplay footage accompanied by simultaneous commentary recorded by the player. This article explores three ways English educators might use Let's Play videos and…

The space between the two epigraphs presented at the beginning of this article marks the difference between an insider and an outsider. Ms Barbieri, from "Voices from the Middle," made the first comments as an expression of what reflective practice -- observing and critiquing video tapes of hers and others' teaching -- could mean to her…

Many have argued that English classrooms have an important role to play in supporting students' development of critical consciousness and civic engagement (Kirkland 406; Lyiscott 48). Recently, Monique Cherry-McDaniel called for English teachers to design "woke" learning opportunities that would support students' critical consciousness…

Based on classroom readings and discussions of William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," this Voices from the Field article examines the ways that teachers might use traditional canonized texts to encourage students to both critique and react against bullying behaviors. The author's experiences detail the narratives that students…

Despite ongoing and prolific critical scholarship arguing for the widening of the secondary language arts curriculum, many practicing teachers are required or encouraged to teach a curriculum dominated by canonical texts. This is often the case at schools with highly diverse students whose varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds have…

This profile describes how the Writing Program at Southern Utah University enacts a rhetorical humanist framework in its administrative and curricular structures. At the administrative level, rhetorical humanism offers a collaborative governance model that gives all faculty a voice in programmatic decisions, while managing the cacophony created by…

Reacting to incoherent English teaching in the 1930s, Percival Gurrey probed the psychological processes involved in literary appreciation. He sought ways of teaching poetry that avoided lifeless tasks such as labelling "poetic devices." Later, in the 1950s, he wrote about the processes involved in learning to write. At a time when…

The English Language Arts (ELA) standards are compositionally flawed and further distorted by a high-stakes environment that discourages balanced, meaningful pedagogy; to subvert this reality, teachers must practice subterfuge by foregrounding Personal Standards as the primary drivers of instruction. This author discusses how ELA instructors must…