After ten years of public school teaching and countless student teaching observations, the author knows firsthand that English language arts (ELA) teachers are committed to teaching researched argumentative writing and, further, they often frame their assignments as questions. In this article, the author proposes that ELA teachers accelerate…

How can comedy be used as an effective tool and truly help innovate the learning experience? This paper outlines how aspects of comedy have been creatively integrated into primary and secondary academic curricula such as English Language Arts, social studies, drama, as well as in areas of mental health and wellness. The essay demonstrates, for…

In 2007, Jake, the author's 14-year-old son, died. Though he had a known heart condition, Jake was vibrant and lived a life with no restrictions. The heart attack that killed him was unexpected. As a teacher, the author was left with the question of how to return to the classroom and what she would share with the students. This article explores…

Based on research conducted in a fourth-grade classroom, the author describes one teacher's process for integrating social studies and English language arts using a writers' workshop approach. Furthermore, the fourth-grade teacher was able to provide students with an opportunity to engage in multimodal composition. After conducting research…

In this article, the authors explore multimodal literacies and how they use literacy contracts and quadrants to help students to examine their identities via writing and the creative arts. A notable outcome of their joint efforts is that when teachers and students transacted with multimodal literacies, they showed value for their personal and…

Write first, talk second--it's a simple strategy, but one that's underused in literature classes, writes Paul Bambrick-Santoyo. The author describes a lesson on Shakespeare's Sonnet 65 conducted by a middle school English teacher, who incorporates writing as an important precursor to classroom discussion. By having students write about the poem…

Fifth graders responded to a video of a picturebook,"The Red Tree" by Shaun Tan. They had not experienced explicit instruction in visual literacy and their responses served as a foundation for basic understanding of their analysis. We learned that they focused on four major areas: emotional aspects; visual qualities, summaries of the…

This article describes a method of storytelling that can assist novice teachers in moving toward "re-seeing" their stories of teaching not just as narratives of experience, but as sites for work to be done. The assignment novice teachers undertook as part of a methods class in the teaching of English language arts has the potential to be…

The nonfiction letter offers students an opportunity to study a dying art while also gaining insights about people, places, and eras. Teaching students the value of letters teaches community, caring, and connection. Whereas reading great works of literature can and does provide insight into life's purpose and meaning, the nonfiction text of a…

Teacher educators strive for student engagement in their pre-service curricula. Recent studies of university-level engagement have focused on the need for active learning pedagogies. Grounded in anti-deficit approaches that are relevant, responsive, and sustaining for diverse cultures and literacies, this article discusses the use of…

With states and districts across the country implementing the Common Core State Standards, teachers have more opportunities than ever to collaborate around the shared goals of strengthening curriculum design, classroom practices, and student learning. Building from this premise, the Common Assignment Study (CAS) has brought together teams of…

As a science teacher, I regularly use outside reading assignments (e.g., news articles) to help develop my students' understanding of topics addressed in my anatomy class. However, I have found that in simply reading texts, students often fail to (1) understand the context of the science discussed, (2) make the connections between ideas…

It is not clear that the literary genre called poetry has a future in the face of a reduction in literary study that Common Core's English language arts standards implicitly mandate-- and in the context of Common Core's drive for workforce development. Common Core claims the standards will prepare students equally for "college and…

One goal of high school teachers is to help students appreciate that reading does not end when they leave the classroom. When students find reading meaningful, they are more likely to see themselves as readers and choose to read long after they leave the classroom setting (Hinchman, Alvermann, Boyd, Brozo, & Vacca, 2003-2004; Wilhelm, 2001).…

This white paper describes instructional approaches that apply to successful teaching with the Smithsonian "Learning Lab." After defining its use of terms such as "deeper learning" and "authentic resources" the authors review the research basis of three broad approaches that support integrating digital resources into…