Due to negative classroom experiences, lack of resources and access, the fear of the unknown, and at times a disconnect, students are often fearful of literacy learning (reading, writing)--and in some cases outright bored. This piece highlights a variation of Childs' "C.O.U.N.T." acronym, which addresses ways in which teachers can infuse…

Social movements seeking to dismantle white supremacy within academia cast long-running debates over writing instruction in a new light. This conversation approaches these critiques as an opportunity for pedagogical reinvention. I put forward new theory that centers the social performance and psychological rewards of authenticity. I first review…

Learn how to develop and sustain multimodal, project-based learning (PBL) instruction in secondary English Language Arts classrooms. National standards encourage authentic forms of reading, writing, and communication that can support college and career readiness, and this book highlights PBL as a powerful way to harness students' interests and…

In this theoretical article, I argue that classroom teachers are in an ideal position to help students make sense of and take action regarding pressing social issues. Yet according to past research, writing instruction in the United States tends to focus on short, formulaic assignments that do not require criticality or connect to real-world…

In this article, the authors begin this inquiry by describing their research with a class of middle school writers who played "Quandary," a free online educational game designed to teach argumentation, as part of a unit on writing arguments for environmental action. Regarding the subject area of English language arts (ELA), research has…

Providing students with the opportunity to generate new content and share it with a wide audience invites students to compose texts with the care and conviction that cannot be duplicated when writing solely for the teacher. This piece documents one teacher's effort to engage 99 eighth graders with an authentic writing opportunity: the…

This article focuses on writing instruction and the necessity for this instruction to be modified regarding the use of literacy in everyday life. Reviewing literature about standards, motivation, and writing instruction makes the implementation of authentic writing tasks evident as a necessity for increasing student motivation and allowing for…