Educational simulations provide students authentic contexts. These authentic contexts require situated and complex real-world arguments. Such writing scenarios help students recognize why there are often multiple interpretations of evidence, who their audience is, what they want, and what kind of genre is needed. Playable Case Studies help…

Teachers of writing strive for authenticity. When they ask students to write, they want it to be for authentic purposes. When they engage students in writing processes, they want those to be authentic processes. When they ask students to compose a particular kind of text, thye want those texts to be authentic genres reflecting authentic writing…

Research in English education needs further exploration on the purposeful implementation of death and grief within English curriculum. In this article Lori D. Ungemah examines how, as a high school English teacher, she integrated death and grief into a unit of study with her eleventh- grade English class. She discusses how her curriculum…

This article focuses on how adolescent writers took up an invitation to write and share a piece of work in school that wasn't tied to a grade. Students' responses to this invitation are examined in an effort to revise some of the typical approaches to teaching writing.

Learning occurs when students engage in discursive processes that include actively considering the comments and perspectives of others, allowing for interpretation and explanation of the topics being discussed (Gillies). Teachers should "resist the urge to turn close reading into an independent activity. The point of close reading is to…

Dynamic and responsive methods enable teachers to assess students' writing skills precisely and equitably, and to empower students of diverse skill levels to develop their writing. Assessing writing with equity-minded precision requires paying close attention to students' performances as writers, identifying challenges in those performances, and…

This article shares what the author has learned as a high school English teacher and researcher from speaking with teachers and high school and college students over the past five years about what sort of feedback has been most helpful in students' development as writers. When examining the data and looking for overlapping themes in responses, six…

This study introduced developmental adolescent readers to literature circles to balance literacy instruction based on students' needs. Providing students with the option to choose accessible novels to read, discuss, and connect with helps them experience the world of literacy as well as explore their own world in a way that most developmental…

One World Education (OWEd) is a college-ready writing instruction program with the goal to ultimately have students participate in their own discourse communities. This qualitative analysis of One World Education reports on student and teacher impressions of the program by analyzing the results of surveys, informal interviews, and focus groups the…

Choosing a text that offers students the chance to empathize with a character from a sociocultural background different from their own and that is based on an understanding of universal challenges all adolescents face offers the opportunity to change minds. The preservice teachers who field tested the use of "Moon at Nine" in middle…

This article explores using spoken word poetry and song analysis in the classroom to inspire students to analyze their identities and strive for social justice in their research efforts. Poetry is empowering. It can show students how people express themselves, push them to consider their own identities, and inspire them to seek social change.…

How teachers can use such materials as parallel-text editions, graphic novels, and film adaptations to increase students' understanding of and interest in Shakespeare was the impetus for a classroom action research project that examined the effects of teaching methods on student comprehension and engagement. The author of this article…

The implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) across the country necessitates revising the English curriculum, asking teachers to incorporate and analyze more perspectives in the classroom as society becomes more diverse. The authors wondered if this reform might provide an opportunity to examine social equity by studying an anchor…

This article, grounded in the belief that art is a way of understanding, describes when faculty asked young people of various ages to draw themselves as writers. Several examples of students' work are coupled with a discussion and a rationale for integrating drawing into the assessment process. Asking students to draw, write, and talk about their…

Reports findings of a study conducted to determine whether the amount of training and experience readers have had in using a particular grading scale correlates with their judgments about the quality of an essay, and whether the amount of training and experience affects the consistencies of their judgments. (EL)