In this paper, I explore the transitional spaces of teaching and writing by restorying an anomalous event in my teaching of Canadian literature in a grade seven classroom and my efforts to decolonise that teaching. Thinking with Elizabeth Ellsworth's concept of pedagogy as it relates to knowledge in the making and the learning self, I take…

The Wood River Middle School (WRMS) serves approximately 600 students a year. The school is diverse, with roughly half Latinx students and a large English language learner population. The library collection boasts almost 16,000 books. The most popular section? If you combine the manga and graphic novel sections, they win the top prize, with 38% of…

Personally and professionally, the author shares experiences with school safety and how the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom may utilize middle grade novels to address gun violence with adolescents. Highlighting five middle grade novels that address school shootings--Katherine Erskine's (2011) "Mockingbird," Emily Barth Isler's…

The medium of illustrated novels has been neglected by educational research, and the limited current research on the influence of illustrations on a reader's mental images is largely negative in tone. However, by adopting a participatory multiple case study methodology, this research provides a new understanding of the nature of mental picturing…

Independent reading is more than just "drop everything and read" -- it is a gateway to writing, critical thinking, discussion, and deeper learning. Author Jarred Amato, an accomplished middle and high school English teacher and founder of Project LIT Community, believes in the power of independent reading not only to turn around the…

Using Octavia Butler's prophetic writing, specifically, passages from her "Parable" series, as a conceptual lens, this article will explore the ways one Black girl uses multimodal literacies to imagine new worlds that center and celebrate her Black girlhood. An exploration of her multimodal literacies shows how she simultaneously…

This article examines how sociocultural perspectives that recognize literacy as language use in context is played out in novel-based learning of four English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior high classrooms taught by one teacher. The study is teacher-research centered around the classroom practices and student writings of the first author's…

Existing research reveals a robust relationship between self-reported print exposure and long-term literacy development, yet few studies have demonstrated how reading skills change as children read a book in the short term. In this study, 50 children (mean age 9.7 years, SD = 0.8) took turns with a prerecorded narrator reading aloud a popular…

Recently, the public outcry after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police revealed a disconnect among some Americans between historical events (slavery, the Civil Rights movement) and the present day. That is, many Americans--particularly White Americans--had believed racism to be a mostly historical construct and failed to…

In order to identify the acquisitions foreseen for middle school children in the book "Iz Pesinde" (In Pursuit of the Trail) in Mavisel Yener's "Dolunay Dedektifleri" (Full Moon Detectives) series, this study was conducted. The study sample is composed of the author's book "Iz Pesinde". Sub problems, assumptions, the…

This study explores virtual, student-author interviews eighth-grade students led with Chris Crowe in response to his young adult novel "Mississippi Trial, 1955." The opportunity to interview the author motivated students to read the novel. Through their text-world development, students connected with the fictional and nonfictional…

Exploring the realm of literacy involves understanding how graphic novels shape students' reading and writing journeys. Through scholarly research, the authors delve into the significant impact of graphic novels on education while highlighting their appeal to students through visual features and engaging storytelling. Included is a discussion of…

In this manuscript, the authors examine three young adult novels using critical literacy as a lens for addressing issues of power and justice around sexual violence and the actions taken by characters to make social change in their fictional schooling contexts. This piece uses scholarship around youth activism in young adult literature to engage…

Given the growing interest and representation of superheroes in comics and other media, we are interested in the ways young people read superhero texts and how those readings influence their conceptualisations of gender within and outside educational spaces. In this article we explore students' responses to (re)presentations of gender in superhero…

This article provides a research basis and practical applications for the inclusion of multicultural literature as a component of SEL programming. Multicultural text selections not only allow young adolescents to see themselves and others through the characters, but they also provide students with the opportunity to take part in activities and…