Although mounting research evidence suggests that dialogic teaching correlates with student achievement gains and with high levels of student engagement, little work in English education addresses the challenge of supporting new teachers in developing dialogically organized instructional practices. In a design-based study, we examine a curricular…

Despite a long debate and the accompanying call for changes in the past few decades, grammar instruction in college English classes, according to some scholars, has remained largely "disempowering,""decontextualized," and "remedial" (Micciche, 2004, p. 718). To search for more effective and empowering grammar teaching, this study explores the use…

This study compares and contrasts the selection and distribution of literary texts in the English programs of two diverse secondary schools, one in Massachusetts, USA, the other in Ontario, Canada. Analysis of the departments' curriculum documents, state/provincial curriculum policies, and teacher interviews indicated that at both schools,…

Drawing from a study of one student's literate engagements with English studies and fan fiction and related fan art over her two years in an MA program, which also reached back to the earlier writing she did for English classes and other writings before the study began, this article employs sociohistoric theory to examine the profoundly dialogic…

Teachers and students often express an aversion to poetry based on their experiences with printbased poetry texts that typically dominate school curricula. Given this challenge and the potential affordances of new and multimodal technologies, we investigate how preservice and inservice teachers enrolled in a new literacies master's course began to…

"Where is God now?" is a question from the Holocaust memoir "Night" by Elie Wiesel and an underlying narrative dilemma for the teachers and most student participants in this qualitative study of three Holocaust units in secondary English classrooms in the Midwestern United States. Using a narrative theory framework, this study explores how…

Researchers of literacies in out-of-school settings often argue that their studies hold significant implications for teaching practices. This argument seems to be partially supported by studies that have won the Alan C. Purves Award between 1998 and 2001, acknowledging RTE articles most likely to impact educational practice. Yet this line of…

Compares effects of three treatment conditions (direct instruction, tacit instruction, and no treatment) on high school students' interpretations of stable irony in poetry. Concludes that direct and tacit methods are statistically superior on several measures, and that no statistically significant differences exist between the direct and tacit…

Discusses how the notion of genre has recently been reconceived by theorists. Questions whether the explicit teaching of genre features and rules enhance the acquisition of such genres by students. Provides tentative responses to this question. Argues for more focused research of this question. (HB)

Responds to Aviva Freedman's article on explicit instruction of genre in the same issue of the journal. Reviews Freedman's argument. Disagrees with Freedman's conclusion that explicit instruction is not useful. Argues that research indicates that explicit instruction of genres can be beneficial to students. (HB)

Responds to two critiques of her own article published in the same issue of the journal. (HB)

Responds to Aviva Freedman's article on explicit instruction of genre in the same issue of the journal. Questions Freedman's conclusions by asking how "explicit instruction" and "genre" should be defined. Considers how craft, as opposed to a body of knowledge, can be learned. (HB)

Analyzes Egon Guba's claims about what empirical research is and about the models that have guided it. Questions Guba's claims that critics have found flaws in the models that have guided empirical research. Considers how these conclusions might affect instruction in empirical research. (HB)

A definition of teaching is offered. Several hypotheses concerning the nature of the writing process and the factors effecting this process are discussed. The need for research on unexamined aspects of written composition is indicated. (BN)

Investigates the experiences of 17 "remedial" readers as they interpreted and performed texts through classroom theater. Discusses results of a study aimed at analyzing patterns of children's text interpretation. Details the students' evolving conception of themselves as actors and interpreters of texts. (HB)