Secondary English Language Arts classrooms are spaces where teachers can pursue justice through curricular, pedagogical, assessment, and discretionary decisions they make, using popular asset (i.e., cultural modeling, culturally responsive pedagogy) and justice pedagogies (i.e., critical literacies, culturally sustaining pedagogy, restorative…

Set in English Language Arts, this article takes up recent trends in literacy toward investigating ontological notions of digital texts. Two teacher educators recently implemented a series of readings and activities in their methods courses designed to help preservice teachers sophisticate their conceptions of texts beyond autonomous, neutral…

This phenomenological study explored best practices to increase preservice teacher self-efficacy before the student teaching semester. The research was guided by this central inquiry and three sub-questions. Using a pre- and post-phenomenon survey instrument as well as an initial questionnaire and a final reflection, preservice teachers who were…

This qualitative analysis of experiential reflections in two English methods courses considers the ways that perceptions of literacy can shape understandings of social justice and social justice pedagogy. Although social justice is an essential component of English teacher education, scholars are still attempting to transcend theoretical…

This case study of an English methods course examines how preservice teachers demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions for social justice teaching. Qualitative analyses of participants' performances on two signature course assessments, micro-teaching and unit planning, show how opportunities to demonstrate socially just teaching practices…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how preservice teachers (PTs) learn about disciplinary literacy in English language arts (ELA). In mathematics and writing, research has found that teachers' participation in disciplinary work can support their understanding of domain-specific inquiry, problem-solving and argumentation.…

The author asks, "Where can we, as English language arts teachers, create room in our classrooms for curiosity--for students and for ourselves?" She outlines ways to use Genius Hour to help create an equitable, level classroom with access and ownership for all.

This article discusses ways literature is taught at the university. It describes a gap in the way English is often taught in literature programs and the way future teachers are taught to teach English to secondary students. It argues for teaching literature in ways that might be good for majors in both fields, ways that support the work valued by…

Facilitating discussions in English Language Arts can develop students' skills as speakers and listeners and their ability to engage with diverse perspectives. However, classroom observations often demonstrate a lack of student talk, raising questions about the complexity of facilitating discussion and teachers' opportunities to learn and hone the…

The author, who teaches the English Methods class in the credential program, knew from entries in students' Writer's Reader's Notebooks (Rief) that they were struggling with the articles assigned about a five-paragraph essay. Following a discussion of form-first instruction and CCSS assessments, this article provides concrete suggestions for…

The researchers of this hermeneutic phenomenological study applied Colaizzi's (1978) method to analyze and interpret English Language Arts (ELA) teacher candidates' (TC) learning experiences with literacy quadrants and narratives while attending secondary writing instruction methods courses in diverse institutional settings. Qualitative strategies…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a pedagogical innovation -- a matrix construction exercise -- intended to help pre-service teachers (PTs) navigate the multiple and oftentimes competing discourses that shape the school subject English Language Arts (ELA). Design/methodology/approach: To explore the various ways the PTs drew on the…

This study examines the reality TV series "Teach: Tony Danza" and argues for its value as a teaching tool in the secondary English methods class. Drawing on television studies, in particular, theories surrounding reality television, the authors suggest that their students' knowledge of the conventions and practices of reality television…

This article reports on a semester-long project where a TESOL professor and English Education professor modeled collaborative teaching and explicitly taught collaboration skills to a coscheduled teaching methods class consisting of TESOL and Secondary English teacher candidates. Data were collected in the form of pre- and postsemester surveys. In…

Though literature discussions are a commonplace feature of English classrooms, we know little about how teachers learn to facilitate classroom talk. Research on methods courses reveals little about how, or if, teachers are prepared to enact the "high leverage" practice of literature discussions. This qualitative study examines an English…