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Portrait Of A Lady On Fire: Female Directors Subverting The Male Gaze, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

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The Combahee River Collective’S Influence On Modern Feminism, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

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Attention To Their Uniqueness: Differentiation In A University Classroom, Robin Gingerich

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

University students come to campus with unique gifts and individual challenges. To meet the needs of diverse learners, one solution is differentiation. Differentiation involves deliberately planning lessons that address the unique learning styles of diverse learners by offering pedagogy informed not only by content, but also by the students themselves. While differentiation in elementary and secondary classrooms is considered best practice, professors in higher education face unique challenges when it comes to implementing differentiation. This paper examines definitions of differentiation, research on differentiation in universities, and, from the author’s personal experience, offers suggestions for university writing instructors.

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Moving Forward And Looking Back, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

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What Else, Carol Parris Krauss

Virginia English Journal

This poem candidly explores the experience of a veteran educator confronting self-doubt and Imposter Syndrome as she prepares to attend a prestigious fellowship, ultimately expressing her late-blooming passion for learning and her desire for authenticity in both teaching and self-understanding.

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At The Door, Kaya L. Klein

Virginia English Journal

At the Door is about that pause before stepping into the classroom the moment when my worries and doubts wait quietly behind me. It’s about leaving all of that behind so I can be fully present for my students, who come in with curiosity, excitement, and open hearts. Their energy and joy lighten the weight I carry and remind me why I teach. This poem is a celebration of those small, powerful moments when teaching feels meaningful, when students’ laughter and questions make every fear seem smaller, and when I remember why I show up every single day.

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A Unique 21st Century Relevant Analysis Of Carter G. Woodson’S The Mis-Education Of The Negro And Teacher Occupational Resilience, Nadrian D. Antoine

Virginia English Journal

This article offers a contemporary analysis of Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), emphasizing its enduring relevance to 21st-century educational challenges and the emerging framework of Teacher Occupational Resilience (TOR). Woodson’s central argument that American schooling functions as a system of psychological conditioning that marginalizes Black identity, history, and agency remains strikingly applicable in modern debates on culturally relevant pedagogy, systemic inequity, and digital‑age misinformation. The article explores Woodson’s critique of leadership, the omission of curriculum, and the reproduction of miseducation by credentialed yet culturally detached Black professionals. It then connects these insights to TOR theory, which …

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Using Ai To Build Background Knowledge, Bruce Powers, Keisha Motley

Virginia English Journal

The new technology of AI can be used to address an old need: the building of student background knowledge in order to improve comprehension and maximize ability to make inferences. Examples are shared and discussed.

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Teachers Writing Together To Restore Hope And Resist Burnout, Beth M. Lehman

Virginia English Journal

This article invites teachers to consider how the practice of writing, especially in facilitated writing groups designed for teachers, can be an effective activity for processing stress and restoring hope. Attention on teacher writing often focuses on how writing helps teachers to improve their teaching. Here the attention is on the value of writing for teachers themselves. Practices of Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) strengths-based writing groups are described with a focus on Teachers Flourishing through Writing, an online workshop series that the author helped to create. Through analyzing workshop methods and self-reflecting on workshop experiences, the author asserts that …

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Using Perspective Taking To Reimagine Jim In Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Jean S. Filetti

Virginia English Journal

Critics and classroom teachers frequently read Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a stock character, the comic stereotype of the superstitious and loyal slave. However, using perspective-taking strategies, such as asking open-ended questions and using paired texts to invite students to interrogate Jim's ruses and his assumption of a mask of servility, can be used to challenge reductive readings of Jim that have led to censorship of the novel.

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Beyond Trends: The Potential Influence Of The Ela Teachers Of Tiktok, Heather Lynn Wright, Lauren May

Virginia English Journal

This paper describes a study on content from secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers of TikTok and their potential influence on future teachers. There were two research questions: (1) What information is being dispersed through TikTok specifically for secondary ELA teachers?; (2) What connotations about secondary ELA teaching are implied implicitly or explicitly through the tone of the TikTok creator? TikToks were examined through a three-part framework, considering the constructs of performances (Goffman, 1956), stickiness (Zott et al., 2000), and affinity spaces (Gee, 2004). Using a systematic approach, 50 secondary ELA TikTok accounts were identified and the top 20 …

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Apprenticing Towards Deeper Learning In The Ela Classroom: Using Young Adult Literature To Support Students’ Mastery, Identity, And Creativity, Julianna Kershen, Kacy M. Price, Nynke Wimp, Evie Jackson, Kaitlin Rogers

Virginia English Journal

This practitioner focused article highlights the perspectives of pre-service teachers and undergraduate researchers investigating the kinds of learning interactions and instructional decisions that result in deeper learning outcomes for high school students. Deeper learning outcomes are often described as 21^st century skills, including mastery learning, support of holistic and scholarly student identities, and the ability to engage collaboratively with critical and creative problem-solving skills. The authors suggest a series of young adult literature texts that can serve as springboards into project-based learning opportunities that provide authentic and real world-connected activities, iterative cycles of learning, peer-peer collaboration, and in-depth disciplinary …

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Bank Street School For Children’S Story Of Integrating Structured Phonics Into A Progressive Literacy Approach, Melanie Bryon, Douglas R. Knecht, Emily Linsay, Emily Schottland

Occasional Paper Series

This article explores how the Bank Street School for Children (SFC), a historically progressive institution rooted in child-centered, experiential learning, has successfully integrated structured phonics into its literacy program. Traditionally focused on whole language practices, SFC recognized inconsistencies in student reading outcomes and, beginning in 2017 undertook a multi-year evaluation of its literacy approach. Guided by the core values of child development and equity, and research in cognitive science, the school adopted a research-based phonics program, implementing it across Kindergarten through fourth grade over multiple years. This shift aimed to ensure all students—not just those with strong language backgrounds—gain the …

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Lessons From The Field On The Science Of Reading: School And Classroom Stories Across Contexts

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

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“It Was Hard, But It Worked:” Children’S Theories Of Learning To Read, Cristina Valencia Mazzanti, Laura Tiktin-Sharick, Madeleine Zuck, Tiphareth Ananda

Occasional Paper Series

In this paper we come together as teachers, a school leader and a professor to examine children’s theories of learning to read captured in written and illustrated texts created by 143 children currently enrolled in kindergarten to sixth grade. This collection of children’s theories of reading was created in the context of a progressive elementary school located at Smith College, a women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts. Our hope in examining children’s theories is to humanize and historicize current debates about how reading is taught. We also hope to offer a counter narrative to the dichotomies currently shaping reading education, …

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“This Curriculum Has No Real Reading:” A Case Study Of Student Activism In Response To A Centralized Curriculum Mandate, Alina Lewis

Occasional Paper Series

The widespread implementation of “science of reading” policies across national and local contexts in the past few years is yet another chapter in the reading wars (Preston, 2022; Thomas, 2024; Goldberg & Goldenberg, 2022). This is not the first time that a national panic about literacy has incited fierce debates over how best to teach reading. Since the publication of “Why Johnny Can’t Read” in 1955, the question of “how, when and how much phonics instruction” has been hotly contested among scholars and practitioners (Thomas, 2024; Flesch & Sloan, 1955). However, the current literacy policy landscape--in the wake of the …

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Thinking Narratively About Science Of Reading Forces, Moral Injury, And Teacherhood, Kyle C. Arlington

Occasional Paper Series

Stories of teachers’ classroom lives shape the public imagination of what it means to be a “good teacher,” yet these narratives are always partial, contextual, and entangled with broader cultural and institutional forces. This research essay narratively explores the experiences of Lisa, a veteran literacy teacher navigating Science of Reading (SoR) mandates in her elementary classroom. It examines how her identities, values, and visions for literacy teaching intersect with the discursive, material, and affective dynamics that shape how SoR unfolds in the context of Lisa’s classroom life. (Re)storying her experiences draws attention to the emotional toll and moral dissonance teachers …

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All Flourishing Is Mutual: Cultivating A Gift Economy Of Literacy, Lindsey Lush, Melissa Kurtz

Occasional Paper Series

In this paper, two scholars and practicing elementary educators argue that the policies and practices of the Science of Reading (SoR) movement in early literacy education are being constructed with the logic of a market economy, shaped by neoliberal ideologies of individualism, scarcity, and competition. Compelled by our concerns for the bodies and beings of readers and reading teachers in the context of our Northeast Georgia public elementary school and provoked by our shared engagement with The Serviceberry, Indigenous scientist and scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book on lessons from the natural world, we engage a postqualitative approach to emergent, relational …

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When Science Of Reading Policy Meets Classroom Reality: The Nonsense Word Problem, Lisa Dewing-Birno, Luis Lopez

Occasional Paper Series

A central feature of many Science of Reading (SoR)-aligned curricula is the use of nonsense words in early literacy assessment to measure a student's ability to decode unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter-sound correspondences. However, the research base for using nonsense words as an instructional tool is much weaker and more contested. Through two narratives, we illustrate how the implementation of SoR instruction with nonsense words can be particularly problematic. We argue that effective literacy instruction demands what we call pedagogical clarity, the ability to integrate pedagogical practices with deep understanding of individual learners, their cultural and linguistic resources, and …

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La Gran Historia De Dilly Meets The Science Of Reading: A Cuento Of Scripts, Skills, And Silenced Selves, Elenita Irizarry Ramos, Ysaaca D. Axelrod

Occasional Paper Series

This article offers a deep dive into two lessons of a structured literacy curriculum to interrogate how current SoR–aligned mandates materialize in a Spanish dual-language first-grade classroom. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and Curriculum as a Discourse as both our conceptual frame and analytical method, we examine (a) La gran historia de Dilly—a retelling of The Ugly Duckling translated into Spanish—and (b) the teacher-facing lesson plan supplied by a major commercial publisher. Four patterns emerged: (1) reading is reduced to quantifiable skills (Lexile badges, sight-word drills) while the tale naturalizes biologically ‘correct’ identities, erasing hybrid selves; (2) scripted directives recast teachers …

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Uplifting The Legacy Of Black Teachers: Loving And Liberatory Pedagogies In A Science Of Reading Context, Natasha A. Thornton, Amanda L. Armstrong, Brooke Blacknall, Jordan Freeman, Elaine Nevers-Williams, Mukkaramah Smith

Occasional Paper Series

This article explores Black liberatory pedagogy (BLP) as a critical approach to navigating current Science of Reading (SoR) mandates, which are often restrictive and fail to honor the literacies and linguistic practices of Black children. Through the narratives of six educators—classroom teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators—the article examines how they have experienced and responded to the implementation of SoR standards and curriculum shifts. These stories also illuminate what becomes possible when teachers are in spaces that allow for autonomy, imagination, and culturally responsive pedagogy. The educators’ experiences, expertise, and cultural wisdom are centered, demonstrating how they enact BLP through …

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Lessons From The Field On The Science Of Reading: An Introduction, Gail Boldt, Patricia Enciso

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

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Letter From The Editor's Desk, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

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Language Choices On Tanzanian Instagram, Carolyne Ulomy

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

This study examines multilingual practices on Instagram within Tanzania’s rapidly growing computer-mediated communication (CMC) landscape. Using a qualitative corpus-based approach, I analyzed 400 Instagram posts from 40 users and conducted five techno-biographical interviews to explore what shapes language choice and how it relates to content. Findings show that Tanzanian Instagram users draw on Swahili, English, Swanglish/Kiswanglish, Community Languages (CLs) and Foreign Languages (FLs) to communicate and construct online identities. Interview data indicate that language choice is influenced by the intended audience, post content, brand image, language accessibility, the original language of the material and relationships between interlocutors. Corpus patterns further …

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“Das Muttermal” - “The Birthmark” - “דער מוטער־צײכן”, Kristin K. Mlay-Kuhns

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

“Das Muttermal / The Birthmark / דער מוטער־צײכן” is a trilingual work of transcreative poetry that stages translation as a method of mourning, cultural memory, and feminist inheritance. Composed first in German and then translated into English and Yiddish, the poem explores the catastrophic rupture of maternal loss and the slow transformation of trauma into understanding. The central metaphor of the birthmark—Muttermal, the “mother-mark”—figures the maternal body as both wound and connective tissue, binding ancestors and descendants through a physical trace that persists across generations, geographies, and languages. Formally, the project demonstrates how translation unveils the layered meanings embedded in …

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When The Metamorphosis Turns White: Kafka Reimagined In Igoni Barrett’S Blackass, Bisola J. Ajibade

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Igoni Barrett’s Blackass (2015) has frequently been described as a “race-rewrite” of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915). This framing has shaped much of the critical conversation surrounding the two texts. While these approaches productively illuminate questions of identity and biopolitics, less attention has been paid to situating both texts across the intersecting contexts of German modernism and Nigerian postcolonial literature. This article provides a close comparative reading of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Igoni Barrett’s Blackass in order to examine how Kafkaesque elements are reconfigured within a contemporary postcolonial Nigerian context. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of minor literature, alongside …

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Du Désespoir À L’Insoumission : La Mort Comme Langage De Résistance Chez Les Esclaves, Kolade M. Kenneth

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

L’expérience de la mort pendant l’époque de l’esclavage constitue un phénomène à la fois complexe et profondément tragique. Pour les esclaves, la mort était souvent inévitable, résultant de conditions de vie inhumaines, de mauvais traitements, de maladies ou des dangers liés aux tentatives d’évasion. Les individus réduits en esclavage étaient soumis à un travail extrême dans les plantations ou d’autres environnements dangereux, sans considération pour leur santé ou leur bien-être. La malnutrition, le surmenage et les punitions brutales entraînaient fréquemment des décès prématurés. Cette étude ne considère pas la mort seulement comme un événement biologique, mais comme une forme de …

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La Cuestión Autobiográfica En Balún-Canán: Posibilidad Y Límites, Gildas Douanla Kembou

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Este artículo examina Balún-Canán de Rosario Castellanos desde la perspectiva de la escritura autobiográfica, con el objetivo de cuestionar su clasificación genérica tradicional como novela o como autobiografía en sentido estricto. A partir de un diálogo crítico con teorías fundamentales de la autobiografía -especialmente las propuestas de Lejeune, Gusdorf, Smith y Watson, y Bergland-, se sostiene que la obra debe leerse como una narrativa híbrida que articula lo personal y lo colectivo, lo factual y lo ficticio. El análisis se centra en la fragmentación de la voz narrativa, la alternancia entre la primera persona infantil y la tercera persona omnisciente, …

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Mas Allá De La Espada: El Heroísmo Y La Virtud En El Abencerraje Y La Hermosa Jarifa, Caleb Setorglo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

This article argues that El Abencerraje y la hermosa Jarifa deliberately reimagines heroism as an ethical and social practice rather than a purely martial ideal. While the work emerges from a post-Reconquest cultural framework, its treatment of heroism privileges rhetorical confrontation, moral virtue, and affective commitment over physical violence. Villegas challenged the social definition of heroism as he rearticulated the concept by redefining it as the disciplined exercise of virtue—fidelity to one’s word, sacrifice, and compassion—suggesting that true nobility lies in moral agency rather than military dominance. Moreover, through the elevation of verbal exchange as a form of symbolic combat, …

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My Love Poetry, David Achodo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

My Love Poetry is the premier collection of my five poems on the power of love as a metaphysical quest. Dominant themes of affection, heroism, destiny, spirituality, and timelessness are stylistically woven through tension and revelation. The imagery of time, covenant, prophecy, and light maintains the assurance of destiny’s verdict in the search for love. The first poem, “A Quest in my Quest,” reveals the poet’s patience, anticipation, and endurance through time as he waits for the bride of his dreams. The second poem, “Invade my World,” is an invitation to a transcendent future wife. This piece blends sacred longing …

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Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire: Female Directors Subverting The Male Gaze, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

The Combahee River Collective’S Influence On Modern Feminism, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Attention To Their Uniqueness: Differentiation In A University Classroom, Robin Gingerich

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

Moving Forward And Looking Back, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

What Else, Carol Parris Krauss

Virginia English Journal

At The Door, Kaya L. Klein

Virginia English Journal

A Unique 21st Century Relevant Analysis Of Carter G. Woodson’S The Mis-Education Of The Negro And Teacher Occupational Resilience, Nadrian D. Antoine

Virginia English Journal

Using Ai To Build Background Knowledge, Bruce Powers, Keisha Motley

Virginia English Journal

Teachers Writing Together To Restore Hope And Resist Burnout, Beth M. Lehman

Virginia English Journal

Using Perspective Taking To Reimagine Jim In Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Jean S. Filetti

Virginia English Journal

Beyond Trends: The Potential Influence Of The Ela Teachers Of Tiktok, Heather Lynn Wright, Lauren May

Virginia English Journal

Apprenticing Towards Deeper Learning In The Ela Classroom: Using Young Adult Literature To Support Students’ Mastery, Identity, And Creativity, Julianna Kershen, Kacy M. Price, Nynke Wimp, Evie Jackson, Kaitlin Rogers

Virginia English Journal

Bank Street School For Children’S Story Of Integrating Structured Phonics Into A Progressive Literacy Approach, Melanie Bryon, Douglas R. Knecht, Emily Linsay, Emily Schottland

Occasional Paper Series

Lessons From The Field On The Science Of Reading: School And Classroom Stories Across Contexts

Occasional Paper Series

“It Was Hard, But It Worked:” Children’S Theories Of Learning To Read, Cristina Valencia Mazzanti, Laura Tiktin-Sharick, Madeleine Zuck, Tiphareth Ananda

Occasional Paper Series

“This Curriculum Has No Real Reading:” A Case Study Of Student Activism In Response To A Centralized Curriculum Mandate, Alina Lewis

Occasional Paper Series

Thinking Narratively About Science Of Reading Forces, Moral Injury, And Teacherhood, Kyle C. Arlington

Occasional Paper Series

All Flourishing Is Mutual: Cultivating A Gift Economy Of Literacy, Lindsey Lush, Melissa Kurtz

Occasional Paper Series

When Science Of Reading Policy Meets Classroom Reality: The Nonsense Word Problem, Lisa Dewing-Birno, Luis Lopez

Occasional Paper Series

La Gran Historia De Dilly Meets The Science Of Reading: A Cuento Of Scripts, Skills, And Silenced Selves, Elenita Irizarry Ramos, Ysaaca D. Axelrod

Occasional Paper Series

Uplifting The Legacy Of Black Teachers: Loving And Liberatory Pedagogies In A Science Of Reading Context, Natasha A. Thornton, Amanda L. Armstrong, Brooke Blacknall, Jordan Freeman, Elaine Nevers-Williams, Mukkaramah Smith

Occasional Paper Series

Lessons From The Field On The Science Of Reading: An Introduction, Gail Boldt, Patricia Enciso

Occasional Paper Series

Letter From The Editor's Desk, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

Language Choices On Tanzanian Instagram, Carolyne Ulomy

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

“Das Muttermal” - “The Birthmark” - “דער מוטער־צײכן”, Kristin K. Mlay-Kuhns

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

When The Metamorphosis Turns White: Kafka Reimagined In Igoni Barrett’S Blackass, Bisola J. Ajibade

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Du Désespoir À L’Insoumission : La Mort Comme Langage De Résistance Chez Les Esclaves, Kolade M. Kenneth

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

La Cuestión Autobiográfica En Balún-Canán: Posibilidad Y Límites, Gildas Douanla Kembou

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Mas Allá De La Espada: El Heroísmo Y La Virtud En El Abencerraje Y La Hermosa Jarifa, Caleb Setorglo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

My Love Poetry, David Achodo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture