Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Volume 72, Issue 2: Windows, Mirrors And Sliding Glass Doors - Bridging The Divide Call For Submissions

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

I Can... Will You?, Cheryl Golden

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Take A Risk: A Review Of Expanding Literacy, Hollie M. Bergeron, Jenny M. Martin

Virginia English Journal

This is a book review of Expanding Literacy: Bringing Digital Storytelling into Your Classroom by Brett Pierce in 2022. Review collaboratively by two teacher educators and a content area literacy course, this thorough review of Pierce's book for educators includes many perspectives.

The Learning Center: Changing Your Writing Center To A Learning Center, Kyle D. Trott Ph.D.

Virginia English Journal

The purpose of this article is to reimagine the Writing Center not as an island removed from the disciplines or resource extending from the English Department, but as the heart of the secondary school. One way to do this is to recognize the need for secondary school writing centers to engage the academic community comprised of the five core disciplines—English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language—through advocacy and shared responsibility by means of creating and engaging through agency by utilizing the honor societies in the various disciplines through the local example of the Woodbridge Senior High School’s development of the …

Lessons From The Bluest Eye: The Discovery Of Self, Shanda D. Boone-Hurdle

Virginia English Journal

This article will explore the profound impact of reading, utilizing Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye as a catalyst for students to create real-life connections that resonate with their own experiences. The love of reading is a transformative force that not only enriches the intellectual landscape but also serves as a powerful tool for fostering empathy and understanding. This article will demonstrate how reading empowers students and helps them find solace and strength in the realization that their struggles, dreams, and aspirations are not isolated but are woven into the fabric of a broader narrative in which students can reflect …

Engaging Students In Writing With Nonfiction Social Justice Texts, Tracy Spurlin-Saravanan

Virginia English Journal

Getting students engaged in writing in a high school setting is usually challenging and often elicits complaints of boredom. However, the utilization of texts that focus on the experiences of marginalized people and that educates about social injustices can get students interested. When students read texts that inform them about such issues that they might otherwise never hear about and when they are invited to share their views through writing, the door to learning to become critical thinkers and global citizens is opened for them.

Write Like The Character: A New Take On Using Mentor Text To Support Writing, Tracy L. Hough

Virginia English Journal

Writing is a complex process that requires the orchestration of cognitive, social, and emotional processes. This analysis explores ways to help our students navigate the complexities of becoming a writer by expanding the use of mentor texts to include an examination of characters who write, modeling the real challenges and rewards associated with becoming a writer. The themes identified within the selected mentor texts focus on finding encouragement and inspiration to write from others, making sense of the world through personal writing, and discovering one's voice and identity as a writer. By extending our use of mentor texts, we help …

Shifting Scaffolds: Building Intellective Capacity Through Student Choice, Amanda Blevins

Virginia English Journal

In an effort to meet the wide-ranging capacities and even wider-ranging levels of student motivation in ELA classrooms, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers are tasked with examining current instructional practices through the lenses of efficacy and engagement. Disengagement, worsened by an over-reliance on prescriptive structures like the five-paragraph essay, hampers students' growth and independence. This essay explores how scaffolding, particularly through student choice, can nurture students' intellective capacity and foster genuine engagement with literacy. By embracing student interests and providing opportunities for authentic analysis, educators can empower students to navigate complex texts and develop nuanced thinking skills essential for …

Introduction From The Editor's Desk: Spring 2024, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Call For Manuscripts

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

A Sequence Of Poems On Writing, Teaching, Words And Thought, Louis Gallo

Virginia English Journal

no abstract,it's poetry

Breaking Down Barriers: Practicing Silent Discussions In The Classroom, Kristina E. Bell

Virginia English Journal

While full-class oral discussions may be beneficial for some students, there may also be others in classrooms who may feel uncomfortable with participating in discussions such as these for a myriad of reasons. These reasons often extend beyond the negative assumption of students not caring about classroom content. In my own classroom, one discussion practice that I have had the opportunity to utilize with success is that of a “silent discussion,” a discussion that is both independent and silent, while allowing for written interaction amongst peers. Breaking down barriers for students and allowing for greater opportunities for active engagement through …

Eating The Earth: The Poetic ‘Coming Out’ Journey Of One Middle School Teacher, Clint D. Whitten

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Dissipating Energy: When Teaching Priorities Are Repositioned, Lauren May

Virginia English Journal

The issue of teacher attrition has strengthened over the course of the decade, especially with the influence of a global pandemic (Zamarro et al., 2021). Ingersoll et al. (2018) found that 44% of teachers leave the field of education within the first five years of their careers. More recently, Zamarro et al. (2021) described a 6% increase in teachers expressing the desire to leave their teaching careers within the next five years. A wide range of demands have contributed to teacher attrition across the years, and it can be problematic when teaching philosophies are pushed aside as teachers attempt to …

Review Of Teaching In Rural Places: Thriving In Rural Classrooms, Schools, And Communities, Rachelle Kuehl

Virginia English Journal

This is a book review of Teaching in Rural Places: Thriving in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities, a first-of-its-kind textbook geared for preservice teachers interested in teaching successfully in rural schools.

Who’S ‘Ere?: Identifying And Addressing Rural Erasure In Ela Classrooms, Chea L. Parton

Virginia English Journal

This article briefly discusses research on the role of rural out-migrant ELA teachers' place-connected identities on rural erasure through text selection and instructional practice. Based on the research findings, it provides resources such as an equity audit for course syllabi and classroom libraries as well as tools for finding and selecting rural young adult literature to combat rural erasure and support teachers' inclusion of critical rural perspectives in their teaching.

Editorial

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Call For Manuscripts

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

One Bold Experiment, William D. Smyth

Virginia English Journal

A monthly exchange of letters from 165 seventh graders in an arts school in Charleston, South Carolina to similar classrooms in 16 countries around the world proved to be the writing project that captured every state writing standard all at once -- brainstorming, writing, collaboration, analysis, proofreading, and re-writing. This one activity was the highlight of the year for each student as letters and gifts poured in from every continent September to June. This was truly a teacher's dream come true.

I, Too: A Culturally Responsive Expression Of Teacher And Student Writing, Tiffany Lewis, Kevon Merritte, Haley Novak

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Re-Imagining Remediation: Problematizing Adolescent Literacy Remediation, Michelle Lague

Virginia English Journal

This article explores the unique literacy needs of adolescent learners and challenges the traditional practice of literacy remediation, often tied to standardized test scores, in U.S. public schools. A call for more responsive literacy instruction that employs a disciplinary, holistic approach rather than a skills-based, deficit-informed approach is articulated, as well as recommendations for practice in literacy instruction informed by research on literacy identity development. As we begin to imagine our schools in a post-COVID world, we must rethink our instruction and move toward a model of literacy that is more relevant, more responsive, and, above all, more human.

An Introduction To The Culturally Responsive Education Model (Crem): A Personal And Professional Journey To Reflective And Transformative Pedagogy, Monica R. Manns

Virginia English Journal

The Culturally Responsive Education Model (CREM) is a framework by which educators can recognize, digest, and implement cultural responsiveness in their classrooms and school communities. Based on the research of James Banks, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Zaretta Hammond, Marva Collins, Bell Hooks, Geneva Gay, James Comer, and Paulo Freire, the CREM serves as a tool, a practitioner’s guide to culturally responsive teaching and learning, with specific focus on content integration (the curricular and programmatic expansion to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions of diverse groups); knowledge construction (helping students understand how people create beliefs based on their diverse biographies while validating students’ funds …

Introduction From The Editor

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Summer 2021 Call For Submissions, Paige Horst

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Today’S Dissection In English Lab: Analytical Discoveries Through Classical Rhetoric, James A. Cornette Jr.

Virginia English Journal

This article describes a single class session in Fall Semester 2020 with my undergraduate freshmen, featuring a “lab” discussion of a poem by Sun Yung Shin. The “dissection” of her poem proceeds by means of an application of classical rhetorical tools -- particularly the appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos -- the “lenses” by means of which a process of critical analysis takes place. The intention of my article is to demonstrate how productively students can apply such rhetorical tools when they have been carefully trained in their use for several weeks in a semester. To shift the …

The Writing Processes Of Long-Term English Learners And Struggling Native English Speakers, Katherine R. Brubaker

Virginia English Journal

This study sought to identify what differences, if any, distinguish the writing processes of native English speakers (NESs) and long-term English learners (LTELs). During a 90-minute class period, 9th and 11th grade NES and LTEL students recorded themselves thinking aloud as they composed a writing sample for their English teachers, and completed survey questions related to their writing processes and their levels of attention to different aspects of the writing process. LTELs answered additional questions about their language backgrounds and their use of their languages as they write. Several English teachers also scored the students’ essays. Analysis of the results …

Writing That Values Multiple Ways Of Knowing: Supporting Early Career Teachers’ Efforts To Promote Literacy Development, Lauren A. May, Heather Wright

Virginia English Journal

Early career secondary English teachers manage challenges that complicate their efforts to support students’ literacy development, including feelings of inadequacy as teachers. This paper focuses on low-stakes writing strategies that teachers might use to promote literacy development in the classroom and decrease their feelings of inadequacy. The authors, Lauren and Heather, use the lenses of dialogic pedagogy and the reflective turn to draw upon literature on the blending of reading and writing instruction and elements of autoethnography to examine their efforts to support students’ literacy development. Working from the literature and pedagogical reflections, the authors offer suggestions for instructional practice …

Connecting To Place In The Literacy Classroom, Rachelle Kuehl

Virginia English Journal

Motivation research indicates that students need to be interested in the subject matter about which they are learning, and this article describes how connecting to place can pique students’ interest in writing and reading tasks. Place-based literacy practices, or those that allow opportunities for students to explore their out-of-school interests in authentic ways, have been shown to engage rural students in literacy learning. This article presents examples of writing projects found in the literature that incorporate an emphasis on place (e.g., photo essays, project-based learning assignments, community interviews). Resources for helping students find books connected to their sense of place …

Empowering Children's Literature For Stressful Times, Barbara C. Wheatley Ed.D., Jennifer Whorrall Turner Ed.D.

Virginia English Journal

Abstract

Reading and books are synonymous with children and education. Caregivers and educators alike understand the many benefits of reading books to help children learn about their world but also to help manage emotions. As the pandemic rages across the country and the world, books are one way to help children deal with the emotions that are present in their lives. Bibliotherapy is explored as the practice of clinically and educationally using literature to help children deal with anxiety and stress. Research is explored that supports the emotional needs of children and the use of books to help children empathize …

Introduction From The Editor, Jenny M. Martin

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.