English Language and Literature Commons^™

Note To Self: Don't Forget To Title Your Project!, Abby Wilson

English Senior Capstone

Note to Self: Don’t Forget to Title Your Project! is a collection of creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual art reflecting on the author’s ADHD diagnosis. With an approachable and direct tone, I become a tour guide for my readers as they explore the landscape of my neurodivergent brain. These readers will discover aspects of ADHD that can be strengths or drawbacks, such as executive dysfunction, outside-the-box thinking, emotional dysregulation, and hyperfixation. They will also briefly peek into the way that ADHD intersects with aspects of my identity, such as other neurodivergencies, gender, and spirituality.

Question Generation For Writers, Ael Lee, Lucia Skuldt, Lexi Sharp, Gwendolyn Fulkerson

Summer Research

The Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence fields have made possible tools that make writing easier and faster, like Grammarly, Google autocomplete, etc

Full Edition, Keb Editorial Board

Kentucky English Bulletin

No abstract provided.

Examining The Prevalence And Representation Of Diverse Populations In Children's Literature Found In Elementary Classroom Libraries, Trishell M. Matthews

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to (1) examine the prevalence of diverse populations in the pieces of children’s literature found in three Title I third grade classrooms, and (2) to examine if the diverse populations are authentically and relevantly represented. Researchers have emphasized the impact and importance of children’s literature that represent student’s diverse backgrounds authentically and relevantly, as they have the potential to affect students’ motivations, aspirations, and how they view themselves and the world at large. Particularly, Bishop (1990) suggested that students need books that act as “mirrors” that allow them to see themselves, their experiences, and …

Practices For Professional Learning When Composing Teaching Materials, Jessica Rivera-Mueller

The Utah English Journal

As teachers, we know that reflection is essential for professional learning. However, it can be challenging to find time to engage in reflective experiences that prompt meaningful learning, especially in this historical moment. For many of us, time has become increasingly scarce during the past two years as we have navigated new and uncertain teaching conditions. Like many teachers, I had to spend additional time creating teaching materials and learning experiences for delivery in new and multiple contexts. I spent the early months of the pandemic just keeping up with daily teaching demands-even though I value the activity of reflection. …

Scary Character And Setting Vignettes, Melissa Heaton

The Utah English Journal

Most students know how to write stories, but their stories are often void of description and life. Instead of my students writing whole narratives, I have them focus their mental binoculars by writing snippets of stories that I call Scary Character and Setting Vignettes.

Book Review: Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain In A Digital World, Leah Day

The Utah English Journal

Decades ago, Jeff Goldblum delivered some of the greatest wisdom of our time in his iconic role as Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park. Chastising the myopic man responsible for bringing back dinosaurs, he explains, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, that you didn't stop to think if they should." As our schools race toward 1: 1 student/ device ratios and parents give tablets and smartphones to their kids at younger and younger ages, it's hard to deny that we might be as reckless as those darn dino lovers. Maryanne Wolf is not a doomsdayer or a luddite, …

Book Review: Where I End And You Begin, Michelle Ritter

The Utah English Journal

Ezra Slevin is a typical teenager who has crushing insomnia, an identity crisis, and a crush on Imogen - a girl who barely knows he exists. Wynonna Jones is Imogen's overprotective best friend who has a crush on his best friend, Holden, and who has made it her mission to torment Ezra for as long as he can remember. To ramp up the teenage angst, Ezra has been working up the courage to ask Imogen to prom but can't even seem to talk in her presence.

When Mentor Texts Fail, Build More Bridges, Deborah Dean

The Utah English Journal

I was teaching a writing class and students were writing research-based papers, an expectation of the course and one that met several learning standards. I understood the course expectations, but I wanted to move away from the traditional, school-based "research paper," a genre I disliked reading and students disliked writing, to a genre I was willing to read and one that exists in the real world: TED talks. I thought that if we focused on informational TED talks, we would meet the expectations for the course but also create a more interesting and transferable learning experience for them and-I hoped-one …

Lighting Fires: Inspiring Lifelong Reading, Jessica Ashurst

The Utah English Journal

It's a real problem: to this day, I've loved every single book my English teachers have placed in my hands, falling in love with Ponyboy, cheering on Jonas when he snuck out of The Community, and crying through the pages where Billy lost both Old Dan and Little Ann.

But when I became an English teacher, I mentally braced myself that not all of my students would love reading as I do. The majority of my students consider themselves "non-readers" and they claim that the main culprit of this problem is that they are "required" to read books. I mustered …

The Genre Reading Challenge, Georgina Dibble

The Utah English Journal

When I walked into my own classroom for the first time five years ago, I was met with the stark reality of students with low reading levels, low comprehension, kids who didn't read, didn't like reading, and adamantly believed that they couldn't read. But, fresh out of college, I was also coming armed with the words of Donalyn Miller, Kylene Beers, Kelly Gallagher, and more, ready to transform my students into life-long, independent readers who read just for the pure joy of it. If you're rolling your eyes at my optimism, I don't blame you. But the research surrounding reading …

Discoveries And Decisions Regarding Classroom Library, Amanda Thomas

The Utah English Journal

One of the great benefits of being a classroom teacher-a perk that drew me to the profession-is that my classroom becomes a rare combination of office and second bedroom. Naturally, a teacher wants to keep the decor somewhat relevant to the subject area and avoid anything that might cross boundaries of propriety, but there's a lot of wiggle room to show personal touches, passions, hobbies, and flair.

Fanboys, Pow, & Mount Plot: Mnemonic Devices Used In Teaching Writing, Sarah Anderson, Alexa Bills, Kaitlyn Conlin, Eve Crawford, Natalie Eggli, Jenae Grant, Lilly Hammer, Andrew Isaacson, Kassandra Jimenez, Ryan Mansfield, Brindley Rowley, Samantha Stringham, Meghan Waldenberg, Brady Wallis, Joyce Kinkead

The Utah English Journal

Cicero ( 106-43 BCE) was renowned during his lifetime and influential long after as an extraordinary orator and writer, able to recall long speeches from memory. A technique termed the memory palace, which associates memory with locations-also called method of loci-enabled ancient rhetoricians to deliver stimulating speeches. Retention of information was essential for delivering speeches not just because it was impressive but also due to the paucity of writing materials. Writers and orators relied on wax tablets that could be inscribed with a stylus but could not archive the text; as a result, the information had to be memorized, part …

Musical Notes For Literature, Jake Rees

The Utah English Journal

I try not to say the f-word very often in class, but I can't do anything about my students using it. True, they usually put a qualifier in front of it: "sort of fun," "kind of fun," and (cringe) "lowkey fun."

Here's the activity they're talking about: We start most classes listening to a song (usually just a portion of it--my students and I quickly learned that a repetitive chorus is intolerable for everyone in this context). I project the lyrics on the board, and we talk about what we notice. That's it.

Traveling Through Text: Deepening Student Analysis By Creating Literary Explorers, Jennie Lafortune

The Utah English Journal

As teachers, we all experience the moment of the pause. We do as we're taught and wait for students to collect their insightful answers to our brilliant question and the seconds .. . tick. .. by. Instead of eager hands shooting up, a student dance ensues in unison and undirected: heads slant, hoodies up, eyes down.

How do we as teachers help bridge the gap and provide a map to help students find their ideas and confidence in literary and text analysis? How do we assist students to help themselves take their analysis paralysis to a meaningful understanding or interpretation? …

Book Review: Furia, Katie Romrell

The Utah English Journal

This beautiful story of an Argentinian young woman who desperately wants to play futbol (soccer) pulls no punches in its complex exploration of latent and explicit sexism, abuse, and of breaking the cycle with a tenacity dutifully shown on-and off-the field.

Book Review: Punching The Air, Jennifer Stewart

The Utah English Journal

Through art and music, 16-year-old Amal Shahid tries to break the boxes that he is constantly confined to by his peers, family, and his art teacher, but mostly by a racist system that is always pressing down on him. Eventually, these boxes get progressively smaller and darker as Amal is blamed for his friends' poor behavior and is wrongly convicted. While incarcerated, Amal feels suffocated until he realizes that he can find peace and healing both in his art and his words.

Teach 'Em To Write, Craig Jeppson

The Utah English Journal

One day I observed a teacher ask students to answer a question in writing and hand it in as an exit ticket, something we have all done, right? Here's the thing: the teacher had taught an engaging lesson, but the responses didn't give evidence of that. Instead, they were one or two sentences long, containing information vaguely related to the lesson. That experience prompted me to work up the following model for expository writing. The model isn't revolutionary, mostly what teachers in any content area will recognize.

Book Review: Somewhere Between Bitter And Sweet, Emily Brown

The Utah English Journal

Laekan Zea Lemp's debut novel, Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet, is a story about dreams and fears in a vibrant Latinx community. Penelope Prado dreams of opening her own pasteleria next door to her father's restaurant, Nacho's Tacos, where she currently works. However, her parents have different plans for her life--plans that involve college and leaving their struggling family business behind to find greater opportunities. Now, she not only fears disappointing them but also fears her own weaknesses will keep her from ever realizing her dream. When she reveals a disappointing secret to her parents, Pen is immediately forced to …

Partnering With Your Local Public Library, Amy Banks

The Utah English Journal

School libraries are an excellent resource for English classes, often serving as a central hub for research and literacy. But it is not the only library schools can access: public libraries can also support English classrooms. After teaching English in junior high and high school, as well as teaching adjunct writing classes at Brigham Young University, I shifted into librarian work, where I now design after-school reading, writing, and social programs for teens and adults.

Book Review: Race Against Time, Amanda Burrows

The Utah English Journal

US Supreme Court, 1923. More than 50 years after the ratification of the 14th amendment and the end of the Civil War, the promise of" equal protection of the laws" was under attack. Moore vs Dempsey was the first case where the federal court overturned the ruling of a state court; more significantly, it was the first case to rule in favor of a black defendant. Four years earlier, in Elaine, Arkansas, a meeting of sharecroppers at a local church had been bombarded with gunfire. After a few days of rioting, -five white men and an uncounted number of black …

The Utah English Journal, Volume 50, 2022: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Remixing The Canon: Shakespeare, Popular Culture, And The Undergraduate Editor, Andie Silva

Publications and Research

This essay explores the benefits and challenges of using digital editing as a platform for social knowledge production. First, I discuss the underlying impetus for the project, my choice of Scalar as a digital platform, and a number of specific assignments designed to develop skills toward the final edition. Next, I analyze examples from student work, considering the larger implications of students’ annotation choices and the thematic focus each of them chose for their acts. Finally, I outline some of the potential pitfalls of this course. My aim is to privilege students’ discovery, negotiation, and ownership of ideas. As a …

Gothic Determinism: The Interplay Of Atavism And Hope In "The Old Nurse's Story" And "The Fall Of The House Of Usher", Madison Howland

English Senior Capstone

No abstract provided.

Stories That Bark For Themselves: The Fall Of A Rooster And A Princess From Pride To Repentant Humility As Depicted In The Book Of The Dun Cow And The Light Princess, Ella Harris

English Senior Capstone

Walter Wangerin Jr. and George MacDonald, authors of The Book of the Dun Cow and The Light Princess respectively, created the self-serving characters Chauntecleer the Rooster and the cursed princess. Both characters, ignorant about the subtle strength of those around them and the power of a sacrificial act against encroaching evil, are shown their own insufficiency through the sacrifice of their humble and believed-to-be inconsequential companions. Both companions, Mundo Cani Dog and the prince, willingly sacrifice their lives to conquer the evil powers that threaten lands and to save those whom they love. The actions and behaviors of all four …

"Comic"Ally Calling For Cultural Competency: Using Graphic Narratives To Teach Social Justice In The Writing Classroom, Travis Moody

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

All Scientists Should Write Poetry: Creative Writing As Essential Academic Practice, Mariya Deykute

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Creative writing in undergraduate academics has often been regarded as an elective practice that has benefits primarily for students who plan to pursue creative or literary majors. However, poetic inquiry specifically offers crucial benefits to STEM students, owing both to the transformative nature of poetic process and to the way poetic inquiry can stimulate innovative, ethical, multilingual and interdisciplinary growth. The author frames the issue through individual experience of teaching poetry to STEM undergraduates in the context of a rich multilingual environment, in which many students are fluent or proficient in several languages. The author argues that due to the …

Front Matter - Jaepl Volume 27, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Front Matter

Spring Break In Chernobyl: Urbex, Apocalypse, And Materiality In Writing Classrooms, K Shannon Howard

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The practice of urban exploration, or urbex—an activity in which we confront and document landscapes of ruin and make meaning from them—acts as a focal point through which students may investigate and write about the world surrounding them by gaining new perspectives of physical spaces and objects that often go ignored in daily living. More importantly, urbex inspires writing that responds to existing problems in our world (resource scarcity, lack of sustainability, and environmental trauma) while also helping students to conceptualize a better one.

Toward A Decolonial Creative Writing Workshop: Mbari As A Case Study In Examining Intercultural Models For Arts Education, James W. Ryan, Steve Westbrook

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The creative writing workshop has been the subject of sustained critique for its tendency to reproduce dominant cultural norms, especially in spaces where admissions to the workshop do not reflect local ethnic and cultural diversity. In an effort to aid the search for alternate models/foundations for creative writing instructions, the authors turn to the history of mbari, a cultural practice among the Owerri Igbo of Nigeria, which was briefly adapted into the pedagogical foundation for a visual arts workshop conducted between the time of Nigeria’s independence and the onset of its civil war. In its original form, mbari was a …