English Language and Literature Commons^™

Choosing Advocacy

Occasional Paper Series

Two articles comprise this publication. In "Beyond the Story-Book Ending: Literature for Young Children About Parental Estrangement and Loss," Megan Matt analyzes over 30 books for young children on the topics of abandonment, estrangement, divorce, and foster care. She observes that this loss might appear as an event within the story or as a fear articulated by a young child. She states that, as an educator, she hopes that she can make the children realize that their own stories are "real" and legitimate, no matter what messages they might encounter or fail to encounter in the media. In "Walking the …

Writing On Demand In College, Career, And Community Writing: Preparing Students To Participate In The Pop-Up Parlor, Kelly J. Sassi, Hannah Stevens

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

The Writing on Demand Unit is an important part of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program. In this article, we review the literature on C3WP; contextualize the writing on demand unit in relation to the other instructional resources in C3WP; explore five big ideas about writing on demand; and describe an approach to teaching this unit that includes some preliminary results of teaching this unit in a rural, Native American high school. The five big ideas that inform its use are the following: 1) emotions matter, 2) everyone does it, so provide reasons for writing on demand, 3) time …

Data Diving Into “Noticing Poetry”: An Analysis Of Student Engagement With The “I Notice” Method, Scot Slaby, Jordan Benedict

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This paper explores students’ engagement in reading poems, examining data on their self perceptions of their confidence and competence in reading poems before, during, and after using the “I Notice” methodology as adapted from The Academy of American Poets’ unit plan, “Noticing Poetry” (Slaby, 2017). The data was collected over the course of a month from January 9 through January 30, 2018 and involved five classes of one hundred general English tenth grade students across three teachers’ classrooms at Shanghai American School’s Puxi High School Campus. Data indicates that the “I Notice” method and the “Noticing Poetry” unit and its …

Scipp: An Expanded Community Of Practice - Community Publishing, Juan Delgado, Kelly (Kl) Straight Dortch, Daiana Rodriguez, Alex Avila, William Beshears, Juliana Cruz, Gina Hanson, Frank Houlihan, Lacey Kendall, Larry Light, Cati Porter, Molly Tor, Timothy "Isaac" Pieper, Bianka Sanchez, Sara Trowbridge, Daniel Aguilar, Bernardo Benigno, Arely Bernal, Alejandra Bueno, Emily Campos, Jason Cannon, Griselda Caudillo Gallo, Joshua Clemente, Sarah Coblentz, Diana D'Arcangelo, Georgia Darwin, Mary Grace Deasis, Kaylan Els, Keith Fernandez, Maria Flores, Khiyara Frontela, Anthony Galvan, Monica Galvez, Martin Garcia, Jessica Godin, Freda Guzman, Madison Hall, Diana Huitron Munoz, Jennifer Ledesma, Maria Lias Chacon, Rebekah Linares, Prisma Loya, Elijah Magana, Alberto Mancillas, Lorinda Maya, Jennifer Pimentel, Nancy Ramirez, Angelica Rodriguez, Alexis Ruvalcaba, Sandra Sandoval De Rosas, Emily Stoddard, Andrea Tinajero, Lesly Velez Montenegro, Saulo Velez Montenegro, Matthew Vigil, Sergio Zamora, Marylou Alvarez, Roxanna Cervantes, Tenaya Fuentes, Wendy Moreno, David Valenzuela, Philip Colunga, Augustine "Auggie" Fuentes, Nadia Fuentes, Olive Fuentes, Sophia Fuentes, Miraya Martinez, Diego Mercado, Iker Valenzuela, Roma Valenzuela

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

SCIPP redefines and expands the existing notions about what makes for a vibrant and robust community of practice by partnering CSUSB students and professors with K-12 students, parents, and educators, along with committed community partners. SCIPP encourages curiosity in ways that leads to critical thinking, exploration, "risk taking", confidence building, open-mindedness, and other personal traits that equip them with the softskills to be active, critical, and creative contributors to our communities. SCIPP pedagogy embraces our students' collective wisdom and focuses on relational building where multi-directional communication is promoted and students are viewed as equal stakeholders in their own educations. SCIPP …

La Maraca Perdida, Holly Beber

Open Access Books

La maraca perdida was written and illustrated in 2019 by Holly Beber. The original text was edited and translated by Mackensy Asbell and Madeline Strelec. New, original illustrations were created by Rina Sato.

Flipping The Jane Austen Classroom, Lynda A. Hall

English Faculty Articles and Research

The contemporary Austen classroom might appreciate cultural and racial diversity, examine popular culture’s distortions of the original texts, and consider multimodal ways of reading. This paper reflects on a course that “flipped” the research process in order to “find” Austen and her works in the popular culture and to evaluate our understanding in the twenty-first century. Students discovered the commodification and distortion of “Jane Austen” and conducted research for creative projects to learn more about the social, cultural, and historical contexts of the written texts.

Building Dialogue From The Ground Up: Framing Classroom Discussions, Dawan Coombs

The Utah English Journal

Recently a builder friend and I wandered through a house under construction in a nearby neighborhood. As I looked at the cement pad, I confess that I could not envision how what I saw in front of me could become an inhabitable structure. Seeing just wooden beams and supports separating one room from the next, I had a hard time making sense of what was going to be. Shrugging my shoulders, I sighed and asked, "Call me when you've put up the walls?"

Book Review: Ink Knows No Borders: Poems Of The Immigrant And Refugee Experience, Kaelin Stanley

The Utah English Journal

At a time when terms such as immigrant and refugee are seen daily in the news and media, the collection of poems found in Ink Knows No Borders is not only refreshing but strikingly relevant to society today. The 64 talented poets whose experiences are beautifully shared in the book provide a unique insider view of the heartache, growing pains, and unconquerable spirit of first- and second-generation immigrants and refugees.

Book Review: What If It's Us, Zach Searle

The Utah English Journal

Ben and Arthur, the co-protagonists of Albertalli and Silvera's first collaborative novel, are brought together by the universe--depending on who you ask. Arthur is in New York City for a summer internship with his mother's law firm, and he firmly believes the universe has a plan for him when he runs into Ben at the post office. Ben is only at the post office to mail off his ex-boyfriend's break-up box, and he is convinced that the universe is out to get him. However, after their chance encounter, Ben and Arthur aren't so sure about what the universe wants. If …

The Utah English Journal, Volume 47, 2019: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Weaving A Workshop Into Your Writing Instruction, Jacob Rees

The Utah English Journal

Why workshops? When we put students together in groups to discuss their writing, we dramatically expand their audience and increase the opportunities for students to write without increasing our grading load. More importantly, we shift the responsibility back to the students to identify what makes writing work. As it is in our own writing process, the ability to assess always precedes our ability to revise. Always.

Poetically Composed, Educationally Imposed: Exploring Imagination And Poetics In Curriculum—A Memoir, Whitney J. Presnal

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Through the use of memoir, my work centers on how poetry is situated within public education curriculum. I explore the curricular context of poetry through the lenses of my lived experiences in early childhood, as a K-12 student, and as an early career classroom teacher. My dissertation draws upon a wide array of literature, honing in on the poetic perspectives of philosophers (Aristotle, 1996; Heidegger, 1947 & 1971/2013; Plato, 1955/2007), poets (Hall, 2003; Eliot, 1920 & 2009), and curriculum theorists (Leggo, 1997 & 2018; Pinar, 1994; Sameshima, 2007). The foundation of my work is drawn from my own circular experiences, …

Writing Beyond The Walls: Five Questions To Promote Authentic Writing Experience In The Classroom, Christine C. Thompson

The Utah English Journal

In the fall of 2018, I established the writing objectives in my eighth grade classroom with student and teacher sanity in mind. Heading into my twelfth year of teaching, I was tired of reading predictable, formulaic paragraphs that all but screamed, "This is my topic sentence. Here are my ideas and supporting evidence. And now, let me conclude by restating my topic sentence." Sure, this type of writing is easy to assess; even a computer can grade this structure with moderate accuracy, but there are so many problems with it-problems that generate impersonal pieces lacking in passion, creativity, and risk-taking. …

Scandal, Pop Culture, And Crime In The Classroom: Using Documentaries To Teach Twenty-First-Century Literacy Skills, Johanna Chausow

The Utah English Journal

When two new documentaries appeared on my "Recommended For You" list this past year, I had an epiphany that has enriched my teaching. Fyre Fraud (2019) is a film made for Hulu by Lana Barkin and Julia Nason, while Fyre (2019) was made for Netflix by Chris Smith and Danny Gabai. Both films address the failed music festival in the Bahamas that was heavily promoted by Instagram influencers. The films cover the same topic but present drastically different interpretations of the events leading up to the disaster. While I could never show these documentaries in their entirety to my students …

Juggling The Curriculum: Integrating Vocabulary Into The Rhythms And Routines Of Our Classrooms, Rachel Knecht

The Utah English Journal

At the end of my third year of teaching, I finally felt like I was successfully juggling the many moving parts of an English curriculum. Literature units focused on an essential question? Check! Daily routines including Writer's Notebooks and independent reading? Check, check! Writing units using mentor texts, authentic audiences, and grammar in context? Check, check, and check! And, through all of these practices, I believed I was on my way to creating a student-centered classroom where students' voices, backgrounds, and skills were valued.

I had this English teacher thing down! Or at least I thought I did. There was …

Using Chronotypes In Literature To Enhance Student Perspectives, Heather Fitzgerald Jorgensen

The Utah English Journal

"How do I draw a picture of democracy?" a seventh grader asked. "I know it's a noun."

"That's a good question," I said, stalling for time. It was my first year teaching at a school in the intermountain west, where seventh graders had grammar instruction every Tuesday.

"Why don't you try drawing a symbol of democracy?" I asked. "Like the American flag or Lady Liberty."

"That works," the student said.

Bending Back To Move Forward: Scaffolding Reflection To Develop Student Authors, Liz Thackeray Nelson

The Utah English Journal

When I was teaching high school language arts courses, I used a four-corners activity at the beginning of every year in order to get a quick glimpse of my students' attitudes toward writing. Each corner of the classroom represented a point on a Likert scale: strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, and strongly disagree. I read statements about writing ( such as "I avoid writing whenever possible" or "I like writing my ideas down") and then students moved to the corner that best matched their view. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the majority of students stayed in the …

Book Review: Being The Change, Whitney Hansen

The Utah English Journal

In Being the Change, Sara Ahmed pleads with teachers to seek out and encourage difficult conversations in their classrooms. She acknowledges the fears many teachers associate with bringing up political debates and current events to their students but contends that these conversations are vital for our students. Through classroom conversations and personal stories, she lays out the current political situation that our students are facing. With this tumultuous setting, she pleads that we must teach our students how to talk to one another and, more importantly, how to disagree with one another. Through these disagreements, Ahmed asserts that students …

Book Review: Shout, Kara Trammell

The Utah English Journal

Laurie Halse Anderson's latest book Shout

is "the true story of a survivor who

refused

to be silent."

Book Review: Illegal, Lisa Jones

The Utah English Journal

Ebo's sister has already fled Ghana for a better life in Europe, and now his brother Kwame has disappeared on the same quest to help his family. As much as Ebo appreciates these efforts, he refuses to be left behind once again-especially as Ebo and his siblings are orphaned. Thus, Illegal shows the dangerous journey of a refugee to find his brother and eventually make it to Europe. Told in the form of a beautiful graphic novel, Ebo must cross the brutal Sahara Desert to the dangerous city of Tripoli and eventually travel across the ocean. In each situation, Ebo …

Book Review: The 57 Bus: A True Story Of Two Teenagers And The Crime That Changes Their Lives, Albert Ricci

The Utah English Journal

Dashka Slater pulls her information from various sources-"interviews, documents, letters, videos, diaries, social media posts, and public records" -to craft her nonfiction account of two teenagers whose lives collide one innocent day on November 4, 2013, on the 57 bus. "If it weren't for the 57 bus, Richard and Sasha would never have met. Although they live in the same city, Oakland, they are from radically different worlds. But one single reckless act changes both of their lives forever." Sasha is a senior at Maybeck High School, they love Russian literature, live-action role-playing, the color purple, and skirts: they are …

Book Review: Circe, Tara Pina

The Utah English Journal

The story of Odysseus and his adventures home to Ithaca is familiar one: one that is taught and read in many classrooms, and one that is adapted and borrowed from often. However, Circe by Madeline Miller does not simply retell this familiar story, instead she shifts the well-known tale to focus on the minor goddess Circe. Miller gives a glimpse into Circe's life that is so moving it will change how you look at the story of Odysseus and surely how you approach it with students.

Book Review: Internment, Leah Smith

The Utah English Journal

Internment by Samira Ahmed is an excellent example of realistic fiction that helps students really engage with their political, social, and personal beliefs. Those who find themselves in a minority group will relate well to the themes and characters, and those who are more privileged will find their eyes opened.

Book Review: Pitch Dark, Madison Sheldrake

The Utah English Journal

Pitch Dark is a futuristic story of adventure and survival, set in motion after humanity deems Earth to be uninhabitable and takes to the stars to save both themselves and their future. The book takes place in space, showing events on two spacecrafts that come together in an effort to learn from the past as the characters look to secure their future. However, unbeknownst to most of the crew members, a secret terrorist plot is underway to undermine humanity's last chance to colonize Mars.

Promoting English Fluency Through Peer Feedback And Dialogue Journals In An Esl College Classroom, Sarah L. Stone

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study investigated research methodologies which were proven to be successful in promoting English fluency among ESL students in the college level classroom. The history of second language learning was tied to popular teaching practices, such as journal writing, dialogue journals, peer feedback, and teacher feedback. Due to a lack of cohesion between the above methods and a rising gap in related literature, an experiment was formed to determine whether dialogue journals could be combined with peer feedback to facilitate an accelerated comprehension of English as an L2 language. Over a three-month period, 19 ESL students at Gavilan College were …

Book Review: You Go First, Laura Jackson

The Utah English Journal

You know it's going to be a fun story when Scrabble letter tiles are on the cover. Tying in a modern phone app version with the elusive charm of the board game, friends are connected. The protagonist struggles to find connection with her parents and friends while providing a positive yet true to life model of how to navigate the struggle. You Go First is a lighter read that has the potential to reach middle school aged students or even a funny reflection for high school students who would benefit from a less difficult level of reading.

Using "Chunks" Of Academic Language, Thomas Henry, Jim Pettersson

The Utah English Journal

Graff and Birkenstein (2018) provide great insights into producing quality academic prose. Likewise, they demystify the textual practices of academic writers by asking students to use (or borrow) patterns of academic language. When examining the patterns found within dozens of academic abstracts/summaries, the following patterns emerged. These "templates" (as we call them) or "chunks" (the term provided by students) may help to guide students to create more academic-style prose; likewise, these sorts of patterns may help students in the practice of writing more complex prose (see Figure 1: The Language of Abstracts).

Beyond Posters And Powerpoints: A Case For Authentic Multimodal Writing In The 21st-Century Ela Classroom, Amber Jensen

The Utah English Journal

When I graduated from high school in 2001, my classmates and I were delighted to be the first graduates of a new century. Ushering in the twenty-first century evoked glittering promises of new and faster technologies, networked global communication, and a wide array of professional possibilities. When I entered my first classroom as a high school English teacher in 2004, however, I noticed that not much about the classroom or the curriculum had changed: I taught many of the same classic novels I had read in high school, I assigned the same kinds of writing tasks I had written as …

Not Just A Princess: Using Cinderella To Teach Adolescents About Power, Rylee Carling

The Utah English Journal

The immortal words "once upon a time" have been ingrained in our society's collective memory, at times to the irritation of those who feel they've outgrown the childish stories that begin with this seemingly trite phrase. However, bringing fairy tales and their legion YA novelizations into the classroom can help adolescent students understand constructs of power while offering a familiar story in which to explore those mature themes.

Autobiographical Multigenre Project, Cindy D'On Jones

The Utah English Journal

This Autobiographical Multigenre Project is designed to incorporate several motivational supports for adolescent students, including promoting development of identify as a reader, a writer, and a user of literacy.

This project also serves as an instructional scaffold for future multigenre projects. Each student is an "expert" on the topic of self This allows students to learn the process of a creating a multigenre project while minimizing the cognitive load of investigation required for multigenre projects about less-familiar topics.