Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

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.

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.

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, …

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 …

Probing The Promise Of Dual-Language Books, Lisa M. Domke

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Because dual-language books (DLBs) are written entirely in two languages, they have the potential to help readers develop multilingual literacy skills while acting as cultural and/or linguistic windows and mirrors. However, the ways in which publishers choose words when translating, format languages, and represent cultures have implications for readers in terms of identity, readability, and language learning. This content analysis of 69 U.S. Spanish–English dual-language picturebooks published from 2013–2016 investigated trends in DLBs’ cultural, linguistic, formatting, and readability factors. It also determined these trends’ relationships with publisher types, original publication language, and author and character ethnicity. Findings include that publishers …

The Utah English Journal, Volume 46, 2018: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Poetry In Building Classroom Community, Chris Peck

The Utah English Journal

I stood in front of my class of sophomores, paper in hand, ready to share a poem with them. They had grown used to me sharing poems by that point. At the start of each class, I would stand in front of them and read aloud a poem written by one of many famous poets. However, this day was different. We were starting a new unit—poetry—and I had high expectations for my students. I had toiled with how best to teach poetry to those whose only exposure to poetry consisted of Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, or Shakespeare. There is …

Turning Over A New “Moon” For Twilight, Georgina Dibble

The Utah English Journal

This year Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight is celebrating 13 years, which seems unbelievable to me because I still remember so clearly experiencing the craze that swept over my middle school when it was released. I can remember my 11-year-old baby doll t-shirt wearing, side bangs bobby-pinned back self, reading that first book in 2005. It completely captivated me. And not just me but every girl in my school. Even then I could feel just how cringey some of the melodramatic scenes were to read, there was nothing better than getting to dive into a story with a group of girls and …

Book Review: 180 Days: Two Teachers And The Quest To Engage And Empower Adolescents, Megan Russell

The Utah English Journal

The blank calendar of 180 days, an ominous cavern of white space, stares back up at me, challenging me to fill its space with productive, interesting lessons for an entire year. As with many new teachers, I have experienced some trepidation with planning out an entire year of school, and so as any English graduate would, I turned to the source that has never let me down: literature.

Genres: Moving Toward Authenticity, Deborah Dean

The Utah English Journal

Writing in a new genre can be tricky. When we teach students a new genre, we often begin by exposing them to the genre by reading multiple mentor texts and helping them identify the salient features. This is a practice supported by many current writers in our field today, including Gallagher & Kittle (2018), Dean (2017), and Marchetti & O’Dell (2015), among others. When we teach academic genres (the kinds of writing common in schools such as research papers, literary analysis, and reports), we often provide additional help by providing students with more specific directions or scaffolds, such as forms …

Promoting Secd Through Literary Character Analysis, Cindy D'On Jones

The Utah English Journal

As Ms. Lingli stands before her adolescent English students, she knows they face increasing challenges in today’s society. She is well aware of the growing number of adolescent youths who describe experiencing feelings of isolation, a lack of understanding from others, low self-control, and disengagement (Earl, Meijen, Passfield, & Taylor, 2017). Ms. Lingli also realizes that as an English language arts teacher, she can play a unique role in helping her students develop competencies to navigate these challenges by integrating social and emotional competency development (SECD) through literary character analysis.

Finding The Right Books For The Right Students: An Appeal For Independent Reading Time In The English Classroom, Tara Pearce

The Utah English Journal

During Teacher Appreciation week, students often are coerced into writing notes to teachers. Sometimes it is a well-meaning office staff person that makes it happen, or sometimes, a selfless, fellow teacher, trying to do a good turn for their colleagues. In one particularly stirring note that I received myself, the student wrote only my name, and signed her name. I guess she figured that the template already stated, “Thank you! You are an amazing teacher!!” and that should suffice.

Book Review: Facing Frederick: The Life Of Frederick Douglass, Laura Jackson

The Utah English Journal

You know the students who need a lot of pictures to really spell out a story for them? The struggling reader who needs a book to show not tell? The ones who are inquisitive and need to see things for themselves? The curious yet cautious reader who needs material that excites that curiosity? The ones who want to go down a rabbit hole to learn everything they can about something? The brainiac reader who needs more because they simply cannot learn enough on topics of interest? There are students such as these in every class you’ll teach every year of …

“What’S The Point?”: Creating Authenticity & Relevance Through Simulated Writing Experiences, Dawan Coombs, Jon Balzotti, Derek Hansen

The Utah English Journal

A few years ago, during a high school English course for struggling readers and writers, Brandon, a 16-year old junior in the class, detailed why he felt English class seemed so difficult. He explained, “I don’t really see the point of why I have to take it. I wish they taught me something that I’ll need in my adulthood, you know?” Knowing Brandon’s professional goals included studying business and eventually taking over his father’s local store, the answer to Brandon’s question seemed obvious: the critical reading and argument writing skills he was learning in English were precisely what he would …

Book Review: The Hate U Give, Kara Trammell

The Utah English Journal

The title The Hate U Give, creates the acronym THUG and is loosely based off of an album written by Tupac. The main protagonist relates to Tupac, just as her inner struggle is relatable for teenagers today. While books like To Kill A Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry delve into the racial issues that our nation struggled with in the 1930s and 40s, The Hate U Give would be another great source for high school teachers looking to modernize discussions of race and discrimination.

Strengths And Strategies: Creating An Engaging Ela Classroom, Rachel Bellamy

The Utah English Journal

I found the first classroom I could call my own in a virtual high school. From my experiences floating around every level of education, the one constant I found is that engagement is key in any classroom. I quickly learned that engaging students can be particularly challenging in a virtual classroom, especially in a world where most teaching degrees provide tools for brick and mortar teaching. Over the last five years I have learned many techniques for adapting to a virtual setting. I am also surprised, looking back, that many virtual engagement strategies are equally useful in a traditional classroom …

Book Review: Dare To Disappoint, Jessica L. Reschke

The Utah English Journal

From living amongst government unrest to dreaming of becoming an actress, in Dare to Disappoint Özge Smanci illustrates what it was like to grow up in Turkey. Özge tells her autobiography through the form of a graphic novel, using text and drawings to express how she saw the world at different stages of her life in this coming-of-age story.

Book Review: They Both Die At The End, Courtney Jones

The Utah English Journal

Mateo Torrerez only knows one thing for certain. He is going to die today. Mateo has spent the last eighteen years in fear of this very day, hiding out in his apartment, hoping to avoid the day that Death-Cast, a company able to accurately predict the day you will die, would call. People have tried for years to run, hide, or fight death after the call, but by the end of the twentyfour hours, Death-Cast has always been right. Now that Mateo has received his call he realizes, to his horror, that he has never truly lived.

Book Review: A Novel Approach: Whole-Class Novels, Student-Centered Teaching, And Choice, Tara Piña

The Utah English Journal

Are you team whole-class novel? Or team workshop method? In the seemingly inconclusive battle between the two camps, Kate Roberts’s A Novel Approach: Whole-Class Novels, Student-Centered Teaching, and Choice finally brings the answer: you can be both. Roberts’s book offers a practical guide to implementing a blended learning environment where teachers can harness the community building and guided structure of whole class novels with the choice and engaging freedom of independent reading.

Book Review: You’Re Welcome, Universe, Al Ricci

The Utah English Journal

Gr 9 Up—For Julia, the very complex protagonist of Whitney Gardner’s novel, You’re Welcome, Universe, nothing has ever been straightforward. When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful graffiti mural. Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a oneway ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art. Out in the …

Book Review: Posted, Ethan Dunn

The Utah English Journal

It isn’t a stretch for someone in our modern society to ask: “What kind of power do words have?” With modern technology allowing the mass spread of a variety of opinions, this is a question more important than ever. Posted, written by John David Anderson, is a wonderfully clever book recommended for 8-12 year olds. It dives into the question of how words affect our relationships with one another as well as define our future. Posted depicts the story of Eric, nicknamed “Frost.” After winning a poetry competition, he and his friends wrestle the difficult social sphere of middle …