Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

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.

Winter 2021 Call For Manuscripts, Jenny M. Martin

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Writing Conferences For Effective Instruction, Sarah Myroup

Virginia English Journal

This article presents an argument on behalf of writing conferences to provide individualized and personal instruction to foster the growth of students as writers. Writing conferences are an approach that centers around the students’ thoughts and goals for their written pieces and allows the teacher to more deeply understand and assist each writer. To host writing conferences in the most effective way possible, it is recommended that teachers make feedback to each student personal and specific to the piece, that they ask questions to guide conversation, but also that they allow the conference to be structured around and driven by …

Autism Speaks: Extending Grammar In The Classroom To Students With Autism, Bailey Nixon, Ashley Schweizer

Virginia English Journal

Developing sentence variety and elaboration are important skills for all students, so we wanted to create grammar lessons to help children with autism with these critical skills. After assessing a group of lesson plans found in Amy Benjamin and Joan Berger’s (2014) book, Teaching Grammar: What Really Works, we adapted lesson plans to cater to the needs of students with autism. We used strategies such as modeling, think-alouds, Applied Behavior Analysis, and the Discrete Trial Teaching Method. We created our lesson plan revisions in order to provide teachers with the best resources to create an inclusive environment within their …

Defining "Teacher", Kyle D. Trott

Virginia English Journal

The author takes an etymological look at the term “teacher” to humanize the current post-modern teacher’s quarries as to what their purpose is as a teacher. The author explicates the two terms, didaskalōs and pedagogue, to address the competing ideas of the role of a teacher before asserting that success, or virtue, comes in the form of continued development, paideia, of both the teacher and their students. Concluding that the current teacher doesn’t need to be any kind of teacher other than the one who continues to improve.

Making Reading So “Useful” It Sticks, Sarah Tanner-Anderson

Virginia English Journal

In the English language arts classroom, students must not only understand and appreciate the value of reading, writing, and speaking, but they must also learn, employ, and hone these skills for use as contributing members of their current and future societies. Our task, then, is to make learning so “useful” that it sticks-- to build a strong foundation of literacy that may continue to expand as students’ life experiences provide more depth and relevance to their work. For reading, specifically, we must both encourage and support interest, stamina, and understanding of the texts we explore, which is no small feat …

Let’S Get Graphic: The Integration Of Visual Representations To Demonstrate Learning, Courtneay Kelly

Virginia English Journal

Students derive meaning from knowledge that is presented to them in various ways. An instructor may present information through different modalities, though direct verbal instruction is the mode most often employed (Beesley & Apthorp, 2010). Research indicates that, when information is constructed through the use of visual representations, students gain deeper and more enduring understanding of the content (Jewitt, 2008; Kress, 1997). This article provides an explanation and definition of nonlinguistic and linguistic visual representations, a review of what research indicates in the integration of them, and examples of the inclusion of concept-based visual representations in a college course that …

Helping Freshmen Revise:Collaborative Peer Review Through The Eyes Of Students, Jean S. Filetti

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Sublime Utility Of Poetry, Louis Gallo

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction From The Editor And Vate President-Elect, Jenny M. Martin

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Inequality In Ethnic Representation In Secondary-School Literature Textbooks And National Examination In Vietnam, Anh Nguyen

Honors Projects

This essay studies the dynamic between ethnic minorities and majority in the Vietnamese education system. By examining the appearance and representation of ethnic minorities in national literature curriculum, textbooks, and examinations, the analysis reflects the government's perspectives regarding the “appropriate” portrait of ethnic minorities' heritage and relationship with the majority. The study finds that Vietnamese education framework and content comply with the national construct of a Vietnamese identity across ethnicities. The state determines educational materials and selectively permits only aesthetic, politically benign, and Kinh-like narratives of ethnic minorities’ cultures, many written and/or chosen by Kinh authority rather than the ethnic …

Evaluating Gifted Program Identification Procedures For English Language Learners, Rachael L. Sloan

Honors Projects

Under-identification of English language learners (Ells) in gifted programs is partially a result of identification procedures that do not account for cultural and linguistic differences. This paper explores the literature regarding research into gifted ELL identification and investigates five school districts' identification methods, accommodations for Ells in identification procedures, and avoidance of biases in procedures. Research was conducted through surveys and interviews with gifted and ELL coordinators as well as analysis of data provided by the state's education department. Districts used formal assessments and teacher and parent rating scales. They did not directly accommodate for Ells in identification, but did …