Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Interlude Ii: Imitation Poetry To Write Narratives, Gaylynn Parker

The Utah English Journal

Although I focus on poetry during National Poetry Month in April, I like to intersperse poetry throughout the year. Most of my students think they hate poetry until they have a positive experience writing poetry. Imitation poetry is easy, and with the right prompt, students can write beautiful poetry and feel successful.

Book Review: Disruptive Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Elise Orgille

The Utah English Journal

The ability to read is one of the most valuable skills students gain throughout the course of their education. Teachers work hard to help their students decode words and comprehend meaning, but what is the purpose of comprehension if students do not value what they read? In their book Disruptive Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst bring reading to the next level, reminding teachers and students that reading is a gift.

“Why Does Someone Have To Die At The End Of The Play?": How The Texts We Teach Shape Students’ Perceptions, Amy Piotrowski

The Utah English Journal

A few years ago, a group of students in my 11th grade English class came to some interesting conclusions about American literature. We were finishing the school year by reading A Raisin in the Sun, and the students were enjoying reading the play even though the countdown to summer vacation was well underway. This class was a group of reluctant readers, not interested in doing much reading, especially now that we had completed the state standardized test. One afternoon, when we were halfway through the play, I came into the classroom to start the day’s discussion. Several students were huddled …

To Read Or Not To Read The “Classics”: Teaching Hamlet, Tara Pearce

The Utah English Journal

If you happened to walk by my classroom the day I told my students we were going to be reading a Shakespeare play, you would have witnessed a revolt. Perhaps the word “revolt” seems strong, but their reactions were also unexpectedly strong— swearing, storming out of class, slamming the door, a chair or two being knocked over in the process. They were furious, and frightened, about the prospect of reading Shakespeare. “We can’t understand Shakespeare,” “I don’t even read,” “Miss, Shakespeare is boring,” “This has nothing to do with us!” I heard phrases like these, peppered with profanity of course, …

Speak The Speech, Ditch The Desk: Teaching Shakespeare As Dramatic Text, Shawnda Moss

The Utah English Journal

Shakespeare is a staple in any English Language Arts classroom, but the value of the Shakespeare experience in your classroom has a lot to do with how you go about teaching the material. You have the power to make Shakespeare’s plays a strictly academic literature study or make them come alive as students actively explore and play with his themes, storylines, and characters. Shakespeare’s plays are dramatic works, so it is key to present them to your students as living, breathing, evolving texts. Studying his plays with a dramatic context allows students to relate physically, vocally, and emotionally with the …

Say Yes: Reading Infographics In The English Classroom, Samantha Andrus-Henry

The Utah English Journal

A summer or two ago, I was reading Shonda Rhimes’ (2015) book Year of Yes, while sitting in a waiting room where three teenage girls were discussing a beauty infographic in a popular glamour magazine. The infographic was beautifully composed and engaging at a glance, but as I looked a bit longer, I noticed a few flaws, and wondered what the informal literature circle I saw unfolding beside me thought. So I tuned in more closely to their conversation, and was startled at the deductions and reasoning I heard happening as the girls interpreted the infographic and applied it to …

Professional Development That Honors Teacher Agency, Jon Ostensen

The Utah English Journal

As a new teacher, I remember judging those teachers who came to professional development (PD) meetings with a bad attitude, who often spent the meeting grading papers or immersed in their lesson plan books. Perhaps I was used to sitting in a class and being lectured at (the style of many of the PD seminars I attended in the 1990s), or maybe I was just too inexperienced to question the standard procedure. As time passed and I spent more time in these settings, I started to understand the reactions of those veteran teachers, and my own frustration and resentment grew …

Designing Curriculum The Fair Way, Lorraine Wallace

The Utah English Journal

It was my second year as a teacher, my first year in a new school. In early August, I went to the building and introduced myself to the secretary. She was very pleasant as she escorted me to my new classroom. She opened the door, handed me the key, pointed to the cupboards where books were stored, and told me to let her know if I needed anything. Expecting some type of curriculum guide, I naively asked, “What am I supposed to teach?” “English, of course,” she answered with a laugh that continued as she went down the hall, back …

“Subvertising” As A Means Of Illustrating Transcendentalist Ideals, William Wright

The Utah English Journal

In this article, I discuss the inspiration, rationale, methodology, and subsequent observations of an activity I designed for my secondary American Literature course that asks students to critically juxtapose modern advertisements through the lens of eighteenth-century Transcendental thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Framed as a culminating activity at the end of our study of Transcendentalism, the activity’s intentions are twofold: to lead to a creative critique of the two-faced nature of advertising, and to serve as a bridge between what often seems, to students, like the outmoded writings of eighteenth-century philosophers and our modern cultural context.

Can An Eighth Grader Make An Impact?, Denée Tyler

The Utah English Journal

I see my students constantly composing: texts, notes to each other in class, silly sentences for grammar practice, lists of all varieties. I overhear the amusing and detailed things they tell each other, and I’m excited by their proficiency with words. But when they are asked to write for school, the work they turn in is generally less than stellar. The illusive quality of voice is often missing from their writing, and I often see weak sentence variety, poor or nonexistent paragraphing, and little attention given to reader courtesies such as grammar or spelling. There is a marked difference between …

Interlude I: Poetry In The Middle School Classroom, Gaylynn Parker

The Utah English Journal

It is the end of week two, and I am watching my 7th grade students, new to junior high, struggling to navigate the halls, work their lockers, and organize papers as they go from class to class, teacher to teacher. Overwhelming. I know they will get the hang of it soon, but right now, their burdens hang heavily from their faces.

Interlude Iv: Imitation Poetry As A Celebration!, Gaylynn Parker

The Utah English Journal

It’s the end of the year—we’ve made it through and it’s time to celebrate! Gary Soto’s “Ode to Photographs” is light and silly and fun. To finish off fourth term, our imitation poem celebrates successful completion of 7th grade. I ask students to choose something small that gave them great pleasure and a cause to celebrate.

Interlude Iii: Imitation Poetry To Write Argument, Gaylynn Parker

The Utah English Journal

During third term, we focus on writing argument, so at the end of the term, I have students write what I call an “argument poem.” We imitate Eve Merriam’s “Willow and Ginkgo” poem.

Book Review: Invisible Emmie, Kara Trammell

The Utah English Journal

Awkward, shy, thirteen year-old Emmie wishes nothing more than to be as confident and cool as her alter ego, Katie. As much fun as it would be to have Katie around in real life, Emmie has drawn her out of her own imagination. That is Emmie’s real passion—drawing. Unfortunately for Emmie, she realizes that being a good artist will not help her win friends or fall in with the “cool crowd” at school, and it especially will not catch the attention of the boy she has a crush on, either.

Book Review: The Lady Of The Lakes, Shannon Taylor

The Utah English Journal

Falling in love can be a tumultuous experience, what with utter elation in one moment and crushing insecurity in the next. In Josi Kilpack’s novel The Lady of the Lakes, the young Sir Walter Scott experiences this tumult of falling in love not once but twice, discovering that finding true love does not always happen as one would hope or expect. When Walter first sees Mina Stuart, a young heiress, he is immediately enthralled and devotes his heart to her entirely, writing to her for years and preparing for the day when he can ask for her hand in …

Book Review: The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life, Maddison Driggs

The Utah English Journal

For Sal, the protagonist of Benjamin Saenz’s novel, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, nothing has ever been simple. Raised by his gay adoptive father, with the support of extended family and friends, the beginning of his senior year proves to be unusually challenging for Sal. A generally calm and collected boy, Sal finds that violent tendencies have begun arising in his life. Punch after punch, these violent encounters lead Sal to question who his biological father was — and more importantly, who he is himself.

Book Review: Under Locker And Key, Ethan Dunn

The Utah English Journal

Does the end justify the means? Is breaking the rules acceptable if it means helping those who cannot defend themselves? These moral questions appear more commonly in adult literature. However, Allison K. Hymas addresses these issues, along with many others, in her debut novel for young adults, Under Locker and Key.

Using Literature To Combat Bullying And Suicide, Laura Giles

The Utah English Journal

Every day in Utah, two youth are treated for suicide attempts. On average, 37 youth die from suicide each year in the state. Additionally, 942 others are injured in suicide attempts each year. In 2013, suicide surpassed unintentional injuries to become the leading cause of death in Utah among youth ages 10 through 17 (Utah Department of Health, 2014).

Integration Of English And Social Studies, Craig Jeppson, Kasie Payne

The Utah English Journal

One day while eating lunch in the faculty lounge, Kasie commented on a lesson that her students had learned in Craig’s class. As we started to compare notes, it occurred to us that we shared a lot of students. Over the course of that year, we continued to share thoughts, lessons, war stories and even engaged in a little competitive banter. What became increasingly clear was that our classes complemented each other. Craig could guide students to answer content-related geography questions such as: “How can countries grow economically and sustainably?”, “Why do people fight?”, and “How does the physical environment …

Colorful Conversations, Denee D. Tyler

The Utah English Journal

When the Common Core was adopted, it quickly became evident that the ELA sections are pretty heavily packed. Many English teachers feel overwhelmed at the sheer volume of standards we are expected to cover. Teaching young readers and writers requires a significant investment of class time, and as a result, many of us end up using class discussions as the sole assessment for the Speaking and Listening standards.

An Introduction To Teaching Transitions, Amy Banks

The Utah English Journal

Transitions can be a challenge for writers at any stage. For example, I once explained to an eighth grade class my observations on a sample piece of writing. I praised their strengths, and then explained a consistent problem throughout the classes: the use of “in conclusion” for their restatement of their main claim. I teased them with no shame, and they giggled and admitted to classmates that it was the only option that came into their minds. One brilliant student then shouted out, “What if we wrote the worst argument main claim ever, starting with ‘In conclusion?’” So, we wrote …

Book Review: Highly Illogical Behavior, Jaden Anderson

The Utah English Journal

Growing up and finding your place in the world can be difficult, but having family and friends to cheer you on helps. Building relationships and remaining loyal is a prevalent theme in John Corey Whaley’s Highly Illogical Behavior. Written in the perspective of teenagers Solomon Reed and Lisa Praytor, they help each other live in the “real world,” while their perception of reality is challenged.

Our Classroom Journey Of Changing Our 7th Grade View Of The World, Gaylynn Parker

The Utah English Journal

How do I feel when I am treated unfairly? This essential question in my 7th grade Honors Language Arts class is usually met with comments such as, “My parents won’t let me get a cell phone” or “I’m tired of babysitting my siblings for free every weekend.” This year it was different. Pairing informational text with current events and literature changed the way my students saw themselves and the world, creating an awareness that elevated their perspectives from superficiality to depth as they examined the world through new eyes.

Making The "Moves" More "Modal", Thomas Henry

The Utah English Journal

We live in a multimodal world. Almost every piece of information that we receive on computers and mobile devices is multimodal. For those new to this term, multimodality refers to multiple modes of communication: the textual, the visual, the written, the aural/oral, and the gestural (Kress, 2000). Although seemingly appearing in isolation, these modalities are often expressed in pairs simultaneously. For instance, pictures may include text, videos often include audio, and even speakers and actors use gestures in their performances. In everyday online communication via Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter, we convey and respond to both textual and visual information working …

Book Review: Dark Energy, Marina Gutierrez

The Utah English Journal

“This story isn’t about dark energy, except to say there is a ton of stuff in the universe that we don’t understand” (Wells, 2016, p. 2).

With a touch of blue racing through her hair as she drives her BMW 550i Gran Turismo, Alice Goodwin was doing just fine in Florida. That is until her dad whisks her 2,000 miles away to the Minnetonka School for the Gifted and Talented in Minnesota. After stocking up on sweaters, she settles in at her new school while her father, director of special projects at NASA, investigates the crash landing of an alien …

Book Review: All Better Now, Mindee S. Ricks

The Utah English Journal

A modern memoir following a misfit girl from kindergarten to college, All Better Now is equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful. The author and protagonist, Emily Wing Smith, struggles for years to fit in with other kids—she is everything except “normal.”

Book Review: The Hidden Oracle, Tessa Hauglid

The Utah English Journal

“Is anything sadder than the sound of a god hitting a pile of garbage bags?” So questions the (former) god, Apollo, after Zeus turns him into a pimply 16-year-old boy, jettisoning him into a New York City dumpster. Apollo quickly realizes he has lost the very attributes that make him a god: immortality, beauty, and strength. The only divine gifts he seems to have retained are his expansive ego and his wit.

Book Review: Summerlost, Amanda Shrum

The Utah English Journal

Cedar Lee’s life is ripped apart when she loses her father, and brother, Ben, in a car accident. Instead of coming to terms with her loss, twelve-year-old Cedar tries to distract herself by immersing herself in the charming world of the Summerlost Festival, a theater that performs the works of William Shakespeare. However, working at the festival has the opposite effect and causes Cedar to face her fears and the reality of her loved ones’ deaths. In her first middle grade novel, Summerlost, Ally Condie sets a moving and sincere story of grief and acceptance against a setting that is …

Reading With Your Ears, Amber Bird

The Utah English Journal

As the weight and the stress of the semester ended, I closed my British and American anthologies and put them back on the bookcase. With finals completed and assignments submitted, I had finished one of my most difficult semesters. I was anticipating a break. My solace came to me in the form of a well-used and well-read paperback young adult novel: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. After weeks and weeks of intense reading for other classes, having the opportunity to read this book was pure magic. As I mentally wandered through the hallways of Hogwarts reading about Harry, Ron, …

Inspiring Students To Value Reading, Ann C. Sharp, Lorilynn Brandt, Douglas S. Gardner

The Utah English Journal

Have you ever seen a struggling reader rally his friends to buy the same book at a school book fair, and then spearhead a series of literacy circle activities during recess time? Uncommon at best, right? Recently, one fourth grade teacher in Utah County while implementing reading motivational principles in her classroom reported just such an incident. In her words: “I have a group of boys in my class and one of them is a[n] extremely low reader and I don’t know if he has ever tried reading a chapter book or anything like that, and they made their own …