Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Book Reviews: From The Editor, Justin Scholes

The Utah English Journal

What a wonderful time to be an English Language Arts teacher! There has never been a time with such a flourishing offering of young adult literature as well as digital and multimodal texts!

Thank You, James, Leah Parks

The Utah English Journal

Brightest, kindest

Wise beyond your years

Knowledge of content and people

Potential

Book Review: Alebrijes, Shauna Christensen

The Utah English Journal

400 years into the post-apocalyptic future, 13 year-old orphan Leandro and his younger sister, Gabi, struggle to survive in a barren San Joaquin Valley. Like the other Spanish-speaking lower class field workers, they are forced to farm vegetables for the elite ruling class, or risk exile or death in the harsh desert, a barren wasteland filled with terrifying man-eating wyrms. Leandro’s plan to escape with Gabi is thrown into disarray when Gabi is caught stealing a single strawberry in the market. Leandro takes the blame and is sentenced to banishment, or he can choose to have his consciousness transferred to …

Book Review: Good Different, Jan Jenson

The Utah English Journal

Good Different is a beautiful and poignant free verse by neurodivergent author, Meg Eden Kuatt, and is beloved by all students, but especially by students with neurodiversity.

A Cohort Of The Willing: How Secondary Schools Might Face The Literacy Crisis, Michelle A. Barney

The Utah English Journal

Experts like Louisa Moats and anyone who has recently completed LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training, know that 95% of children can be taught to read (Louisa Moats, 2023). As a secondary educator, it’s tempting to see this statistic and ignore it. Surely, this must be someone else’s problem. In fact, if all goes according to plan in the world of elementary education, students become proficient at foundational reading skills before fourth grade, especially if one considers Kilpatrick’s work which establishes this benchmark for the development of advanced phonological awareness skills (Kilpatrick, 2015, p. …

Helping Students Learn What They Already Know: Uncovering The Magic Of Analyzing Author’S Craft, Joseph Wiederhold

The Utah English Journal

In my first-year teaching, I put a sentence on the board from Megan McDonald’s picture book My House Has Stars: “I hear the water lapping the sides of our boat, lapping the sides, lapping the sides” (McDonald, 1996, p. 2). It’s an exciting sentence. I was sure that students would have plenty to say about how it was crafted.

The Silent Stakeholders In Censorship: Insights In Letting Young Adults Join The Censorship Conversation, Mercedes Medel

The Utah English Journal

I grew up enjoying Judy Blume’s books: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Blubber, and many more. There was not much conversation in my community or at home about what books or authors should be read; instead, I was given free range to explore libraries and choose what I was interested in, what I was needing, throughout my adolescence. It wasn’t until I was sitting in Chris Crowe’s Studies in Young Adult Literature class this past spring that I discovered, to my surprise, that Judy Blume was at the center of many controversies throughout her career. …

Getting Teens To Read: Date A Book, Joëlle Beard

The Utah English Journal

“I hate reading!” “I will never read a book again after graduation; why do I have to read in your class?” “Reading is so boring; there aren’t any good books!” If you are a secondary English teacher, comments like this are nothing new. So many of our students do not enjoy reading and do not see the value of reading a book. Part of this is due to the curriculum push to read novel excerpts rather than full novels, or sometimes eliminate fictional texts altogether and read solely informational texts. The feeling of not wanting to read a book or …

Writing Prompts In The Healing-Centered Classroom, Elizabeth Hancock

The Utah English Journal

As I began the 2013-14 school year, I encountered students with a full range of life experiences. My students’ lives ran the gamut from having the 1950s version of traditional middle- class families to being part of the Utah foster care system. Their challenges included depression over not making the school dance team, dyslexia or other learning disabilities, and responding to trauma with self-harm by using a heated curling iron. I wondered what I could do to help struggling students make it through the minefields in their lives, and remembered the character of Ponyboy, who writes about his friends’ traumatic …

Voice And Reflection: Innovating Peer Review With Think-Aloud Group Discussions, Marissa Palmer

The Utah English Journal

“Ok guys, get out your Chromebooks and pull up your rough drafts. Today we are peer reviewing!”

As the students start getting things ready, there are a few groans from around the room and a few panicked “what if I’m not done yet?”s. The beginning of every peer review day starts the same: help kids get their essays properly formatted, demonstrate how to put their document in suggesting mode, and go over the protocols for the day.

Book Review: Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story, Amanda Thomas

The Utah English Journal

Sarah is a little girl with a vibrant inner life and explosive energy and creativity. From her first realization that The Little Mermaid was made by teams of artists drawing thousands of illustrations, she sees life and power in her art. Sarah relies on that power as she navigates the confusing and sometimes harsh realities of being one of few non-white kids growing up in her small Maryland town. Adopted from Korea as an infant, Sarah struggles to understand how she is different from the other kids and even from her older adopted sister, Liz (also from Korea). Every time …

From The Editors: Turning Pages, Turning Hearts, Mandy Luszeck, Jon Ostenson, Rachel Knecht

The Utah English Journal

When my students complete reflections on their readings, my favorite responses usually say something along the lines of, “I never saw it that way before, but now I do.” As English Language Arts teachers, we are well aware that literature is more than mere stagnant text, rather it is dynamic. It is transformative. Perspectives, experiences, ways of being that might otherwise be shielded from our students are illuminated in the stories they read, allowing them in turn to see and understand the world around them in a new light. According to Steven Wolk (2009), “As educators, we need to help …

Seasons, Emily Feveryear

The Utah English Journal

Fall:

The falling leaves

Bring a familiar crunch and

A familiar warmth.

This time I am ready.

Flames, Lorena Lesué

The Utah English Journal

She had worked herself thin,

hunched over a keyboard or the students’ desks

for fifty hours a week.

By year nineteen,

the muscles atop her shoulders

bookended her neck

like turtle shells.

Book Review: There Goes The Neighborhood, Feliciana Lopez-Goodman

The Utah English Journal

Rhea’s motives seem simple—save her best friend from eviction and stop the neighborhood from falling apart. As is true for all complex characters, there is more to Rhea, Zeke, and Malachi as they create a fake gang in their South LA neighborhood of Kofa Park. In Jade Adia’s debut novel There Goes the Neighborhood, gentrification is front and center as three teenagers take on the responsibility of saving their neighborhood and their chosen family.

Minoritized Students’ Internship Experiences In World Languages: A Call For Research, Mathias Guerreiro-Aires, Paula Garrett-Rucks

Dimensions

Higher education has undergone important shifts over the past two decades, with U.S. universities placing more emphasis on career readiness and internships becoming an integral part of academia (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2021). Moreover, the student population in U.S. universities has become more diverse (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2023), which has drawn more attention to issues of equity and access to career readiness initiatives such as internships (Greenman et al., 2022). Disparities exist for students from historically marginalized racial and ethnic communities, such as Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx students, from their White peers not only …

Functional Grammar And Artificial Intelligence: A Vision For Enhancing The Teaching Of Arabic In Universities For Non-Specialists, Dr. Fathi Ahmed Alshormani

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Papers | بحوث هيئة التدريس المحكمة

No abstract provided.

Kendrick Lamar Brings New Literature To The Ela Classroom, Chris A. Peck

The Utah English Journal

Until April of 2017 I was only mildly aware of Kendrick Lamar. I had listened to and enjoyed songs like “Alright” and “Swimming Pools” but had little experience past these songs. After his album D.A.M.N. came out, I began to see several posts regarding the importance of this album, many responses by professors and teachers I knew well and trusted.

Co-Creating A Community Of Learners Through Interactive Read-Alouds Of Expository Texts, Kari Allsup

The Utah English Journal

I am reading aloud Zombie Makers: True Stories of Nature’s Undead (Johnson, 2013) to a group of 7th grade students. The text describes the larva stage where a young jewel wasp feasts on the cockroach’s insides. As I read, there are scattered exclamations of “ewwww,” “sick,” and audible gasps. I stop reading to dig into these reactions.

Sentence Detective: Investigating Sentence Structure To Support Reading Comprehension, Rachel Knecht

The Utah English Journal

Jacob was honest about his usual reading strategies. Like Jacob, readers with a history of reading difficulties may deal with challenging, long, or unfamiliar sentences by skipping or stumbling over them (Nomvete & Easterbrooks, 2020; Vaughn et al., 2022). But, Jacob offered another strategy— Sentence Detective. Over the past six weeks, Jacob had learned how to use Sentence Detective, a strategy for breaking sentences down into meaningful, more manageable parts. Although skipping or skimming may have been his go-to strategy for sentence-level comprehension, he now had another tool to try out.

Secondary Stage Students' Perceptions Regarding (Myschool) Learning Management System's Role In Learning English, Huda Ali Sallam

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This study set out to explore students' opinions and self-efficacy level in relation to the use of MySchool learning management system. The study has added focus on its usefulness in facilitating English language learning. The study sample involved 420 female secondary stage students within one educational district in Riyadh. The study instrument is a 24-item closed-ended questionnaire which was distributed using a Microsoft Forms link. The items of the questionnaire were divided into four main elements: perceived practicality, perceived usefulness, general satisfaction, and sense of self-efficacy. The obtained data was subsequently analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24 …

Incorporating Extensive Reading Into The Foreign Language Curriculum, Jane E. Hardy, Victoria Rodrigo

Dimensions

Extensive reading is an approach to language learning that encourages learners to read a large quantity of easy reading material. A substantial body of research confirms the effectiveness of this approach for developing proficiency in both first (L1) and second (L2) languages. This paper explains what extensive reading is, why it is important, and how it can be incorporated as part of a language curriculum. The paper also provides a review of research on the effectiveness of extensive reading in several different languages and recommends many extensive reading resources, including open access materials, to facilitate the implementation of extensive reading …

Demonstrating A Free Listing Data Collection Approach To Cultural Instruction, Gregory De La Piedra

Dimensions

Free listing tasks are a common data collection method used by cultural anthropologists, language historians and linguists (Nolan, 2002; Ryan et al., 2000; Weller & Romney, 1988; Wolfram & Schillings-Estes, 1998). These tasks are interviews in which a researcher asks groups of respondents to list words or expressions that come to mind for a given cultural topic. This study focused on a free listing task collected from working class Mexicans about fiestas y celebraciones [parties and celebrations]. Although this topic is routinely included in second language (L2) teaching materials, common terms or slang used by Spanish speaking populations that U.S. …

Resources And Approaches For Integrating High-Leverage Teaching Practices: A Content Analysis, Sara Ahnell

Dimensions

Implementing high-leverage teaching practices (HLTPs) for language learning can help ensure teachers create and deliver a high-quality curriculum, especially when working with Novice learners who require more scaffolded instruction. This study aimed to fill a gap by identifying print resources and approaches available to support world language teachers’ integration of HLTPs into instructional design for Novice learners in middle and high school classrooms (grades 6-12). In the Fall of 2022, various resources were analyzed according to their use in assisting teachers with integrating HLTPs, state standards, and current second language acquisition (SLA) research into instructional design. These resources included several …

Why World Language Teachers Stay: Teacher Retention In West Virginia, Challenges And Opportunities, Laura Guglani, Tori Gastón

Dimensions

The present study investigates World Language (WL) teacher retention and the challenges and opportunities of teaching a WL in a rural state. Data came from ethnographic interviews conducted with 10 participants, current Spanish teachers teaching throughout West Virginia. Through thematic analysis, eight themes emerged: Lack of Exposure to Cultural Diversity, Lack of Qualified Teachers, Toll on Mental Health, Pressure to Defend the Value of WLs, Remaining in West Virginia, Passing on the Love of Language and Cultural Learning, Innovative Pedagogical Approaches, and Strong Professional Support Systems.

Book Reviews: Family Style: Memories Of An American From Vietnam, Derick Marchant

The Utah English Journal

Do you ever eat a meal so intertwined with memory that each bite transports you back to the moments surrounding it? For me, it’s paella. The rice dish seasoned with saffron, paprika, and lemon juice puts me right back in small apartments in Spain with my legs under a blanket-covered table, a heater blasting on my legs, laughing and shelling shrimp with Spaniards. I can’t eat paella without craving the company that surrounded me in those warm Spanish apartments. In Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam, Thien Pham chronicles his family’s immigration story via vignettes centering around his …

The Utah English Journal, Volume 53, 2025: Full Issue

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Improving Small-Group Discussion Through Literature Circle Activities, Reilly Ryan

The Utah English Journal

Consider the following scenarios in which I’ve given students a platform to discuss “high-interest” topics: “Class, I want you to discuss whether you think school should start one hour later than it currently does. I’m going to set a timer for three minutes, and I would like you to continue your discussion during the entire time.” If school start time seems too educational, I might offer an even more accessible topic such as “What is the greatest movie of all time?” or “Where is the best place in town to get a hamburger?” The pleasing cacophony I hear immediately after …

Moving Beyond Summary, Susan E. Anderson

The Utah English Journal

The due date. That dreaded day when 50% of my students have worked their way through the writing process and are ready to turn in their essays ON TIME. They chose topics, researched, organized, wrote rough drafts, edited and revised repeatedly, peer-reviewed, more editing and more revising, cited their sources, formatted, and even applied the hanging indentation to their works cited page. And as the other 50% trickle in their late papers clearly lacking some of these important steps, my next responsibility begins: I start to read 175 essays. With my rubric ready to start assessing, I see a frustrating …

The Uses And Challenges Of Teaching Writing With Artificial Intelligence, Tom Henry

The Utah English Journal

Computers and Composition recently noted: “In less than a year, ChatGPT hit 100 million weekly users which made it the fastest-growing consumer Internet application to date. The ease, practicality, and ability to compose both in text and multimedia has made generative AI technology (like ChatGPT) ubiquitous” (Ranade and Eyman, 2024). Popularity aside, the question should be asked: Can students use AI ethically? A white paper from UNESCO puts forth the proposition that “Technology is never ideologically neutral… New generative AI models and utilities are no exception” (Giannini, 2023, p.3). Collating these claims, there are tasks where AI is ethical and …