Volume 54.1

Transcription

Volume 54.1

Volume 54, Number 1 • Winter/Spring 2014
A Publication of OCTELA,
the Ohio Council of Teachers
of English Language Arts
The Evolving English Classroom
Table of Contents
Announcements
Call for Manuscripts.......................................................................................2
The Ohio Journal of English Language Arts
Editor
Patrick W. Thomas, University of Dayton
OJELA • 1209 Heather Run • Wilmington, OH 45177
ABOUT OJELA
As the official journal of the Ohio Council of Teachers
of English Language Arts, Ohio Journal of English Language Arts is published twice per year and circulates
to approximately 2,000 language arts teachers of ele
mentary, secondary, and college students. Within its
editorial columns, departments, and feature articles,
the journal seeks to publish contributions pertaining
to all aspects of language arts learning and teaching.
©2014 OCTELA/OJELA
Printing – Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH
Cover Art, pages 11, 15, 17, 50, 52, 64 © 2014 iStockPhoto.com.
All other art is courtesy of the authors of the respective articles in
which they appear.
“We always live at the time
we live and not at some
other time, and only by
extracting at each present
time the full meaning of
each present experience
are we prepared for doing
the same thing in the
future.”
–John Dewey,
Experience and Education
Author Guidelines..........................................................................................5
OCTELA Executive Board................................................................................7
Editor’s Introduction.......................................................................................8
Our Theme: The Evolving English Classroom
“Mixed to the Core: Student Demonstration of Theme in Freshman English Class”............................................................9
Christopher Wagner and Denise Morgan
“Co-Teaching: Evolving English Language Arts
Instruction in the Elementary Classroom”................................................17
Brooks Vostal and Jonathan Bostic, with
Doonie Fidler, Ashley Stewart, and Ashley Watterson
“Multicultural Literature for Elementary Science Classrooms”.......................27
Line A. Saint-Hilaire
“Why Students Need Experiential, Place-Based, and Hopeful
Ecopedagogy—How to Bring it into the English Classroom”......................39
Jessica Jones
Departments
4Sites
Post-Secondary, “Our Hands, Our Future”
Jeff Buchanan. ...............................................................................50
Secondary, “Cooperating Teachers: Reinventing the CT/ST Relationship”
Angeline Theis...............................................................................52
Middle, “Making the Leap”
Jody Sturgeon-Edwards. .................................................................54
Elementary, “Three Essential Ingredients in a Time of Mandates: Time, Space, and Support”
Meg Silver and the Mahoning County Workshop Survival Group. ......56
The Conference Room Table
“New Titles for Text Complexity”...................................................................58
Cindy Beach
A Closing Lesson
“Evolution or Bust? Some Thoughts on the Changing Nature of Literacy”.....61
Patrick W. Thomas
Ohio Journal of English Language Arts 1
OJELA’s Call for Manuscripts
Call for Manuscripts
Issue Theme: Economics of Literacy Literacy has always been intimately connected to economics. Individuals pursue opportunities
Volume 54.2 (Summer/Fall 2014) for literacy learning, in both formal and informal educational settings, as means to larger goals
Deadline: October 15, 2014 of social achievement, upward mobility, and economic empowerment. Literacy instruction, too,
has long been characterized as a means for equipping students with “job-ready” and “lifelong
learning” skills. Literacy is seen as the most significant if not the sole indicator of economic
growth, entrepreneurial innovation, and productive citizenry. Conversely, we can measure the
consequences of illiteracy in tangible material and human costs.
Seismic changes in the economy impact literacy learning and teaching. Our most recent
economic crisis led to increased federal funding for educational reform in the development of the
Common Core, which connected federal funding to states’ adoption of these standards. Locally,
school districts reeled in the wake of economic disaster, as sweeping closures of local businesses,
job losses, and decreases in tax revenue depleted district budgets. At the same time, newly
out-of-work adults returned to school at unprecedented rates, consequently increasing revenue
for community colleges, for-profit institutions, and vocational training programs while adding
burdens of student loan debt and problems of student retention, increased class sizes and higher
demand for contingent labor pools.
These examples provide broad illustrations of the economics of literacy learning and teaching,
but it is also important to ask: what have been the effects of these economic changes on literacy
teaching and learning in Ohio? How has the economic crisis and its after-effects impacted our
classroom practices, our own professional labor, and our students’ learning? These questions are
at the heart of the Fall 2014 issue of OJELA.
At a time when teachers are expected to do more with fewer resources, as standards for teacher
quality rise at rates far exceeding teacher pay, and as we learn how to address the needs of
students in our new knowledge economy, it is important as literacy educators to consider anew
the economics of literacy within which our professional labor takes place. Some questions to
explore for this issue include:
• In this time of increased accountability, how have economic changes impacted your professional work
and identity – as a literacy educator, teacher leader/lead professional educator, mentor, policymaker,
literacy specialist, advocate, and/or administrator?
• How do you manage the differing types of labor (intellectual, physical, emotional) involved in
teaching and assessment?
• What does the term “value-added” mean to you, in your teaching?
• Increased resources alone do not bring about effective teaching. How has the presence or absence
of resources impacted your teaching? How have economic constraints fostered creativity in your
classroom?
• In what ways have local economics changed how your students employ literacy beyond the classroom
– in their workplaces or community settings? What opportunities and challenges arise from student
engagement in local literacy practices beyond school?
• What new, emergent types of reading and writing experiences have you been able to enact in your
teaching, and what is the value of these new experiences?
• In what ways have technologies for teaching reading and writing helped you to prepare students for
future learning and work within a knowledge economy?
• How have digital literacy practices– for example, social networking, participatory media, and
multimodal composition – re-shaped the value of reading and writing?
• In an evidence-based, standardized teaching and learning culture, how can we move students beyond
“job ready” skills to foster a love of reading and writing?
2 OJELA Vol. 54, No. 1 Winter/Spring 2014
OJELA’s Call for Manuscripts
LGBTQ Issues in English Language Arts Greater visibility, concerted efforts toward inclusion, and numerous legal victories have led
Volume 55.1 (Winter/Spring 2015) to important, though still contested, cultural shifts in attitudes toward LGBTQ individuals.
Deadline: February 16, 2015 The lives of LGBTQ students have been transformed in the past few years, in large part
due to media attention toward the often harsh realities these students face daily in our
classrooms, hallways, and school buildings. In stark contrast, LGBTQ teachers and their
allies in the state of Ohio risk losing their positions over public acknowledgment of their own
sexual orientation, gender identity, or even support of LGBTQ equality issues. In the last
year, four Ohio educators lost their jobs after these public announcements, calling into the
question the limits of LGBTQ visibility and support for LGBTQ individuals in our state’s
educational institutions.
Most students, LGBTQ and straight alike, are curious to learn about subjugated groups
and about issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and personal expression. The themes of
self-understanding, coming-of-age, and personal acceptance are universally relevant to our
students, who are the first generation to express largely positive views toward LGBTQ
individuals.
The theme for this issue, then, asks us to take stock of the issues related to sexuality and
gender identity/expression in the teaching of English/Language Arts. Questions that authors
might consider include:
• What role, if any, should LGBTQ identities play in teaching English Language Arts?
• What narratives, experiences, lessons, or methods help us to better understand the educational
experiences of LGBTQ students or the professional experiences of our LGBTQ colleagues?
• How does LGBTQ identity play a role in the lives of professionals, from pre-service teachers to midand late career teachers and school administrators?
• What texts, resources, assignments or units have been effective in teaching issues attendant to sexual
orientation or gender identity/expression?
• Should elementary students be introduced to differences in sexual orientation and gender identity/
expression? If so, how?
• What pedagogical practices do you enact to ensure respect for LGBTQ individuals, and why have you
done so? What practices have been most effective and why?
• How might teachers foster greater inclusion of LGBTQ students, parents, and families in local
educational contexts?
• How have larger cultural shifts toward LGBTQ equality and inclusion helped English Language Arts
teachers re-conceptualize their roles within local communities?
• As we strive for inclusion and diversity in our teaching and curricula, issues of sexuality and gender
force us to consider: what are the limits of inclusiveness in our teaching, given our local contexts?
Note: Because current federal and Ohio state laws do not guarantee employment protection for individuals
based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity or expression, authors submitting manuscripts for this
issue may choose to submit under a pseudonym.
Please address any questions concerning manuscripts to editor Patrick Thomas
at pthomas1@udayton.edu. Please put “OJELA Submission” in the subject line.
Author Guidelines
Author Guidelines
The Ohio Journal of English Language Arts (OJELA) is the official journal of the Ohio Council of
Teachers of English (OCTELA). Published twice per year, OJELA circulates to approximately 2000
language arts teachers of elementary, secondary, and college students. The journal seeks to publish
contributions on all aspects of language arts learning and teaching. We seek a variety of submissions
based on the issue theme. Submissions must be original, previously unpublished work.
Feature Articles
Manuscripts concerned with topics related to the issue theme. Submissions are invited for the
2014/2015 issues of OJELA on the following themes::
• Volume 54.2 (Summer/Fall 2014): “Economics of Literacy”
• Volume 55.1 (Winter/Spring 2015): “LGBTQ Issues in English Language Arts”
See the Call for Manuscripts section of this issue for theme descriptions and full calls for submission.
OJELA editors also welcome articles on any topic concerning language arts teaching at any level.
Teaching Matters
Submissions focused on classroom strategies for teaching English language arts at any level, K-college.
Submissions must be original teaching ideas. Descriptions of activities, practices, and procedures are
welcome, but must be accompanied by rationale, explaining how methods were developed and used
and for what purposes. Submissions might include a lesson’s objectives, target grade level, appropriate
assessments, and classroom handouts. Submissions to this section should build a kind of “how-to”
knowledge for other teachers.
Conversations
Extended interviews with teachers, researchers, teacher educators, policymakers, advocates, or others
involved in the field of English language arts who do interesting work. Interviews may focus on the
issue theme or may be about any topic related to English language arts teaching. In addition to the
question-and-answer format of the interview, submissions should include introductory and concluding
sections to the piece. Submissions to this department should spotlight important contributions of
individuals working within the field.
Creative Writing
Submissions of short fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry on the subject of teaching or teachingrelated topics, in any genre.
Reviews
Submissions that provide short reviews of resources of any kind for teaching English language arts.
Types of resources include, but are not limited to: books, media, software, websites, workshops,
conferences, institutes, or learning communities. Reviews of classroom materials (e.g., young adult
texts, learning management software) or professional development resources are especially appropriate.
Reader Forum
To encourage broader participation from readership, this venue is designed as a “letters to the editor”
section of the journal – focusing on ideas related to articles published in the journal, featured themes,
reader responses, or ideas in the field of English language arts teaching in general.
Submit queries and submissions for OJELA to editor Patrick Thomas at pthomas1@udayton.edu.
Manuscript Guidelines
Manuscript Guidelines
The following guidelines are intended to answer
the most common questions related to preparing and
submitting manuscripts to OJELA. More detailed
questions and other inquiries should be addressed to
the editors: ojelaeditor@gmail.com
• Manuscripts should be submitted electronically.
Manuscripts should be formatted using 12-point
font, double-spacing, and either APA or MLA
style. All pages should be numbered. In general,
manuscripts are expected to be 10-20 pages in
length.
• All manuscripts should be submitted as three at
tachments in Microsoft Word. The first attach
ment should be a cover sheet that lists the title
of the manuscript, author’s name, address, school
affiliation, telephone, fax, email address, and a
breif author bio. The second attachment should
contain the title of the manuscript and the manu
script text, which should be free of any internal
references to the author’s identity. The third at
tachment should be a letter that guarantees that
the article is your original work and has not been
published or submitted elsewhere.
• Authors should submit their submissions to: oje
laeditor@gmail.com
Style Issues: The readership of OJELA includes
language arts teachers at all grade levels, so we rec
ommend you adopt a conversational style that avoids
jargon and highly specialized terms. The use of “I” is
appropriate. We do not accept term papers or other
lengthy manuscripts overburdened with references.
Manuscripts should also adhere to the “Guidelines for
Nonsexist Use of language in NCTE Publications,”
available from NCTE (1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana,
IL 61801-1096).
Accepted manuscripts are edited in consultation
with the principal author. Because of publication dead
lines, however, the editors reserve the right to make
minor revisions without seeking prior approval from
the author.
If you reference other writers’ work, please follow
either MLA or APA style, as outlined in the current
MLA or APA style manuals.
Tables, graphs, and charts are often difficult to
read and expensive to typeset. Unless absolutely nec
essary, please do not submit manuscripts containing
these items. Photographs and artwork are accepted with
manuscripts, although you should keep in mind that
permission to use images is required. Authors must ob
tain written permission from the photographer and the
subjects in the photograph. (See Permissions Policy).
If tables, graphs, charts or other artwork are an essential part of your manuscript, you must submit these items as
separate files. Embedded images will not be accepted. Charts
and graphs that are drawn using numerical values must
have these values accessible, either as separate line list
items or on the art itself. This allows us to accurately
reformat this information to fit the column width of
the issue.
Art/Photography: We encourage readers to
share art and pictures that reflect the learning com
munities in your school and your classroom. All repro
duced artwork should be at least 8” x 10” and on high
quality, opaque paper. Photography submitted as prints
should be printed on at 5” x 7”—or bigger—glossy
paper. Digital images must be 3 megapixels or better.
Permissions Policy: As author, it is your re
sponsibility to secure permissions for copyrighted work
if it appears in your article. While short excerpts from
copyrighted material may be quoted without permis
sion, any excerpts from poetry and song lyrics al
most always require the author’s written permission.
Likewise, any student work requires a signed release
from the student, and, if the student is a minor, the
signature of a parent. To protect students’ identities, it
is generally recommended that you use pseudonyms.
OJELA can provide forms for permissions and releases,
though the author must pay any costs associated with
permissions. If you are using student work, please re
quest the Student-Consent-to-Publish Form.
Manuscript Review Process: The editors will
acknowledge receipt of your manuscript with an email.
We initially read all manuscripts to assure that they are
appropriate to the journal. If we think your manuscript
does not fit our journal, we contact you and suggest,
when possible, other outlets for your work. Inquiries
about possible manuscripts can be sent to ojelaeditor@
gmail.com.
If we deem a manuscript appropriate for OJELA,
we send it out to at least two reviewers. Reviewers make
recommendations for publication and for revision. Once
recommendations have been received by the editors, we
make final decisions about whether to publish or not.
If we accept your manuscript for publication, we will
contact you and, more than likely, remain in contact
with you while working through the revision/editorial
process. This process usually takes three months.
How to Contact the Editors: Send manuscripts
and correspondence to: ojelaeditor@gmail.com or con
tact Jeff Buchanan, English Department, Youngstown
State University, One University Plaza, Youngstown,
OH 44555 or by phone: 330-941-1641 or email: jmbu
chanan@ysu.edu
Executive Board
OCTELA Executive Board
OCTELA Executive Board
Elected Officers:
President
Deborah Thomas
Granville Intermediate School
Secondary Liaison
Josh Younge
Pickaway-Ross CTC
President-Elect
Stephanie Erikkson
Blanchester High School
ATPA Liaison
Josh Younge
Pickaway-Ross CTC
Vice Presidentand
Communications Chair
Virginia McCormac
Beachwood Middle School
University Liaison
Debra Nickles
Ohio University-Chillicothe
Past-President
Sarah Ressler
Hayes High School
Treasurer
Margaret Blevins
West Union High School
Secretary
Michelle Best
Austintown Middle School
Secretary-Elect
Allison Volz
Hilltonia Middle School
Executive Committee:
Executive Director
Karla Hieatt
Wilmington High School
Advisor
Ruth McClain
Elementary Liaison
Molly Wendel
Coldwater Schools
Middle School Liaison
Jan Riley
NCTE Liaison
Colleen Ruggieri
Ohio University
WROTE Liaison
Carol Hart
Retired, McDonald High School
ODE Liaison
Colleen Ruggieri
Ohio University
Membership Chair
Jessica Sharp
Reynoldsburg HS
Diversity Liaison
Amanda Schear
Withrow University H.S.
(Cincinnati)
LGBTQ Liaison
Karen Andrus Tollafield
Kent State Unversity
Social Networking Liaison
Chris Wagner
Gahanna Lincoln
Legislative Liaison
Sam Whitaker
Conference Planner
Karen Carney
Campbell Elementary School
Vendor Liaison
Sarah Ressler
Hayes High School
Awards:
Bonnie Chambers Award
Sue Malaska
NCTE Literary Magazine
Brandi Young
Westerville City Schools
Publication Editors:
Webmaster
Margaret Ford
Retired, Campbell City Schools
and Andrew Ford
OJELA
Patrick Thomas
University of Dayton
Ohio Teachers Write
Emily Green
Maumee Valley Country
Day School
OCTELA Newsletter
Karla Hieatt
Wilmington High School
Administrative Liaison
Travis Morris
Editor’s Introduction
Editor’s Introduction
Welcome to this long-awaited issue of OJELA! I
appreciate your patience as we prepared this issue,
appearing in late summer rather than spring, (although
something reassures me that most readers’ interest
waned somewhere around mid-June). Nevertheless, I
am pleased to publish this issue as many of you return
to school reinvigorated and ready to begin another
academic year.
The issue theme, The Evolving English Classroom, asks
us to consider how we negotiate sweeping changes in the
landscape of literacy education. It has been fascinating
to see the breadth and variety of ways in which authors
have responded to this call. Indeed, reading their
submissions has expanding my own thinking about
the evolution and future direction of English/Language
Arts instruction, and I think readers will agree. In our
feature articles, authors take on a number of important
issues concerning the future directions of our teaching.
Christopher Wagner and Denise Morgan reflect on
the power of multimodal composing through remixed
memes that students create to explore and comment
on literary themes. Their discussion of students’
multimodal literacy practices is an excellent reminder
of how well students can demonstrate their learning
when they have the choice to represent that learning in
culturally relevant forms.
Our evolving classrooms look different not only
because teaching practices are different, but also
because they are built differently. Brooks Vostal and
Jonathan Bostic, together with first grade co-teachers
Doonie Fidler, Ashley Stewart, and Ashley Watterson,
demonstrate how this is so through their experiences
in the first year of co-teaching. Written from both
the co-teaching coaches’ and co-teachers’ perspectives,
their report provides a useful model for re-thinking
how collaborative pedagogical interventions can benefit
elementary teachers’ work daily.
Considering the possibilities for connecting literary
study and scientific inquiry, Line Augustine makes
a compelling argument for the use of multicultural
literature in elementary science classrooms. She
recognizes that the goals and strategies for contentarea reading in both language arts and science can
productively contribute to students’ understanding
of scientific concepts. Her article concludes with a
very helpful list of multicultural literature in varied
genres (fiction, poetry, non-fiction) aimed to bridge the
content areas.
Jessica Jones has a simple recommendation for an
evolving English classroom: get out of the room and
into the wild. Recalling her year as writer-in-residence
at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Peninsula,
Ohio, she outlines numerous strategies for developing
ecopedagogical approaches to teaching creative writing,
literature, and argument for adolescent learners.
English teachers are continually expanding
their arsenal of instructional resources and seeking
recommendations for new and engaging texts for
students. At our Conference Room Table, Cindy
Beach reviews recent titles that teachers might find
useful in teaching toward the Common Core focus on
text complexity. From post-apocalyptic fiction to war
histories, Cindy’s selections are sure to find their way
into many teachers’ libraries this year.
In 4Sites, we asked teachers to respond to a
central question for this issue’s theme: How have you
evolved as an educator because of sweeping change
and in what ways has this evolution benefitted your
students? In response, we hear from elementary
teacher-members of the Mahoning County Workshop
Survival Group who have found the best way to
face the new challenges in education is to face them
together; from Jody Stuurgeon-Edwards who finds
direction by observing the squirrels at play in her
backyard; from Angeline Theis who reflects on the
evolving relationship between student teacher and
cooperating teacher; and from Jeff Buchanan who
speculates how changes in secondary expectations
might affect university teacher education programs.
Finally, in our closing lesson, I take a wide-angle
perspective to the question of “evolution” in literacy
education. In education, change is constant – but does
that mean we are necessarily better off with current
mandates than previous ones? Perhaps examining
larger cultural shifts in what people do with literacy
can help us make good pedagogical choices in a time of
massive curricular and institutional changes.
Like so many past issues of OJELA, this issue
is packed with resources for engaging in innovative
teaching and learning.
From non-fiction text
recommendations for elementary and middle grades
to sample remix assignments for secondary students,
and even a new “hot list” of YA literature, the pieces
included here provide, I hope, a number of in-roads for
creative and thoughtful lesson planning.
I would like to thank the authors included in this
issue, as well as former OJELA editor Jeff Buchanan for
his assistance in bringing this issue to fruition during our
transition in editorial staff. His tireless work for OJELA
is evident on every page of this issue, and I am indebted
to him for his on-the-spot guidance and dedication to
producing quality work for the journal.
Mixed to the Core: Student Demonstration
of Theme in Freshman English Class
I
t began as all rumors in education do, with
whispered mumblings over the drone of the
copier or hushed gossip over the top of the
first morning cup of coffee. Soon it had escalated to
hummed songs of revolution around the department
office and furtive, longing glances at the spines of old
friends on the office bookshelves. How would these new
standards affect the world of English we had all grown
so comfortable with? Rumor was that it was a time for
change in the English classroom. When the Common
Core State Standards were published, one thing at the
top of everyone’s discussion list was helping students
delve deeper into complex texts. These new standards
were offering teachers a space and an opportunity to
revamp how we ask students to interact with text, to
restructure how we assess in the classroom and to reexamine how we assess student demonstration of these
new standards. No longer was it enough to simply be
able to find concepts like theme in a novel. With CCSS,
students become creators, innovators and problem
solvers with the information they found. In short, it
was a chance to remix our classroom assignments.
Luckily, with omnipresent white earbuds dangling
from most of their ears, students were already ready.
Remix is a “significant literacy practice” in which
cultural artifacts are combined and manipulated to
create something new (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008, p.
22). In our history, people have long built upon the
ideas of others creating new media from old media
using three techniques: copy, transform, combine
(Fergurson, 2012). Remix is a creative practice in that
the authors “thoughtfully recycle bits and pieces of
many texts to cobble together new meanings” (Gainer
& Lapp, 2010, p. 19). Music, initially, was the most
ubiquitous form of remixes (Fergurson, 2012; Gainer
& Lapp, 2010; Knobel & Landshear, 2008). It is this
very music that offers a strong foundation to explore
this idea of remix in the classroom.
–Christopher Wagner and Denise Morgan, PhD
Ask students at any grade level what a remix is
and they will probably be able to describe the concept
as it applies to their iPod. Students live in a world
where a musician releases a single and within hours
there is a remixed version appearing somewhere on
the internet. Or the musician may release the radio
version of the song but then releases the same album
with the same songs remixed in a different genre. In
a recent New York Times interview (Bilton, 2011),
DJ Girl Talk described the proliferation of remixes
this way:
A lot of artists are used to their music being
reused online and have come to accept and
embrace it. You have a generation who go
on YouTube and remake and remix music
online all the time. They remake and upload
songs and videos, and then other people
remake the remakes; it just keeps going.
The remix often takes the same lyrics or hook
and presents it in a new way. It comes in the form of
covers of a rap song as an acoustic folk song or a pop
song redone as a moody dark rendition. According to
Gainer and Lapp (2010) a remix “has come to be seen
as a form of meaning making that extends beyond
music and included many other creative endeavors”
(p. 180). It becomes clips from a teen’s favorite
romantic movie laced with her new favorite boy band
ballad. Even Tweets are often an edited and mangled
collection of lyrics and quotes, often mixed with a
visual component.
Drawing upon this utility of the remix to
show meaning in a new way by putting a twist on
something familiar, remixing was worth exploring
in the English classroom. The essence of a remix is
simple: it is the taking of a work of art or cultural
reference, whether it is music, art, or literature, and
manipulating the meaning and message behind it to
Christopher Wagner is an English teacher at Lincoln High School in Gahanna, Ohio.
Denise Morgan, PhD is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the School of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Studies
at Kent State University.
create a new meaning or message for a new audience.
The remaining pieces of the original give the audience
a starting point, but the remixed aspect brings a new
light or new understanding to the art. Remixing,
in regards to literature, is a fairly new trend, but it
is one that is being reflected at the publishing level
with books like Seth Grahame-Smith’s remix of the
historical fiction genre with one a bit more blood lusty
in Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter and the remixing
of Jane Austen’s world with the land of the living
dead in Steve Hockensmith’s Pride and Prejudice and
Zombies. As the world around us changes, workers are
also being asked to create and produce in a different
way than in the past. Gone are the days of writing up
reports. Workers are now expected to locate, filter,
problem solve and ultimately create in their fields. It
seemed a natural extension to bring this idea into the
English classroom.
The remix reduction
Intense discussions about close reading across the
country highlight a recurring question: what does
it really mean to make meaning with a text? What
do we really expect students to do with the texts
they read? How do they show their understanding
of these works and how are they asked to show it
in ways that require them to push boundaries? Are
they asked to merely present their knowledge and
produce something in a static form or are they asked
to transform their knowledge in some way? And
how can students be asked to demonstrate depth
over breadth in their reading? The new Common
Core ELA Standards call for a higher range of critical
thinking on students’ parts including what the text
says explicitly to analyzing how the words and phrases
and structure of the text influence the message within
the text. This requires students think about the text
from multiple angles and on multiple levels. Students
may also benefit from opportunities to showcase this
knowledge in new ways.
Envisioning the possibilities for a remix allows
students to deepen their understanding of key
ideas and details. They must engage in exploring
theme at a much deeper level, a level at which they
understand theme enough to manipulate it. Theme
work represents a “rich understanding” of the work
but also it must demonstrate an understanding that
it is also situated outside of the work, in an “ongoing
cultural conversation that tests and complicates it”
(Smith & Wilhelm, 2010, p. 155). How can teachers
help students see the application of theme outside of
that one particular story?
A remix assignment allows students to draw upon
the different discourses in which they participate,
particularly discourses of popular culture communities
(National Council of Teachers of English, 2007). It
provides opportunities for high engagement with
their work. It gives them a space to create, to be in
the driver’s seat, to have choice, and to demonstrate
their understanding of texts at higher levels requiring
that they deconstruct and reconstruct messages and
ideas when creating their remixes.
Examining remix as a class
Chris (first author) taught three periods of regular
freshman English and Denise (second author) is
a literacy professor who worked with Chris on this
project. Chris taught in a blended socio-economic
community. Residents range from upper class to
below the poverty level. Chris’s three freshmen
classes contain students of mixed abilities, ranging
from students who had been on a gifted or honors
track in middle school to students who were on an
individualized education plan (IEP) for difficulties in
reading. During a class wide discussion about reading
at the start of the school year, the majority of students
expressed a distaste for reading, even if they were
given the option of choice.
Chris and Denise discussed the importance of
starting with students in their world. It made sense to
begin with the simple world of memes because in the
world of Twitter and Facebook, a meme was the most
simple way to convey a theme or concept in a short,
illustrated form. For those of us outside the grasps
of social media, a “meme” is anything that spreads
virally through pop-culture. Students often encounter
them in the form of an image or picture with a witty
catch phrase or punch line written over them. Often,
the picture remains the same, but the punch line or
phrase can change. Still not sure what it is? Ask one of
your students to show you their favorites and you will
be inundated with them. Take for example a simple
picture of Edgar Allen Poe. Memes of this photo come
with captions like the Queen allusion “He’s just a Poe
boy from a Poe family” or a Lady Gaga allusion “You
and me could write a bad Poemance.” These quick,
pop culture based images carry with them multiple
meanings and layers of understanding, much like
a novel, but are in short form, something easy for
students to grasp.
In his three periods of freshman English, Chris
began by looking at two iconic figures with his
students. First, they viewed an image of Ronald
McDonald. Students brainstormed what the image
represents and came up with typical responses such
as hamburgers, food and childhood. They then
examined a promotional posters for the Batman
film, The Dark Knight, with the image of The Joker
writing the phrase “Why so serious?” on a window.
Student quickly responded that the image represents
fear and terror. We then discussed remixing these two
representations as the meme by an unknown artist
called “Why So Delicious?” is displayed. The image
shows a remix of the two images, with Ronald writing
“Why So Delicious?” on the glass. After a few laughs
and a few murmurs of “that’s not right…” they began
to brainstorm what the remixed message could be.
As a class they decided that the creator was using
the re-imagining of the childhood icon as a bad guy
as commentary on the youth obesity problem, while
others decided that it was referencing why movies like
The Dark Knight shouldn’t be marketed to kids.
We furthered our exploration by looking at
images of paintings by the street artist Banksy, who
uses pop culture icons and remixes them to deliver
new messages that challenge popular thought, and
by painter Kehinde Wiley, who remixes old European
classic paintings with modern images of rappers,
musicians and athletes. We discussed its presence in
the music of Kanye West, Nikki Minaj, Limp Bizkit,
Will.i.am, Britney Spears and FloRida. We looked
closely at Alien Ant Farm’s “Smooth Criminal,” a
remix of Michael Jackson’s song of the same title
and Common’s remixing of Martin Luther King’s “I
Have a Dream” speech. We looked at YouTube clips
that remixed movies and TV shows like Twilight and
Buffy the Vampire Slayer to get new messages about
female empowerment. We watched clips that take
political mud slinging from our founding fathers and
remixes it into modern day TV attack ads. In the end,
we discussed what the remixes accomplish, ending
up with criteria that it must take a previous medium
as a source material, manipulate it through adapting
the material for a new message or purpose, and then
display that new message for a new audience.
Discovering choice novels through remixes
Once students had the idea of remixing under their
belts, it was time for them to apply it to their own
reading. Students in the class are required to maintain
a choice book at all times. In addition to the classics we
read quarterly, regular time is devoted to allowing for
choice reading (see Morgan & Wagner, 2012). There
are no guidelines beyond students selecting books
they enjoy reading. There was high engagement and
discussion when examining the remix. Chris wanted
to capitalize on that excitement by having students
think deeply about theme within a remix framework.
Students were given the handout (Table 1) to
help guide their thinking regarding how they would
remix the theme of their choice novel. The major
requirement for the assignment was for students to
be able to identify a prominent theme from their
novel and provide the necessary evidence, rather than
focus on their own experiences, for identifying this as
a major theme (Fisher & Frey, 2013). Students then
needed to articulate how their final product was an
example of a remix. They were asked to consider their
new audience and message. How they displayed their
understanding of theme was up to them. Students
could draw upon multi-modal sources to illustrate
their remix.
In preparation for their remix project, students
were given 20 minutes a day in class for a week
to complete their guiding sheet and meet for a
conference. The conferences provided Chris an
Figure 1: Students Guidesheet Remix Project Proposal Remixing is the adoption, alteration, and recombination of pre-‐existing cultural texts (songs, literature, paintings, etc.) to create something new.
to use some of the same materials, allowing the message to reach a different audience to alter the message of a piece of art for artistic purposes.
Book: Author’s original message/purpose (Theme): How do you know this is the theme? What evidence from the book can your provide? Proposed remixed message: (What is the message? Who is the new audience? What should they take away?) Remix Project Proposal: (How will you show it? How will the audience know it’s a remix?): Project needs: (What materials will you need? How will you get them?): Project game plan: (You will have 20 minutes a day for one week to plan. How will you use it? What’s your schedule? What will you need to do at home?) opportunity to not only formatively assess students’
understanding
of theme and remix, but also a time to
talk to them about their books. Any redirection that
was needed was handled during these conferences,
while also allowing for intervention with struggling
readers who needed more guidance with either theme
or the concept of remixing. Their final product was
to include an informal piece of writing in which they
show evidence of their theme and remix.
Student remixes
In examining the utility and possibility of using
remixes in the classroom, we focus specifically on
two student examples, Courtney and John (names
pseudonyms) to illustrate the kinds of thinking two
very different students engage in when creating
remixes about the theme of their books. Courtney is an
excellent student. The English classroom is her haven,
her safe place. She is equal parts scholar, capable of
pulling out symbols from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit
451, and high school freshman girl, devouring John
Green and Nicholas Sparks.
During our first conference, Courtney decided
to do her remix project on her choice book, Sparks’s
Dear John. Chris cringes a bit when strong readers
gravitate to Sparks. With heartbreaking love stories
like Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights or Charles
Dickens’ Great Expectations taking up the same shelf
space in the classroom, it seems almost sacrilegious
for a reader of strong ability to select something of
lower caliber. While for some of his students, Sparks
would be a stretch to their reading level, it was
below a reading level that would normally challenge
Courtney. The novel follows a young couple as they
deal with maintaining their relationship while one of
them is on military deployment. A secondary plot
circles around an ailing family member. Courtney
identified several themes easily, deciding to focus
on the importance of showing appreciation towards
those who serve us, both from a military aspect and
from a familial standpoint. Identifying theme was not
a challenge for her. But when asked to dig deeper,
when she was asked to take this theme and transform
it, work with it, she struggled. At first she seemed
a bit panicked. This normally calm and confident
reader was now being asked to not only determine
the theme, but understand it on a level high enough
to manipulate it. Courtney and Chris began to peel
back what Sparks really meant. She discussed the
character’s needs to show love and support for each
other. She showed him passages that reflected the idea
that the characters learned to appreciate things before
they were gone. So sitting at his desk, he looked at
her and said simply, “So how can you remix that idea
for another audience?” Her face struggled, until it
clicked. She started scribbling notes at the bottom of
her sheets and stood up and went back to her desk
without even as much as a mumbled thank you.
Courtney’s final product demonstrates the power
of the remix in the visual and cognitive aspect of
her work. Courtney’s inspiration came from her
own understanding of the theme. She recently lost
a grandfather who had been a military vet himself.
She manipulated this idea by asking students in the
elementary school to write letters to soldiers. She did
this to show a remixing of the idea of a love letter, as
many of the students wrote to family members who
were currently serving, while others wrote to complete
strangers. She also wrote in her explanation that she
saw the letters themselves as a sign of appreciation
of those who serve. She then took these letters,
written on white paper, and placed them strategically
to create the white lines of an American flag image
(see Figure 2). She explained that by remixing the
letters as a sign of the theme, with the imagery of
the flag, she was hoping to convey the importance
of both patriotism and pride. In one remix, Courtney
displayed a deep understanding of plot, theme,
symbolism, and character motivation. Chris learned
that a deeper level of thinking can be achieved from
nearly any text if it is approached appropriately.
John is quite a different student than Courtney.
John is a pleasant student but one who likes to fake
read. In class, his eyes dart across the page and every
now and then he remembers to turn the page but in
his mind he’s likely thinking running basketball plays
and thinking of witty comments to post on Twitter
when the bell rings, a pastime he often bragged about
doing instead of his assigned reading. John is a capable
reader but he seems to equate “required reading” with
“forced boredom.” John and Chris worked all year
trying to find him books he will enjoy, but each book
was met with a similar response, “It’s too boring.”
Finally, after handing him Neal Shusterman’s
Unwind, John replaced his fake reading skills with
engaged reading as he was soon lost in a world where
another civil war over the human right to life has left
the United States without abortions, but has allowed
parents to “unwind” their children as teenagers, the
process of taking each body part from a child in
order to provide for medical transplants so that the
child continues to “live,” if they decide they are not
productive members of society. During his conference
on his remix, John was more talkative than usual. He
described a world where on the surface, everything
seems perfect, but lurking below reality is “a pretty
jacked up place.” His description of a dystopian
society led him directly to an observation that struck
both of us. “It’s like here,” he said, meaning the city
he lived in. He explained, “Everything seems great
and perfect, but we still have crime. We still have
people doing drugs. It’s like we just see the good
things and ignore all the rest of that stuff.” John
even came to the conference with a remix idea. He
proposed taking what was not so great about our city
and layering things that were great over top to try to
mask it. What John turned in was a layer of our local
police blotter, pictures of crimes from the local news,
and symbols of law breaking that was then layered
over by images of pride for his home town including
his school, a picture of the city welcome signs, and
the local parks. His remix, he explained, was taking
the theme of the deceptiveness of perfection, and
remixing it for a local audience to cause them to think
about what we see as perfection (see Figure 3).
Similar to John and Courtney, the rest of the
students examined their novels, identified a theme,
and then set about remixing their message. Included
in the remixes turned in were paintings, sketches,
song lyrics, videos, and even a rap, all taking a theme
lifted from a novel and modifying, manipulating
and remixing the new message for a new audience,
ranging from their own classmates to the world at
large. Students engaged with this assignment. Unlike
earlier assignments, with the remix, not a single
student in three periods turned work in late.
What The Remix Offered
Assigning remixes as a way to have students think
about and demonstration their understanding of
theme allowed them to showcase their knowledge in
multiple ways. It also allowed students to fuse their
in and out of school literacy practices (Gainer & Lapp,
2010). In the past and even earlier in the year, Chris
assigned traditional essays where students were asked
to take a stake a claim and find textual support to back
their stance. He became aware that students were not
stretching their thinking in these assignments because
too often they could use the internet to locate quotes,
often out of context, for their essays. However, he
believed that asking students to think about theme
in a remix format, the inclusion of multimodal ways
of knowing, would allow students some opportunities
and creativity that paper based assignments did not
always allow students to successfully demonstrate
what they know. Asking the students to remix their
themes supported his goal of students having deeper
interactions with complex texts.
What Chris found in the stack of remixes
was simple: his students were showing their
understanding of theme, characterization and
symbols, but a true depth of understanding
to the point that they could manipulate them
enough to alter the intended message. Through
this assignment, his students were not limited or
hindered by demonstrating their understanding
through written words only, remixing allowed for
students to demonstrate understanding through a
modality that compliments their understanding.
Students were able to select a method where they
had strength, such as music, art or writing, to show
they understood the concept. A student who may not
be able to express theme as well in a sentence may be
able to encapsulate it in a song, a painting, or a video.
By remixing, we open the field to students to allow
them control in showing they understand. What
remixing does is to not only convey the thematic
concept, but also asks them to play with it, bend
it, explore it and present it back in a way that asks
them to dig deeper. By remixing, it is not simply a
thematic game of hide and seek in the pages where
they identify the theme but a game where they find
the hidden meaning and then utilize it in a way that
also reflects a part of them.
Opening the door to students creating a remix
assignment comes with some inherent difficulties.
With many avenues available in this type of
assignment, it can become difficult to create a rubric
that encompasses all forms of remixing. Evaluating
a poem is different from evaluating a painting if you
do not find some form of common ground. What we
found through exploring this idea was that it was
important to remember that this was less about “is
this a good painting” and more about “how does
this use a given theme to convey a new idea or view
on that theme.” Assessing student ability to defend
thematic elements in both their novel and in their
remix became key. Chris found that by allowing
students to engage in “the art and the craft” of the
remix (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008), they were able
to show him a greater depth of their understanding
than they had in the past. Ultimately, more than
just the themes from the students’ books, the real
remixing came in how Chris looked at the CCSS and
the opportunities for students to demonstrate their
understanding in his classroom.
References
Bilton, N. (2011, February 28). One on one: Girl
Talk, computer Musician. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.
com/2011/02/28/one-on-one-girl-talk-comput
er-musician/
Ferguson, K. (2012). Everything is a Remix: The TED
Talk. Retreived from http://everythingisaremix.
info/blog/everything-is-a-remix-the-ted-talk
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2013). Show me the proof:
Requiring evidence in student responses.
Principal Leadership, 13(7), 57-61.
Gainer, J., & Lapp, D. (2010). Literacy remix:
Bridging adolescents’ in and out of school
literacies. Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
Gallagher, K. (2009). Readicide: How schools are
killing reading and what you can do about it.
Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2008). Remix: The
art and craft of endless hybridization. Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52(1), 22-33.
National Council of Teachers of English (2007).
Adolescent literacy: A policy research brief.
Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/policyresearch/briefs
National Governors Association Center for Best
Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers.
(2010). Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/
the-standards/english-language-arts-standards
Morgan, D. N. & Wagner, C. (2013). “What’s the
catch?”: Providing reading choice in a high
school classroom. Journal of Adolescent and
Adult Literacy, 56(8), 659-667.
Smith, M. W., & Wilhelm, J. D. (2010). Fresh Takes
on Teaching Literary Elements: How to Teach
What Really Matters About Character, Setting,
Point of View, and Theme. NY: Scholastic.
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Co-Teaching: Evolving English Language Arts
Instruction in the Elementary Classroom
R
–Brooks Vostal and Jonathan Bostic, with Doonie Fidler,
Ashley Stewart, & Ashley Watterson
ecent mandates enacted by the
Ohio Department of Education
(ODE) have had significant impacts
on elementary teachers’ instruction in English
Language Arts. Two mandates in particular have
forced elementary teachers to review curricula and
instructional practices: the adoption of the Common
Core State Standards (CCSS), and Ohio’s Third Grade
Reading Guarantee. As teachers
implement the CCSS, they
often find themselves engaged
in the process of interpretation
to ensure their understanding
of the standards themselves, as
well as envision how they will go
about teaching them (Valencia
& Wixson, 2013). As teachers
grapple with the pedagogical
shifts inherent in the CCSS,
Ohio concurrently instituted
the Third Grade Reading
Guarantee, requiring students
achieve satisfactory reading
scores on standardized measures
between Kindergarten and
Third Grade or have a Reading
Improvement and Monitoring
Plan implemented for each
individual not “on track” (ODE, 2013). Students who
have not achieved satisfactory improvement on the
Ohio Achievement Assessment will be retained until
they meet standards. Amid the pressures elementary
teachers face with these two mandates, ODE has also
recommended that schools implement co-teaching
as a method for achieving the “consistent, highquality instruction” necessitated by Ohio’s “bold, new
reforms” (ODE, n.d., p. 1).
Rather than just another mandate, co-teaching
might actually be an important structural adaptation
to teachers’ work that makes achieving the other
mandates more feasible. That is, co-teaching helps
teachers restructure their classrooms (Conderman,
Bresnehan, & Pedersen, 2009). Thus, teachers might
have more flexibility across teams to meet students’
needs and respond to the CCSS and the Third Grade
Reading Guarantee. In order
to show how this can be the
case, we will share the story of a
partnership between teachers at
one elementary school district and
professors from a regional state
university as they collaborated
during one academic year to
implement a co-teaching model.
We focus on the reflections from
the first grade team during their
first semester in this new teaching
arrangement, and discuss the ways
that co-teaching has provided
the elementary teachers the
flexibility they needed in order to
experiment with their pedagogy
in response to ODE’s mandates.
In particular, these teachers on the
first grade team were concerned
with the ramifications of the Third Grade Reading
Guarantee while they simultaneously implemented
the CCSS in inclusive classrooms serving both general
and special education students. That is, rather than
any single mandate driving their willingness to
embrace co-teaching, they were eager to experiment
with new instructional practices in order to alleviate
the cumulative pressures represented by so many
“bold, new reforms” thrust upon them all at once.
Brooks R. Vostal is an Assistant Professor in the School of Intervention Services at Bowling Green State University.
Jonathan D. Bostic is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teaching & Learning at Bowling Green State University.
Doonie Fidler, Ashley Stewart, and Ashley Watterson teach first grade at North Central Elementary School in Pioneer, Ohio.
Co-Teaching Principles
To understand why this school chose to implement
co-teaching, it helps to understand why co-teaching
is recommended in the literature.
Since the
implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB,
2001) and the reauthorization of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
(IDEIA, 2004), there has been a national emphasis
on academic accountability efforts to include students
with disabilities (Bouck, 2007; Isherwood, BargerAnderson, Merchaut, Badgett, & Katsafanas, 2011).
This has led to many students with disabilities now
spending the largest proportion of their time in
general education settings (Friend & Bursuck, 2012).
Co-teaching represents one model for implementing
inclusive education.
Specifically, co-teaching is defined as when “two
or more professionals jointly deliver substantive
instruction to a diverse, blended group of students
in a single physical space” (Friend & Cook, 2013, p.
113). Conderman, Bresnahan, & Pederson (2009)
emphasize that this definition highlights critical
aspects of co-teaching, including the principles that:
• co-teaching involves at least two licensed
teachers who each have their own professional
skill sets;
• each teacher is meaningfully involved in
instructional practices that could not be
implemented individually;
• each teacher delivers instruction to all
students, rather than one teacher focusing
only on a subset of students (e.g., the special
educator only teaching students identified
with disabilities);
• and all of this instruction typically happens
in the same room.
Effective co-teaching requires that teachers
transform three aspects of their professional work:
planning, instruction, and assessment (Murawski &
Lochner, 2010). Fundamentally, each of these aspects
must be reconceived collaboratively. Co-planning
encourages the general education teacher and special
education teacher to build on each of their expertise
in order to design lessons that make it more likely
that all students learn the curriculum the first time
it is taught (Murawski, 2010). Co-instructing refers
to the presentation of lessons in the classroom, and
focuses on the demonstration of teachers’ differing
expertise as expressed though different instructional
approaches. Co-assessing emphasizes the ways
in which both the general education teacher and
special education teacher share responsibilities for
determining students’ progress. In the ensuing
sections, we focus on these three aspects of co-teaching
to structure the story of North Central Elementary
School’s implementation. The North Central Local
School District is classified as a rural district with a
small student population, according to ODE typology
(ODE, 2013). Nearly half of its students come from
families living in poverty. For the most part, there
are two general education teachers per grade at
North Central. In their co-teaching implementation,
North Central teamed one special education teacher
with two general education teachers per grade level,
forming teams of three professionals who are referred
to as co-teachers in this manuscript. The three coteachers who made up the first grade team are all coauthors of this manuscript.
Mrs. Doonie Fidler, a general education teacher
on the team, holds an undergraduate degree in Early
Childhood Education and taught first grade at North
Central for five years. During the year she was
implementing co-teaching, she completed the Ohio
Reading Endorsement and was pursuing a graduate
degree in Educational Administration. Mrs. Ashley
Stewart, the other general education teacher on the
team, holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in
Early Childhood Education. She had taught for nine
years, two in first grade, and completed the Ohio
Reading Endorsement during this year of co-teaching.
Mrs. Ashley Waterston, the special education teacher
on the team, holds an undergraduate degree in Early
Childhood Education and a graduate degree in Special
Education. She had taught nine years but this year
of co-teaching implementation was her first teaching
first grade.
In order to share the story of North Central
teachers’ implementation of co-teaching in English
Language Arts, we will discuss the creation of
structural changes facilitated by the school’s
administration, the coaching support university
faculty (i.e., co-teaching coaches) provided, and the
critique of the model’s feasibility–a reality check, so
to speak–from the points of view of teachers on the
first grade team.
Co-Planning
Creating the System for Co-Planning
In late spring of 2013, faculty and administration
determined that they would implement coteaching throughout all of the elementary grades
during the 2013-2014 school year. They agreed
that this major structural change could be difficult,
but it gave them the opportunity to implement
the CCSS while simultaneously providing readingfocused interventions effectively. The principal
determined that teams of three teachers per grade
level (i.e., two general education, one special
education) would be reasonable within budgetary
and managerial constraints.
Creating a schedule that allowed these teams
of three to co-plan was challenging. During the
summer, the elementary principal juggled the
master schedule as much as possible to ensure that
each co-teaching team had at least one common
planning period each week, and in some cases two
each week. Based on the principal’s own research
into co-teaching, he knew that inadequate time for
co-planning built into the schedule can be major
obstacle to effective co-teaching, leading to limited
differentiation of instruction (Magiera & Zigmond,
2005). One consequence of schedule juggling was
that teachers had very different schedules each day.
Coaching the Practice of Co-Planning
To support teachers to use their co-planning time
most effectively, we–the university faculty–provided
two professional development sessions. In the first
session, we split a full day in-service between formal
presentation and team meetings. In the morning
presentation, we modeled a co-teaching approach as
we introduced co-teaching principles. The focus of
this presentation was to help teachers recognize that
the process of developing a co-teaching relationship
would indeed be a process, and that the goal of our
sustained partnership was to assist them as they
discovered the co-teaching relationship that would
help them the most. Our introduction included
activities designed to prompt teachers to consider
their school’s existing inclusive educational practices
and envision a year during which they would use
co-teaching to implement the CCSS and enhance
their reading instruction. Next, we emphasized the
concept of parity between co-teachers in the eyes of
the students. A common problem reported by coteachers is that the special educator is treated like a
glorified assistant, not as a professional (Murawski,
2010; Walther-Thomas, 1997). Later, teachers
learned about the stages of co-teaching relationships
that many experience (Gately & Gately, 2001),
moving from the beginning stage to a compromising
stage, and ultimately a collaborative stage. Finally
we identified some areas where co-teachers would
likely experience conflict (e.g., communication
practices, classroom management), which they ought
to expect as co-teaching relationships evolved. We
wanted teachers to know that they would need to
manage and resolve these sorts of issues in order
to move through the stages of co-teaching toward
ultimate collaboration.
When teachers left the formal presentation, they
broke into co-teaching teams to engage in long-range
co-planning. General education teachers reviewed
curricular goals for the first grading period, and
special education teachers shared student profiles for
those who were already identified with disabilities.
Next, the team wrote a letter explaining the coteaching arrangement to parents, as recommended
by Murawski (2010), while simultaneously broaching
their own expectations about co-teaching within the
team. Finally, co-teachers determined how they
would introduce themselves to students on the first
day so that they attempted to establish parity from
the start of the year. Our role as co-teaching coaches
involved stopping in each team’s meeting to answer
questions and further emphasize the goal of parity
for the first day. Once these co-planning tasks were
completed, the teachers focused on the typical––and
myriad––other tasks they needed to accomplish for
the start of the school year.
In mid-September, we returned to North Central
for a second professional development day. This
time we focused on coaching teachers to use their coplanning periods more effectively. Again, the day
included formal presentation as well as grade-level
team meetings. In the formal presentation portion
of the day, we introduced a framework for coplanning adapted from Murawski (2012). First, we
recommended that co-teaching teams hold scheduled
co-planning time as sacred. That is, they needed to
use that time to sit down and talk with each other,
not complete all the other tasks that inevitably
pop up. Second, we recommended they stick to an
agenda during co-planning meetings that Murawski
(2012) referred to as the What/How/Who Questions
for co-planning.
• What questions focus on the content on the
lessons being planned, ensuring that all coteachers have an equal understanding of the
material.
• How questions focus on the instructional
approaches and consider co-teachers’
differing levels of comfort with the
curriculum, acknowledging that curriculum
expertise is generally understood to be the
role of the general education teacher, while
individualization is the role of the special
education teacher (Potts & Howard, 2013).
• Who questions focus on needs of individual
students in the co-taught class, and direct
co-teachers to look at ways to universally
design the lesson so that these students’
needs are likely to be met without after-thefact differentiation.
Third, we recommended co-teachers divide typical
responsibilities that occur across lessons, saving time
during co-planning by having some parts of lessons
that were routine. Fourth, we recommended that
they document this co-planning so that they would
have records of their decisions for future lessons, as
well as to show to their principal as he evaluated the
system later in the year.
Also in this professional development, we drew
teachers’ attention to five common co-teaching
instructional approaches (Murawski, 2012). Two
focused on the whole group and three focused on
regrouping those students into smaller groups as
a means of reducing the teacher-student ratio. One
teach/one support is a whole-class approach in which
one teacher leads instruction, while the other provides
substantive, active support (e.g., for classroom
management or individualized assistance during the
lesson). Team teaching is another whole class approach,
but in this version both teachers equally lead the
instruction, taking turns and often interacting or
role-playing in front of students. Parallel teaching is a
regrouping strategy in which each teacher takes half
of the class in order to reduce the student-teacher
ratio; students may all be doing the same thing in
the same way, but they might also be doing similar
content in different ways. Station teaching is another
regrouping approach common in many classrooms,
but during co-teaching these groups are consistently
heterogeneous, and all students rotate through all
stations. Alternative teaching is the final regrouping
approach, and involves one teacher working with
a large group of students while the other teacher
provides targeted re-teaching or enrichment to a
small, usually homogeneous group. While there
are no firm guidelines as to how often each of these
approaches should be used, it is widely accepted that
co-teachers use all of them, and ensure that each
teacher in the team takes a lead role in each format
across time to ensure the parity of the professionals in
the room (Conderman et al., 2009; Murawski, 2010).
From here, teachers broke into their co-teaching
teams. Similar to the August team meetings, we
met with teachers to coach their application of the
What/How/Who Questions and helped them select
instructional approaches to incorporate into their
lessons.
Critiquing the Feasibility of Co-Planning
As teachers collaborated with their teams to coplan specific ELA lessons, they initially tried to use
multiple instructional approaches. Two goals related
to the co-teaching model informed co-planning:
(a) develop lessons that fully used each teacher so
that they could provide instruction they could not
provide on their own, and (b) try out each of the
different approaches.
As co-teachers pointed out, this sort of coplanning was totally different than the planning
they had done in previous years. Mrs. Stewart
noted, “Planning is one of the hardest parts of the
co-teaching experience…Our biggest hurdle has
been to sit down and talk about all the goals and
objectives for the following day, week, month…
You never know what might pop up during the day
that can affect planning time.” The original master
calendar allowed co-planning sessions one or two
days a week, but the teachers found that insufficient.
Mrs. Waterston, the special education teacher,
emphasized that their team’s flexibility in the face of
schedule limitations made all the difference; “It has
been a learning process for all of us as we try to figure
out the best way to go about planning…it does not
always get down on paper as thoroughly as we would
like.” They found that meeting regularly during
lunch provided a guaranteed daily co-planning time.
As a result, Mrs. Fidler pointed out, “We are on the
same page because we have communicated with
each other,” making the structural limitations on coplanning manageable. While the struggle to find
sufficient co-planning was common across gradelevel teams, and all teams eventually found a strategy
to alleviate this struggle that worked best for them,
the first-grade team’s willingness to integrate their
co-planning into their duty-free lunch allowed them
to rapidly move forward in their co-teaching. While
they did not think that meeting over lunch was the
only way they could have found the additional coplanning they needed, and they noted that as the
year went on they spent less time focused on work
during their lunch, using the informal time for coplanning was an important component in their
initial success.
Co-Instruction
Creating the System for Co-Instruction
The system that the North Central principal structured
for co-teaching enabled the special education teacher
to co-teach reading/language arts and mathematics
lessons in each of the general education teachers’
rooms every day. Essentially, this meant that special
education faculty spent the majority of their school
day teaching in the general education classroom,
with only limited time for pull-out intervention
services. As the school year began, most co-teaching
teams acknowledged that they were in the beginning
stages of their co-teaching relationships. The first
few weeks focused on getting the feel for having two
teachers in the room during instruction, with the
goal of demonstrating parity in their responsibilities
in front of students. Even though this initial coinstruction was sometimes uncomfortable, the parity
they established made a difference as they engaged
in more effective practices. From the first day, coteachers made certain to introduce themselves as
co-teachers, both equally responsible for everyone in
the classroom. Many teams tried to make this equal
responsibility visible by putting both the general
education teacher’s and the special education teacher’s
name on classroom walls and bulletin boards (i.e., as
suggested by Murawski & Lochner, 2010).
As they continued to experiment with coinstruction, teachers found an unexpected benefit of
their three-person team. Since the special education
teacher co-taught lessons in both classrooms, the two
classrooms had to rotate their reading/language arts
lessons and mathematics lessons so that they were
not occurring at the same time. Across teams, this
proved to be a challenge, but a manageable one.
More importantly, because the structure of the coteaching teams meant that the special education
teacher actually repeated the reading/language arts
and mathematics lessons across the two classrooms
each day, grade-level teams found that they could
make adjustments when particular activities worked
well–or less well.
Coaching the Practice of Co-Instruction
By early October, co-teaching teams were ready
to take the next step in their co-instruction, and
were interested in feedback on it. We observed
teams as they engaged in co-instruction and later
coached them on their performance. Our aim was to
provide feedback on the observable ways that teams
implemented fundamentally different instruction
than they could have as individual teachers. We
scheduled observations with teachers in advance to see
their reading/language arts instruction. We used the
Co-Teaching Checklist: Look for Items (Murawski &
Lochner, 2011) to guide our observations and provide
feedback to the teachers. This checklist focuses on
ten areas indicative of parity and effective co-teaching
practices, and each area is rated 0-2 based on the
degree to which it was observed during that lesson.
These ten items include observations of the two
teachers’:
(1) teaching in the same physical space,
(2) sharing responsibility for materials,
(3) beginning and ending the lesson together,
(4) assisting students with and without disabilities,
(5) showing evidence of co-planning through smooth transitions,
(6) differentiating instructional strategies,
(7) using multiple co-teaching instructional approaches,
(8) managing student behavior,
(9) presenting substantive content
(10) providing all students equal access to the curriculum.
As we emphasized in post-observation
conferences with the co-teachers, a low rating was
not evaluative, but rather feedback on the degree to
which the practice was evident as we observed. We
observed co-instruction on three separate days over
two months.
With the first grade team, we saw the same
lesson taught in each first grade classroom. That is,
Mrs. Waterston taught the lesson once with Mrs.
Stewart and again with Mrs. Fidler. Co-teachers
used parallel teaching to preview vocabulary and
read a story during one lesson. To start, co-teachers
re-grouped the students. The levels of support that
students required influenced the composition of
three small groups. While parallel teaching usually
involves only two groups (i.e., number of groups
equals number of teachers), the first grade team
wanted to challenge students with advanced skills to
complete the lesson through a peer-tutoring format
(i.e., without teacher direction); these students
sat at tables in the center of the room and worked
through vocabulary and completed partner reading
of the story. For the remaining students, one group
went into the hallway and one group moved to the
reading rug. Interestingly, co-teachers chose to have
students who needed the most reading support (e.g.,
students identified with or at-risk for disabilities) go
into the hallway with the general education teacher,
whereas the special education teacher worked with
those needing moderate supports and simultaneously
monitored the peer-tutoring group. During our
post-observation conference, co-teachers emphasized
that the decision about who instructed which group
was made to promote parity. Previously that week,
the special education teacher had pulled students
identified with disabilities out of the classroom in
order to establish IEP goals. Co-teachers wanted to
ensure that each individual worked with different
students than earlier in the week. The rationale
for using the hallway was because those students
used choral reading and co-teachers were concerned
that choral reading might disturb the peer-tutoring
group.
Ability-level regrouping is not used
exclusively in co-teaching yet the flexibility of this
model allows purposeful, short-term groups to be
formed when they are most likely to help students
achieve lesson goals. Co-teachers found ability-level
groups beneficial for this particular lesson because
it encouraged differentiated support and allowed
directed instruction of the reading skills they were
teaching to the students with the greatest needs.
Two weeks later, we returned to observe coteaching teams again. On this day, first grade coteachers had organized a language arts activity on
sentence construction. During this lesson, co-teachers
used team teaching and took turns introducing the
writing conventions and writing sentences on the
board. Co-teachers talked with the students and with
each other during the lesson, which is common during
effective team teaching approaches (Conderman,
2009). Co-teachers modeled how students might ask
each other questions about proofreading. After this
team introduction, students worked with partners
to practice writing and proofreading their sentences.
Both co-teachers circulated to work with students
who needed additional support. In our conference
after the lesson, co-teachers emphasized that when
they used team teaching, they were cognizant
that each needed to “check in” with students who
typically needed more support as well as those who
typically needed less. They wanted to ensure that
students always saw both of them as “the teacher” in
the room.
After another two weeks, we returned for the
third day of observations and coaching. The first
grade co-teachers used team teaching again, but this
time during a reading activity. Mrs. Waterston, the
special education teacher, completed the read aloud,
while Mrs. Fidler, the general education teacher,
asked questions to guide students’ comprehension.
The special education teacher sat in the “reading
rocker” in front of the students while they sat on
the rug. The general education teacher pulled up
a student chair behind the students, almost on the
rug herself, forcing the students to visibly shift
their attention from one teacher to the other during
questioning, a factor that seemed to help students
maintain their engagement. In our post-observation
conference, the co-teachers commented on how the
team teaching approach was becoming so natural for
them, that they were already falling into a pattern
in which it became their “default” co-instruction
approach; they indicated that our feedback helped
them reconsider different instructional approaches
for upcoming lessons. Rather than trying to force
sweeping changes to their co-instruction, the
feedback was designed to prompt co-teachers’
consideration of the patterns they were developing,
reminding them the co-teaching should enable them
to deliver substantively different instruction than
they could alone.
Critiquing the Feasibility of Co-Instruction
After the series of coaching observations, we asked
each member of the first grade team individually
how often they used each of the five instructional
approaches. Each teacher indicated that they
used Team and Parallel most often and used
Alternative co-teaching the least. “I honestly feel
like it just happened naturally,” Mrs. Fidler said,
“Working together and teaching has just been a
really comfortable and easy transition for us.” Mrs.
Waterston noted that Team and Parallel have been
comfortable because they feel those approaches
naturally have “both was teachers teaching” all the
students. But, as each member of the first grade
team acknowledged, and as was demonstrated
during our observations, they needed to experiment
with Alternative teaching more. They shared that
they liked Team and Parallel yet some students
might benefit from the small group separation
that Alternative provides. More specifically, those
students with the greatest needs and those who were
most academically advanced might benefit from
small group interaction. Mrs. Fidler pointed out that
they when they have used the Alternative approach,
it has been a modification to plans, rather than part
of formal planning. “If we are in the middle of a
lesson and notice an individual or handful of students
are struggling, we pull them together and one of us
will work with them while the other continues to
work with the remaining students.”
Teachers also emphasized that knowing these
five instructional approaches gave them flexibility
across their day, but that our feedback reminded had
them they needed to continue to strive to use them
all. Mrs. Stewart said during one coaching feedback
session that “We do not do reading and math the same
way every day…all three of us have the willingness
to work with each other…to use all of these types
of formats easily and interchangeably.” The idea of
parity was a clear theme across all three teachers’
discussion of their co-instruction throughout every
feedback session. It may have been because of their
early, regular use of Team and Parallel approaches–
as opposed to other approaches–that they felt parity
early on in their co-teaching relationship. In addition,
perhaps because the two general education teachers
were earning their Reading Endorsement during
this implementation, they avoided approaches that
could require the special education teacher to always
work with the lowest-achieving readers; each teacher
purposively worked with the highest-achieving and
lowest-achieving students at different times. The
teachers on the first grade team emphasized their
parity in the room with these choices, and these
choices may have been significant in the early success
of their co-teaching.
Co-Assessment
Structuring the System for Co-Assessment
At the start of the year, the principal and teachers
agreed that the co-teaching structure would require
co-teachers to complete initial screening assessments
for their students using the Dynamic Indicators
of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good &
Kaminski, 2007). North Central teachers used the
published DIBELS progress monitoring passages to
assess students’ reading fluency gains in accordance
with the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Before
co-teaching, a single reading specialist for the entire
school completed all DIBELS assessments. This
arrangement spawned two problems: (a) the reading
specialist spent so much time progress monitoring
that there was no time for intervention, and (b)
classroom teachers did not have access to these data
to inform their planning and instruction. The coteaching structure ensured that DIBELS progress
monitoring occurred in such a way that co-teaching
teams had the data more quickly then in previous
years, and used data to inform their co-planning.
Coaching the Practice of Co-Assessment
During our three days coaching co-instruction, we
began conversations with every grade-level team
about their co-assessment practices beyond DIBELS.
Many teams found that they were slowly learning to
share this responsibility, attempting to show parity
by ensuring that both special education teacher and
general education teacher graded all students’ work.
Beyond parity, the way co-teachers change assessment
practice because of having two professionals in
the classroom has received little attention in the
research literature (Conderman & Hedin, 2012). In
the absence of clear guidelines from the literature
to direct our coaching, we did not present formal
recommendations about co-assessment. Rather, we
focused co-teachers’ attention on issues of formative
assessment during these conferences, primarily asking
them to pay attention to ways in which they could
improve their immediate instructional decisions.
Specifically, we encouraged co-teachers to consider
their specific learning targets for each co-taught
lesson, which is supposed to help teachers integrate
the CCSS and make assessment a formative process,
rather than only a summative one (Konrad et al.,
2014). Learning Targets are clear statements about
what students should know and be able to do at
the end of a lesson (Chappuis, Stiggins, Chappuis,
& Arter, 2012) and can be used as a foundation for
differentiation. That is, when a learning target is
clear, teachers can differentiate the products through
which students demonstrate their knowledge while
still being certain that each student is meeting the
target (e.g., Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). So, we
would ask questions such as, “Did students have
multiple ways of demonstrating their mastery of the
learning target for this lesson?” or “What did each of
you do during the lesson to identify whether students
met the learning target?” During our conversations,
co-teachers often acknowledged that they still wanted
to consider different ways they could work together
to differentiate their assessments, but that they were
willing to try to do this with two teachers in the room.
Critiquing the Feasibility of Co-Assessment
In fact, these conversations with co-teachers during
our coaching conferences led to identifying coassessment as being a primary benefit of co-teaching.
“We are able to do so many more assessments of all
the students,” Mrs. Stewart commented, “Having
the extra person in the room allows for extra time
to assess.” In addition to simply more time, she also
realized co-teaching allowed them to vary assessments,
incorporating performance-based assessments, so
they could assess students’ progress more “accurately”
than only using tests. Mrs. Fidler concurred with this
improved accuracy:
Co-teaching has allowed us more immediate
feedback…Prior to co-teaching, I really felt
like I struggled to consistently have a good
grasp on how well my students were grasping
new information, and often wouldn’t realize
a student was struggling until I sat down to
grade papers.
With “two sets of eyes” purposefully observing
the students, she indicated, the co-teachers make
immediate, accurate instructional decisions to help
all of their students. While co-teaching teams across
grade levels acknowledged that there was much more
they could do with co-assessment, the comments
from the first grade team were representative of those
from all the teams. One strength of the co-teaching
model was that it helped teachers informally assess
students’ mastery of content faster than they thought
they could do as an individual teacher in the room.
In addition to these informal assessments,
the first grade co-teachers found that co-teaching
provided them the flexibility to better complete
standardized progress monitoring. Mrs. Waterston
took responsibility for DIBELS progress monitoring
of all students whose initial benchmarking suggested
it was necessary. She was able to meet with students
for the individual one-minute progress monitoring
sessions while the rest of the class worked on “centers”.
The co-teachers emphasized that this division of labor
did not necessarily emphasize parity, but made other
aspects of co-instruction work more effectively. That
is, they could not schedule time to plan each aspect
of the day, so it worked best when there were some
tasks that were simply “owned” by one member of the
team. Because they had found ways to co-plan on a
regular basis, it was more important that they could
all access the assessment data to inform activities
than it was a problem that this aspect of their roles
might not present parity. Mrs. Waterston managed
these more formal assessments for both classrooms.
The team always had the data when they met to coplan and, as Mrs. Waterston noted, could design
“interventions revolving around the assessments.”
Fundamentally, the first grade team found that coteaching allowed them to do more assessments and
use the information more effectively than they would
have done as individual teachers on their own.
Final Thoughts
At the end of their first semester of co-teaching,
the first grade team emphasized that they had
grown to depend on one another and that they
perceived its benefits for students. They noted that
the successful implementation of co-teaching for a
semester made them more open to experimenting
with additional pedagogical shifts. Furthermore,
they felt comfortable that they have colleagues––coteaching partners––with whom they can reflect upon
different teaching ideas and challenge themselves to
better handle various mandates.
As mandates impact the ELA classroom,
teachers have no choice but to re-conceptualize their
practices. Co-teaching represents one model for
this re-conceptualization that might make teachers
better able to accommodate the other mandates
with which they are faced. As more students with
disabilities spend more time in general education
classes (Bouck, 2007; Isherwood et al., 2011),
and classroom teachers are held more and more
accountable for all students’ progress (e.g., the Third
Grade Reading Guarantee, upcoming assessments
related to the CCSS), collaboration with other
teachers may alleviate the inescapable challenges
these mandates present.
Implementing co-teaching requires a schoolwide initiative; there are dramatic effects on
scheduling and teachers’ roles. But the payoff for
this initiative is profound, as the reflections from this
first grade team demonstrate. These co-teachers felt
they could meet the needs of their students better
than they might as lone teachers. Co-teaching
provides opportunities for all students to interact
with a rigorous curriculum and receive quality
instruction from two certified teachers (Conderman
& Hedin, 2012). As important as the effects of coteaching are for students, these first grade teachers
found that they felt that the initiative helped them
think about how they could further improve their
practice. The teamwork, the camaraderie, and the
flexibility fostered by the co-teaching model North
Central Elementary School adopted helped these
teachers. Co-teaching was implemented as a way for
teachers to merely “handle” new mandates; however,
the co-teaching model has exceeded all expectations.
These teachers’ language arts instruction has evolved
as they have implemented co-teaching, and they
unanimously emphasized that they would never
want to give up their co-teaching model to go back
to solo instruction again.
References
Bouck, E. C. (2007). Co-teaching…Not just a
textbook term: Implications for practice.
Preventing School Failure, 51(2), 46-53.
Chappuis, J., Stiggins, R., Chappius, S., & Arter, J.
(2012). Classroom assessment for student learning (2nd
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Conderman, G., Bresnahan, V., & Pedersen, T.
(2009). Purposeful co-teaching: real cases and effective
strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Conderman, G., & Hedin, L. (2012). Purposeful
assessment practices for co-teachers. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 44(4), 18-27.
Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. (2012). Including students
with special needs: A practical guide for classroom
teachers. Boston: Pearson.
Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2013). Interactions: Collaboration
skills for school professionals. Boston: Pearson.
Gately, S., & Gately, F. (2001). Understanding
co-teaching components. Teaching Exceptional
Children, 33 (4), 40-47.
Good, R. H., & Kaminski, R. A. (Eds.). (2007).
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (6th
ed.). Eugene, OR: Institute for the Development
of Educational Achievement. Available from
http://dibels.uoregon.edu/
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement
Act (IDEA) of 2004, Public Law 108-446 (2004).
Isherwood, R., Barger-Anderson, R., Merchaut, J.,
Badgett, R., & Katsafanas, J. (2011). First-year
co-teaching: Disclosed through focus group and
individual interviews. Learning Disabilities: A
Multidisciplinary Journal, 17, 113-122.
Konrad, M., Keesey, S., Ressa, V. A., Alexeff, M.,
Chan, P. E., & Peters, M. T. (2014). Setting
clear learning targets to guide instruction for
all students. Intervention in School and Clinic.
Retrieved from http://isc.sagepub.com/content/
early/2014/05/23/1053451214536042.full.
pdf+html
Magiera, K., & Zigmond, N. (2005). Co-teaching
in middle school classrooms under routine
conditions: Does the instructional experience
differ for students with disabilities in co-taught
and solo-taught classes? Learning Disabilities
Research & Practice, 20, 79-85.
Murawski, W. W. (2010). Collaborative teaching in
elementary schools: Making the co-teaching marriage
work! Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Murawski, W. W. (2012). 10 tips for using coplanning time more effectively. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 44(4). 8-15.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, Pub. Law
107-110 (2002).
Ohio Department of Education (ODE). (n.d.). A
strategy for successful teaching today and tomorrow: CoTeaching. Retrieved from http://education.ohio.
gov/getattachment/Topics/Teaching/ResidentEducator-Program/Resident-Educator-MentorResources/Co-teaching-Brochure.pdf.aspx
Ohio Department of Education (ODE). (2013).
Third Grade Reading Guarantee FAQs. Retrieved
from
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/EarlyLearning/Third-Grade-Reading-Guarantee/
Third-Grade-Reading-Guarantee-FAQs
Potts, E. A., & Howard, L. A. (2013). How to co-teach:
A guide for general and special educators. Baltimore,
MD: Brookes.
Tomlinson, C. A., & McTighe, J. Integrating
differentiated instruction and understanding by
design: Connecting content and kids. Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Valencia, S.W. & Wixson, K.K. (2013). CCSS-ELA:
Suggestions and Cautions for Implementing the
Reading Standards. The Reading Teacher, 67(3),
181–185. doi: 10.1002/TRTR.1207
Walther-Thomas, C. S. (1997). Co-teaching
experiences: The benefits and problems that coteachers and principals report over time. Journal
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Have a response to share with the editor?
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Send a letter for our “Reader Forum”
to Patrick Thomas, OJELA editor, at pthomas1@udayton.edu.
A RARE OPPORTUNITY
to see books from a world-class,
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papyri
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manuscripts
Page proofs of the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
(ca. 1953-1955) with the author’s handwritten notes.
inscriptions
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IMPRINTS AND IMPRESSIONS: Milestones in Human Progress
Highlights from the Rose Rare Book Collection
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go.udayton.edu/rarebooks
Multicultural Literature for Elementary
Science Classrooms
–Line A. Saint-Hilaire
Knowledge is central to power. … Knowledge that empowers centers around the interests and
aims of the prospective knower. Apart from the knower, knowledge has no intrinsic power; in
interaction with the knower’s desires and purposes, knowledge has meaning and power.
Introduction
The changing demographics in the United States
demand that teachers adapt their pedagogy and
curriculum to facilitate meaningful learning for all
cultural groups represented in their classrooms.
Educators have been researching best practices to
link schooling and home culture to help integrate
culturally diverse students in the learning process.
Teachers have been encouraged to use relevant
instructional strategies to engage all learners in their
classrooms. In fact, the National Science Education
Standards (1996) emphasizes that “different students
will achieve understanding in different ways, and
different students will achieve different degrees of
depth and breath of understanding depending of
interest, ability and context” (p. 2). So, teachers can
no longer adopt a “one-size-fits-all” pedagogy, where
this “size” represents what they called the mainstream
culture. They should not “believe that good teaching
is transcendent; that it is identical for all students and
under all circumstances.…and that all students to have
the same experiences in schools” (Gay, 2000, p. 21).
While it is easy to argue that effective teaching
should take into consideration the different cultures,
ethnicities and needs of each learner, it is quite a
challenging task to enact such fundamental idea
within pedagogy and available curriculum resources.
Culturally adaptive pedagogy is a recourse that can
help close the gaps between students’ home cultures
and school curriculum. Nevertheless, instructional
resources that support this pedagogy must enrich
adopted curricula. Since the most accessible and
reliable materials utilized in classrooms are books,
multicultural literature becomes an important asset
for teachers trying to address the needs and interests
of diverse student population. Indeed, teachers
have been relying on trade books to captivate their
students’ interests and because of that, trade books
~ Sleeter & Grant, 1991
have been playing a significant role in elementary
classrooms. Teachers have used non-fiction as well
as fiction as a resource for their students to acquire
knowledge in both literacy and content areas, and
as much as possible, relating to students’ lived
experiences. Rosenblatt’s (1994, 1995) transactional
reading theory has been utilized in language arts
instruction to help students connect and transact with
text for acquisition of literacy concepts. According to
her theory, the meaning that students can construct
from reading a text depends on
• the students’ background and experience
as individuals (including ethnicity, religion,
gender, age, reading ability),
• the text (content, genre, structure, level of
difficulty),
• the context of the reading activity (selfselected reading compared to assigned
readings, reading for pleasure compare to
reading to collect information),
• and how it is done (read-aloud, literature
circles, shared and guided readings).
Teachers should not only be concerned about
the selection of quality literature with a variety of
genres but they should also be sensitive to the cultural
relevance of the chosen texts. “To do so means
creating spaces where language learners’ (including
new ELLs) resources are seen as rich contributions to
communities - communities where all members learn
from, with, and about the people that surround them”
(Van Sluys & Reinier, 2006, p. 322). More crucially,
Meier (2003) tells us that “if books are not compelling
to children, then no amount of time spent on rhyming
games, phonemic awareness exercises, or any other
kind of literacy activity will result in their becoming
proficient and empowered readers” (p. 246).
Saint-Hilaire is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Queens College,
City University of New York.
Capturing and maintaining students’ interests
while teaching science concepts mandated by the
standards have always been a difficult task for
teachers. This persistent challenge grows stronger
with the increasingly diverse demographics in student
populations. The use of multicultural literature in
science lessons can definitely assist in motivating
students’ interests in science by relating the content
to features of their cultures. One way in which this
is facilitated is through increasing efforts made to
illustrate trade books with representations of the
variety of ethnic, racial and cultural groups in the US
society. Unfortunately, the majority of these books
do not reflect the authenticity of cultures depicted.
The purpose of this article, then, is to recommend
books that can be used in elementary classrooms to
support science curricula based on multicultural
representations in literature.
Culturally relevant pedagogy and
multicultural literature
Gay (2000) defined culturally responsive pedagogy
as “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences,
frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically
diverse students to make learning encounters more
relevant to and effective for them” (p. 29). According
to Lohfink (2009), “Culturally responsive instruction
reflects the educator’s cultural knowledge base,
pedagogical actions, and determination of curricula
and practices that build upon students’ knowledge
and experiences” (p. 35). In other words, teachers
have to be conscious of the cultural background of
their students and make efforts to use this asset to
help students become active learners. A culturally
responsive pedagogy provides the best learning
environment and opportunities for all learners where
students’ cultures are represented and interacting
within the classroom community, then the school.
Researches have proven successful achievement of
teaching goals with this pedagogical approach (Hefflin,
2002; Gay, 2002; Jewett, 2011; Ladson-Billings,
1995) and there is established agreement among
scholars that teaching the mandated curriculum while
making connections to the lives of learners fosters
interest towards learning. This is also in alignment
with the constructivist approach to teaching, which
allows students to build upon their prior knowledge
for acquisition of new concepts.
Teachers can promote an environment that
encourages participation of all learners in the learning
process by using selected literary works that reflect
their students’ cultural background. By doing
so, multicultural literature becomes an essential
component in the enactment of a culturally relevant
curriculum. As Hefflin (2002) notes, “Culturally
diverse students learn best when appropriate and
authentic materials relate to the students’ culture.
Culturally diverse students are much more interested
in literature that has characters who live the same
cultural experiences as they do. And culturally
diverse students are better able to extend and apply
their learning when literature and themes that relate
to their own lives are used” (p. 237). Yet, finding
readily available culturally oriented books to support
science instruction remains a significant problem.
For my purposes, “multicultural” or “culturally
relevant books” are texts “that represent any distinct
cultural group through accurate portrayal and rich
detail” (Yokota, 1993, p.157). Using cultural texts
facilitates inquiry, as students are able to construct
new knowledge building on prior knowledge
accessible from the text and their own experiences.
Therefore, culturally relevant science books serve
not merely as literacy connections but as recollection
and access to prior knowledge, which facilitates
comprehension of text content, science concepts and
science process skills. These texts provide a familiar
context for the reader that enhances the meaningmaking process.
In my science method courses, I use assignments,
peer-reviewed articles, and chapter books to
bring cultural relevance in teaching pre- and inservice teachers. A recurrent problem for them is
to find culturally relevant trade books to complete
assignments for my course. Indeed, a search of the
literature reveals several multiculturally relevant books
that can be used in elementary classrooms, but not
many of them can be used to support science curricula
based on a cultural perspective. Books are a means by
which students are expected to acquire information
and knowledge, yet few of them support an approach
to learning that helps students connect science to their
personal lives and experiences. Teachers need to have
access to what Blake (1998) calls cultural text: “A
cultural text, then, is a text that “smells” of context, of
experience, of reality” (p. 239). If, however, teachers
are able to provide well-written cultural science trade
books to their students, students will be able to find
themselves reflected in the text and can be motivated
to read and may find interests in learning science.
Therefore, cultural texts would facilitate science
literacy, equipping learners with knowledge and skills
to understand the world around them and be able to
value, protect and change it.
Science literacy
Until the New Generation of Science Standards are
implemented, science is taught based on the two
important documents published during the late1900’s - Benchmarks for Science Literacy by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS,
1994) and The National Science Education Standards by
the National Research Council (NRC, 1996). Both
documents promote the use of inquiry as the method to
teach science to attain science literacy. According to the
National Science Education Standards, “scientific literacy
is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts
and processes required for personal decision making,
participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic
productivity” (p. 22). Scientific literacy is acquired both
by verbal and written interactions between individuals
and involved the literacy and science components. These
standards also advocate for a student-centered method
so that students may become independent learners who
are responsible for their learning. This can be translated
as teachers using appropriate instructional materials
that allow students to construct their own knowledge
and think critically. Science cannot be taught as facts to
be memorized. Learners should be allowed to identify
a relationship between themselves, their reality and the
concepts, principles and theories being taught. Sciencebased literature can be used as a key component of an
instructional environment that facilitates children’s
understanding of scientific concepts, their acquisition
of science process skills, and encourages their curiosity
about the world around them.
For the purpose of this article, I consider trade
books that can play a role in the instruction of science
in which both text and illustration display cultural
diversity. Trade books have been utilized in science
instruction for diverse purposes: they are used to engage
students, stimulating their interests; for instructional
support helping with the teaching of specific concept;
for reference, providing well-organized information;
and for enrichment, extending or elaborating on science
concepts or students interests (Rop & Rop, 2001).
Also, these texts facilitate instruction at different levels
reading skills helping students understand text, science
concepts and the nature of science. Moreover, the
National Research Council supports that “inquiry into
authentic questions generated from student experiences
is the central strategy for teaching science” (2000,
p. 29). If schools do not use resources that parallel
the cultural background of their students to teach
them science, they could lose opportunities to engage
students and bring interests for a subject that is already
not preferred by students.
How do we expect children to develop a positive
attitude and disposition towards science if they do not
encounter their identity in the texts used by our schools?
How do we expect them to enroll in STEM majors
later in college? “The skills gained from mastery of
science concepts at the elementary and middle school
levels provide a solid foundation for students to move
toward careers in science, medicine, and technology.
Science trade books are a valuable complement for
these skills by enhancing and broadening the student’s
scope of topical understanding, and by serving as
resources for further scientific inquiry” (Madrazo Jr.,
1997, p. 21). If multicultural cultural texts are used
in science classrooms, students will experience stories,
characters, settings and life as they know them.
This will bring a sense of belonging and ownership
in the learning process as they relate to the texts.
This relationship with texts will play a crucial role
in accessing learners’ prior knowledge, and engaging
them in higher understanding and achievement in
science. Furthermore, these books can be used to
facilitate understanding of concepts in other subjects
of the curriculum. For example, teachers can ask
students to compare and contrast biomes, leaves,
rocks; used organizers to classify and make text-toself, text-to-text, text-to-world connections. Teachers
can also capitalize on read aloud, directed discussions,
group activities and literature circles to promote
literacy. DeNicolo and Franquiz (2006) reported
how an African-American teacher used literature
circles and multicultural children’s literature to create
critical encounters and to catalyze collective linguistic
learning. For the authors, “critical encounters emerge
when a word, concept, or event in a story surprises,
shocks, or frightens the reader or readers to such a
degree that they seek to inquire further about the
vocabulary or event selected by the author” (p. 157).
Recommended culturally relevant children
books to support science instruction
I present four books and give a list of eleven others that
can be used to connect the experiences of the characters
to the experiences of students to scaffold science
learning in elementary classroom. My preliminary
search consisted of using different databases related to
children books and cultural education, including: the
National Science Teachers Association’s list of Notable
Science Trade Books, the Children’s Literature
Comprehensive Database, Teacher’s Choices booklist,
the International Reading Association list of Books for
a Global Society, The Horn Book Guide, Science Books
and Films, American Indians in Children’s Literature,
Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, and
professional journals such as Journal of Children’s
Literature, Language Arts, Science and Children, Science
Scope, The Reading Teacher, and Children’s Literature
in Education. These sources provided numerous
references for science books with cultural aspects
integrated within the texts. I narrowed my search to
criteria based upon suggestions and recommendation
of other scholars (Ford, 2004; Jewett P., 2011;
Lohfink, 2009; Oaka Pang et al, 1992; Yokota, 1993;
Zarnowski & Turkel, 2011). I used three selective
criteria: 1) authentic representation of culture; 2)
accurate scientific concepts or meaningful connection
to science; 3) depiction of science as useful in everyday
life and/or presenting scientific knowledge crucial in
problem solving. These criteria are described below.
Cultural Authenticity: Bishop (2003) defines
authenticity as “the success with which a writer
is able to reflect the cultural perspectives of the
people about whom he or she is writing, and make
readers from inside the group believe that the
writer ‘knows what’s going on’” (p. 29) Among
the books examined, many failed in depicting the
true “reality” of the described culture. As Yokota
(1993) stated, “Cultural information can be present
in virtually every aspect of a story; the description
of the setting, the events in the plot, the actions
and words of the characters, and the treatments of
the overall theme. Cultural information may be so
naturally and truthfully woven into the story that it
becomes evident that the author and illustrator are
intimately familiar with the nuances of a culture”
(p. 156). Also, any cultural book should offer rich
cultural details, discourse and relationships revealing
nuances of everyday life and general identifiers of
culture in reference.
Science Accuracy: Because books can play an
important role in the understanding of science
concepts, occupying a central role in inquiry science
curricula, it is crucial to carefully examine the accuracy
of their science content. Although, trade books that
deal with a specific topic or focus, are usually best
in picture quality, layouts and illustrations, making
them very attractive, and appealing to diverse
readers, special attention must be given to content
accuracy, consistency and alignment with the science
curriculum. Unfortunately, too many of these
books contain a number of scientific inaccuracies or
misconceptions. “Trade books should supplement,
not supplant quality science texts; they should
be picked with care, not swept en masse from the
library shelf. Teachers must have a clear idea of their
objectives and the specifics of how a particular trade
book will be used in instruction” (Rice, 2002). Also,
some books may not have explicit science concepts
but the connection to science knowledge allows use
of these books in the learning process of culturally
adaptive instruction. These books should help
students develop a realistic understanding of science
and its practice. Therefore it is very important that
the science concepts, science practices and nature of
science presented in these books, whether explicit or
implicit, be accurate.
Relevance of Scientific Knowledge: Children’s
fiction and non-fiction books can help teachers
situate science content in a context that is familiar
to readers. If content is made relevant to students’
interests, personal needs, previous experiences,
and knowledge, students will most likely be
motivated to learn content (Frymier & Shulmann,
1995). So relevance becomes the bridge between
learning content and students’ interests, thereby
increasing their motivation to learn. Therefore, using
instructional materials that is culturally relevant to
students should facilitate interest and motivation
to learn science. Also, it is important for children to
make the connection between science and everyday
needs. Too often, there is disconnection of science
learning and its application to everyday life, making
acquisition of scientific knowledge “not necessary”,
“not applicable” in students’ perspective. So, not
only do students have to identify their cultural selves
when making sense of the content, they also have to
understand the applicability of their knowledge.
Books to Support Multicultural Curricula in
Elementary Science Classrooms
Sorting and selecting trade books can be a daunting
experience for teachers trying to provide the most
appropriate resources for their students. In alignment
with previous suggested criteria and guidelines in the
literature, I present four culturally relevant books
and suggest others (see table 1). In addition, I would
like to invite teachers to consider the following while
making a decision about trade books to support a
culturally relevant science curriculum:
1) Start with the Standards and the content knowledge
that will be covered during the school year for
all subjects. Having a general understanding
of content coverage facilitates an integrated
approach to teaching and helps when picking
out books that will support such approach.
2) Refer to winning awards children’s book lists and
known databases to select high-quality science
children literature. The National Science
Teaching Association annual list, The Horn
Book Guide, Science Books and Films are good
resources.
3) Decide how the chosen books will be used in the
teaching/learning process. As stated before,
books can be used to engage or instruct
students, to elaborate and or expend on their
knowledge, and so on. Teachers must know the
function of a book in a lesson or a unit.
4) Become familiar with the characteristics of
appropriate cultural relevant books and ways to
identify racism, discrimination and stereotypes
in trade books.
The recommended books do not represent an
exhaustive list of multicultural books to be used in
science elementary classrooms. It is rather an attempt
to identify available culturally relevant children’s
books that can be utilized at different stages of a
science lesson.
Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the
Wind and Changed their World
Energy Island, written by Allan Drummond, is a vivid
example of how we can utilize wind energy. Life in the
island of Samso, Denmark, is depicted starting with
situating the island geographically, introducing crops
(potatoes, peas, corn, strawberries), pasture and cattle,
detailing jobs (farmers, teachers, fishermen, dentist,
lighthouse keeper, harbormaster) and places and
portraying people in typical clothes and names (Soren
Hermansen, Jorgen Tranberg, Petra Petersen). Even
the games played in different seasons are mentioned.
The readers also are reminded or learn about how
energy is used in everyday life on the island: switching
lights, keeping warm, using hot water and gas for cars
and the sources of energy used (petroleum, coal and
natural gas). And of course there is the wind. The
author emphasizes how ordinary people (teachers,
students, fishermen, farmers, mechanics) were able
to use scientific knowledge to solve a crucial problem
in their island. Some acted on a small scale, others
addressed the problem on a bigger one. Sure there
were some resistance, but a shift of attitude made it
possible for scientific enactment. We see a change
in quality of life of ordinary citizens because of the
application of scientific knowledge. The author offers
scientific facts about global warming types of energy
throughout the book.
Josias, Hold the Book
In Josias, Hold the Book, written by Jennifer R. Elvgren,
readers follow the quest of a young boy to find a
solution for his garden to grow. Josias cannot go to
school because he has to tend the garden that provides
peas and potatoes for his family. His friend, Chrislove
keeps on encouraging him to “hold the book.” When
the garden won’t grow after he tried extra water and
manure, he decided to ask his friend who attends
school for a solution. The schoolteacher suggests crop
rotation and sends a book to Josias about planting.
The scientific knowledge gained from the book
convinces him and his parents about the advantages
of education. The author depicts a true picture of rural
Haitian life where poverty usually keeps children out
of school. Children are then responsible for various
chores and tasks at a very young age. A Haitian
reader will be familiar with the names (Nataline,
Chrislove), the language (“Bonjou Josias, Where is
your head? You can’t eat okra with one finger”), the
depicted scenery (animals, thatched hut, girl caring
water, cooking, drying clothes), the habits (walking
barefoot, ways of sitting, playing futball, recycling
goods) and the traditions (telling stories, oldest child
role of provider) revealed in this book. In the story,
the shift of thinking of the family to accept the idea
that knowledge brings understanding of the natural
world will help the family to be more efficient in
their life especially in crop production. Here scientific
knowledge becomes a survival tool for the family.
Science knowledge is portrayed as applicable skills
in characters’ everyday lives. The reader can imagine
what Josias will learn about all types of plants, how
to plant them; he can also learn about the nutritional
value of the plants in his garden and how a balanced
diet is important for his family. He will certainly
learn about the conditions for plant’s growth. This
story can help develop interests as well in the science
concepts as its relevance in everyday life.
Grandfather’s Dream
Holly Keller uses vivid pictures to explain the human
impact on the environment in Grandfather’s Dream.
The wetlands of the Mekong delta in Vietnam were
destroyed during the war, resulting of the death and
migration of native animals, specifically the large
cranes. After the war, the community struggles
between restoring their inheritance and addressing the
present and future needs of the people. The story and
illustrations accurately depict the life, relationships,
and habits of rural Vietnam. A young reader will
be interested in reading this book and discussing
the issue at hand. From cookware, utensils used,
clothes and footwear, animals raised (duck, hens,
pigs), to pet names (Nam, Tam Nong) used in the
story of the relationship and legacy between the
grandfather and the grandson, the story unfolds
the rural life of Mekong delta, inviting the reader
to question about the birds and other animals of
wetlands, the environment and ways that we can
take care of our planet.
Come Back Salmon: How a Group of Dedicated Kids
Adopted Pigeon Creek and Brought it Back to Life.
Come Back Salmon by Molly Cone reports how
children in Jackson Elementary School in Everett,
Washington, with the help of their teachers,
organized and carried out a project to clean up
polluted Pigeon Creek and bring back salmon and
other fish to the creek. The story is illustrated with
more that forty photographs of children of different
backgrounds, ages and gender. It is a remarkable
example of the ability of children to act as scientists,
utilizing scientific knowledge to solve a problem in
their community. Although many people from the
community didn’t believe in the restoration of the
creek, the children succeeded in their project and
learned about ecology of stream and the life cycle of
Coho salmon.
Each of these four books describes a person or a
group of people who are using scientific knowledge
to solve a problem in their family or community.
In each book, the characters are facing a critical
problem, they inquired about possible solutions and
take actions based on scientific concepts to get a
solution to the problem, either by harnessing wind
power, or by restoring natural habitats for birds or
fish, or by going to school. In addition, the authors
do a fascinating job at unveiling an authentic
representation of the culture depicted. Each of the
four books was read by a native of the culture or by
someone who has spent times in the country, and
each reader confirmed the accuracy of the language,
images and setting of the culture. Although there are
no explicit science concepts taught in two of the books
(Josias, Hold the Book and Grandfather’s Dream), these
cultural texts can be incorporated in science lessons
either to engage students or prompt further questions
to deepen their understanding on the corresponding
concept, as they describe how scientific knowledge
can be used to solve vital problems. In both Energy
Island and Come Back Salmon, scientific concepts are
presented in a clear manner and are accurate.
Conclusion
Culturally relevant resources should be used to
assist literacy education, which will enable students
to be engaged with the texts, identifying self and
others. Reading and writing activities should support
connections between learning goals, students’
backgrounds and prior knowledge so they may
appreciate literacy, whether in language arts, or
science as meaningful and relevant to humankind.
Fradd & Lee (1999) found that by engaging
fourth graders from diverse cultural and linguistic
backgrounds in inquiry from a cultural perspective,
the students benefited from group work with an
improvement in both English and science skills.
Using cultural texts should stimulate interest and
motivation to read and help maximize an integrated
approach that fosters learning.
Classroom teachers can use different ways to
integrate these books into the curriculum, either
with read-alouds, reader’s theatre, reading workshop,
literature circles, book clubs or independent reading.
In table 1, I have recommended fifteen trade books
reflecting perspective, experiences and values of
different cultural groups that can be used to support
an integrated curriculum in elementary classrooms.
Cultural texts “in the urban classroom…releases
scents of gender, race, class, linguistic heritage,
and community; a text that reflects the particular
aspirations, struggles, and realities of urban students.
Cultural texts are the “stuff” of students’ lives,
created and responded to in ways that incorporate the
semiotics of a culture” (Blake, 1998, p. 239). Unlike
other multicultural trade books, the recommended
cultural texts can help teachers engage students
in scientific exploration by making meaningful
connections to their life.
I acknowledge the efforts made by many authors
to provide such relevant materials to students but
most culturally relevant books are salient to new
immigrants or foreign-born students. As Moore
(1995) pointed out “literacy is better served if a
person living in Arizona knows more about the desert
environment that about that of Amazonia – though
there would be great personal satisfaction in knowing
about Amazonia as well” (p. 1). The children in our
classrooms live in the United States and yet very few
books describe their life as cultural citizen in this
country. There is also an absence of books that reflect
the reality of immigrant children who have been in
the States for several years and the reality of second,
third, fourth even fifth-generation of native-born
Americans. How are they represented in trade books
used to support science instruction? Do we assume
that immigrant children “fit into” the mainstream
culture after two to three years in the country? How
do children, born in the States from immigrant
parents, become engaged with texts and illustrations
of trade books used in our science classrooms?
Ford, D. J. (2004). Scaffolding Preservice Teachers’
Evaluation of Children’s Science Literature:
Attention to Science-Focused Genres and Use.
Journal of Science Teacher Education, 15 (2), 133-153.
In its February 2009 report on live births, the
New York City Bureau of Vital Statistics reported
that at least 52% of the infants born since 2002,
were born from foreign born mothers, amongst
which a significant number came in the United
States as adults. What does it mean to be AfricanAmerican, Mexican-American, French-American,
Russian-American, Malawian-American in the
American culture and how does the curriculum
resources used in classrooms, facilitate scientific
enactment for these children? If we consider that
the above statistics aligned with the ones of the
major urban cities in the states, we must ponder
about how can students acquire scientific literacy
when they cannot identify with the resources used
to teach them. In an era where we debate and fight
so much for equality, equity, justice for all, we fall
short to understand the value of teaching science
to students embracing their cultural identity and
teaching them respect for others.
Frymier, A. B. & Shulman, G. (1995). What’s in it
for me? Increasing Content Relevance to Enhance
Students’ Motivation. Communication Education,
44, 40-50.
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Elvgren, J. (2006). Josias, Hold the Book. Honesdale,
PA: Boyds Mills Press.
English, K. Big Wind Coming! (1996). Park Ridge, IL:
Albert Whitman & Company.
Hollyer, B. (2008). Our World of Water. New York,
NY: Henry Holt and Co.
Kamkwamba, W. & Mealer, B. (2012). The Boy Who
Harnessed the Wind. New York: Penguin Group.
Keller, H. (1994). Grandfather’s Dream. New York,
NY: Greenwillow Books.
McDonald, M. (2001). My House has Stars. London,
UK: Orchard Books.
Merill, J. (2006). The Toothpaste Millionaire. Boston,
MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Morris, A. (1994). On the Go. New York, NY: William
Morrow & Co, Mulberry Books.
Rocco, J. (2011). Black Out. New York, NY: Hyperion
Book.
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English teaching and learning.
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Patrick Thomas at pthomas1@udayton.edu.
Table 1: Recommended Multicultural Literature Titles for Elementary Science Classrooms
Brown, Monica. (2007). Butterflies on Carmen Street/Mariposas en la Calle Carmen. Illustrated by April
Ward. Spanish translator Gabriela Ventura. Houston: Piñata Books.
Genre: Fiction
Culture: Mexican-American.
Science Topics: Life cycle and migration of insects/butterflies
In Butterflies on Carmen Street, the author links Mexico and United States through a science project on monarch
butterflies. Julianita, an elementary school age Mexican-American, observed and learned with excitement the
transformation of a caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Her grandfather, who is from Michoacán, Mexico, gets
involved in the project, teaching Julianita about the insects’ migration to his hometown in Mexico.
English, Karen. (1996). Big Wind Coming! Illustrated by Cedric Lucas. Albert Whitman & Company.
Genre: Fiction
Culture: African-American.
Science Topics: Farm life, weather, storms
Big Wind Coming! tells the story of an African American family experience before, during and after a hurricane.
Although the family hears about the coming storm in the radio, the author does a great job depicting how the
family truly realized or believed the storm was heading towards the area: the chickens kept squawking, the
mule acted oddly, the air felt strange, grandma’s cake didn’t rise and how they prepared for the storm. The
illustrations are true to the representing the raging and devastating storm outside compare to the secure and
peaceful shelter.
Adoff, Arnold. (2000). The Basket Counts. Illustrated by Mike Weaver. Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers.
Genre: Poetry
Culture: Multicultural
Science Topics: Sports, force and motion
Arnold Adoff wrote twenty-eight poems to describe the movements and the emotions involved in basketball
games using different settings (city playground, driveway, bedroom), different people (wheelchair bounded,
male, female, homeless, short, tall) to feature urban youth of diverse cultural background. A young reader will
be captivated by Weaver’s illustration of the actions, motions and sound of the game with curls, swirls as to
reinforce the words of the poems.
Rocco, John. (2011). Black Out. Hyperion Book CH.
Genre: Fiction
Science Topics: Energy and electricity
The story compels us to spend time with our family and examine how the use of current technology leads to
the lost of simple and enjoyable family interactions. Because of a black out, people in Brooklyn, NY, are forced
to spend time together without phones, computers, television and video games. The story focuses on a multicultural family, too busy to spend time together, who now get an opportunity to examine the stars in the sky
and to mingle with their neighbors.
Bruchac, Joseph & London, Jonathan. (1997) Thirteen Moons on Turtles Back: a Native American Year of
Moons. Illustrated by Thomas Locker. Puffin Books.
Genre: Poetry
Culture: Native American
Science Topics: Moon and the seasons
This book is about the changing seasons and how they relate to the 13 cycles of the moon, based on myths and
legends of Native American tribes from the Hudson River to the lands of the Lakota, Cherokee, Abenaki and
Cree. The author describes the 13 moons, from Moon of Popping Trees, Maple Sugar Moon, Moon of Falling
Leaves, to Big Moon, in a year corresponding to the 13 scales on the Old Turtle’s back. Each moon has a name
and a story. The stories are nicely told with poems and oil paintings depicting the color of light, sky, trees and
wildlife of the changing seasons.
Adoff, Arnold. (1997). In for Winter, Out for Spring. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Harcourt Inc.
Genre: Poetry
Culture: African-American
Science Topics: Seasons
Adoff uses 28 poems to describe the family life of African-American throughout the seasons. Although the
story is from a rural area, the poems describe moments, activities that happen in urban locations as well. During
the year, people garden, enjoy first snowfall, walk barefoot in grass, and prepare for storm.
Hollyer, Beatrice. (2008). Our World of Water. Henry Holt and Co. NY.
Genre: Non-fiction
Science Topics: Water
Children from six countries: Peru, Mauritania, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Ethiopia and U.S., describe the ways
their families use water. Five photographers contributed pictures of the children’s lives using water. There is a
clear effort made to highlight similarities and difference of the children’s cultures. The countries are presented
from a world map and regions are chosen to represent different landscapes such as seashore, mountaintop
as well as different economic and social background. Also, the children are given a voice in the story where
quotes from them are used to reinforce the ideas in the book.
Kamkwamba, William & Mealer, Bryan. (2012). The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Young reader edition.
Illustrator Elizabeth Zunon. Dial Books for Young Readers. Penguin Group (US) Inc.
Genre: Biography
Culture: Malawian
Science Topics: Renewable energy, especially wind
When a fourteen year-old Malawian boy is forced to drop out of high school because of his village was
devastated by drought, he decided to spend his time in the library. From reading science books, he learns about
windmills and how they produce electricity and serve as a water pump. After many weeks, mocked by the
people in the village, and using junkyard scraps, he makes an electric windmill.
McDonald, Megan. (2001). My House has Stars. Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto. Orchard Books.
Genre: Fiction
Science Topics: Objects in the sky, stars
This book conveys the message that the sky is our roof no matter where we live on earth. Eight children from
different countries and continents (Philippines, Ghana, Japan, America, Brazil, Mongolia and Nepal) tell about
their experience with the night sky. Watercolor paintings capture the uniqueness of their home and their culture
as well as the universal thing that we all share. Your name can be Carmen, Abu, Mariko, Oyun, Sergio, Mattie,
Akam; your home can be a mud house, hut, houseboat, skyscraper apartment, yurt or an igloo, but we all see
the stars in the sky.
Morris, Ann. (1994). On the Go. Photographs by Ken Heyman. HarperCollins; 1st Mulberry Edition.
Genre: Non-fiction
Science Topics: Machines and transportation
As the author uses photographs in different countries and simple text to describe many ways people move
from one place to another, he also presents a spectrum of technology in transportation. From Australia to
Peru, Somalia to Greece, India to Germany, Hong Kong to USA, from earth to the moon, humans use boats,
bikes, rickshaws, buses, trains, vessels, plane, helicopters, and space shuttles to go places. If we have to carry
something, we use our back, our shoulders, our heads or animals to do so. The book conveys the idea that
carrying babies on the back or carrying baskets on shoulders are as necessary as going to the moon or taking
the bus to go to work or to school or taking the train to visit an amusement park.
Merill, Jean. (2006). The Toothpaste Millionaire. Illustrated by Jan Palmer. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Genre: Fiction
Science Topics: Problem solving and the ability to do inquiry
The Toothpaste Millionaire is the story of two sixth-graders who make and sell toothpaste because they thought
toothpaste was too expensive. Within a year they become millionaires from selling their product. Although
this book is focuses on mathematical problems solving, it is a great example of how children can use scientific
knowledge to solve problems and their ability to do inquiry. There is also a subtle approach of describing the
partnership of children of different cultures.
Have a response to share with the editor?
Want to converse with other OJELA readers?
Send a letter for our “Reader Forum”
to Patrick Thomas, OJELA editor, at pthomas1@udayton.edu.
Teach Lit to Engage All
Engaging American Novels
Lessons from the Classroom
Joseph O. Milner and Carol A. Pope, editors
This collection focuses on ten frequently taught American novels, both classic and contemporary,
that can help promote student engagement.
ISBN: 978-0-8141-1358-5 No. 13585
Teaching YA Lit through Differentiated Instruction
Susan L. Groenke and Lisa Scherff
The authors offer suggestions for incorporating YA lit into the high school curriculum.
ISBN: 978-0-8141-3370-5 No. 33705
Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults
Mary Ellen Dakin
Dakin explores different methods for getting students engaged–and excited–about
Shakespeare's plays as they learn to construct meaning from the texts' sixteenthcentury language and connect it to their twenty-first-century lives.
ISBN: 978-0-8141-3904-2 No. 39042
On Demand Web Seminars
Differentiating Reading
Reading
ading Shakespeare
Instruction
with Young Adults
Differentiating Reading Instruction with a Whole-Class, Young Adult Novel
No. 15344
Reading Shakespeare with All Our Students
No. 14166
National Council of
Teachers of English
National Council of
Teachers of English
Phone: 1-877-369-6283 or 217-328-3870
Phone: 1-877-369-6283 or 217-328-3870
Fax: 217-328-9645
www.ncte.org
Fax: 217-328-9645
www.ncte.org
High School Literature Series
T NCTE High School Literature Series helps teachers get their students
The
excited about literature. Each brief, accessible book focuses on a single
author or work and features excerpts from the writer's works, biographical
information, and samples of professional literary criticism.
Shaping literacy
eracy for tomorro
tomorrow, today.
Visit our website: https://secure.ncte.org/store/
or call toll free: 1-877-369-6283
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all High School
Lit Series titles.
Why Students Need Experiential,
Place-based, and Hopeful Ecopedagogy—
How to Bring It into the English Classroom
–Jessica Jones
I
Teach the children. (…) Show them daisies and the pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of
sassafras and wintergreen. The lives of the blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasinflowers. And the frisky ones—inkberry, lamb’s quarters, blueberries. And the aromatic
ones—rosemary, oregano. Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school.
Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of
profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green
space they live in...”
n 2007-2008, I served as yearlong Writerin-Residence for Cuyahoga Valley National
Park (CVNP) in Peninsula, Ohio. Among
my duties were to teach poetry to the children who
visited Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education
Center (CVEEC) and to hike with
them, their teachers, and the
park interns and rangers along
500 acres of trails. I taught a new
group of twenty students four
times a day, one to two days a
week. In return, I was given one
of the park’s historic farmhouses
to live for the year, just a few miles
walk from CVEEC.
I had previously taught high
school and college level English,
but was new to environmental
education. Similar to Outward
Bound, which aims to “change
lives through challenge and
discovery” (Outward Bound), and
Expeditionary Learning Schools,
which function under guiding
principles such as “The primacy of
self-discovery” and “The natural
world,” (Expeditionary Learning), CVEEC strives
to help students grades 4-8 bridge the gap between
knowledge and experience. Founded in 1993, CVEEC
uses a student-centered, inquiry-based curriculum titled
~ (Mary Oliver Blue Iris 56)
“All the Rivers Run,” which embraces science, history,
and the arts to help students explore the watershed
and human impact on its ecosystems (Conservancy for
Cuyahoga Valley National Park). The CVEEC operates
through a partnership between the National Park
Service and the Conservancy for
CVNP, and throughout the course
of the school year about 3,000
students attend the weeklong
residency program. Another
3,000-4,000 students attend day
programs, many from urban and
inner city schools.
I had no idea what to expect
when I arrived. Though excited
by the vastness of the Valley
and the prospect of living and
working in such a wild setting,
I began my residency as an
English teacher more concerned
with the endangered-ness of
Chaucer’s “Chanticleer” than the
disappearance of the Sandhill
Crane. But as the seasons
marched, I became aware that I
was encountering something vital
in this environmentally rich language arts adventure.
Each week, I learned alongside a new, different group
of students and their teachers while rangers educated us
on the history and ecology of the park.
Jessica Jones is a former Writer-in-Residence at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Currently, she teaches sixth grade at Ronan
Middle School on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Lake County, Montana.
As we hiked, ink bled blue across my field
notebook in little pictures and notated diagrams:
Duckweed—the tiniest flower and root system; Wigstems—
yellow blossoms and leaves climbing horizontally like
a ladder. I had never interacted with geologists,
ecologists, biologists, and they had never worked with
a writer. Our conversations jumped with surprises
and comical attempts to communicate the most
basic perceptions: Backswimmers have arms like oars;
voracious water beetles have mouths that tuck under their
chins. We scrambled up shale streambeds, searched
for fossils in volcanic rock, scooped pond muck into
buckets and observed beavers building dams. The
teachers, students and I learned new words: scat,
windfall, glacial erratic, and new creatures: wolf spiders,
damselflies, prairie voles. In my poetry workshops, I
read image-laden, nature-centered poetry by Ohio
native Mary Oliver (her books Blue Iris, Red Bird,
and White Pine all contain lovely poems accessible to
children) then prompted students to grow still and
write about their surroundings
using their five senses.
The results were surprising,
and often stunning. In the out-ofdoors, difficult students became
calm and attentive; otherwise
resistant learners produced vivid
lines of poetry. During training,
I had learned that nearly half of
schools that CVEEC served were
from low-income areas, including
Cleveland, Akron, and inner ring
suburbs of both cities, as well as
schools from low-income areas
in Lorain and Summit Counties,
and that about 36% received
financial support to attend camp
via scholarships raised by the
Conservancy (in 2013-2014,
the total given was $96,129).
Throughout the year I also
learned from teachers and chaperones that many of
the students attending were on IEPs, struggled with
social or emotional challenges or were otherwise
resistant to learning.
But each week the teachers and I observed
these “unreachable” students exhibiting curiosity
in nature—tentatively holding goldenrod still to
examine a caterpillar, staring into the grass to watch
for ants. Some students even showed wonder, jumping
up and down and pointing at turtles or gaping at
giant icicles that clung to rock walls. Teachers often
commented on the rarity of such experiences, both
for the students and for themselves. Alicia Moore,
Transformative Project Manager with Cleveland
Metropolitan School District, writes of her time at
the CVEEC,
My most exciting moments were being
able to hike during the day (which I hadn’t
done since I was a child) and especially
at night (which I had always wanted to
do.) I felt safe and free to explore the
surroundings and very appreciative for
the opportunity to participate in the
experience with the students. It always
amazes me to watch our students work as
teams to create informative presentations
of their findings. (Moore)
At night, around the campfire, the rangers,
interns, teachers and I narrated local native stories
about the stars, animals, and seasons to surprisingly
rapt young audiences1 .
When I left the park at the
end of my 10-month post, I
had spent some eight hundred
hours out of doors with CVEEC,
and taught poetry to over three
thousand kids, collecting enough
of their work to comprise an
online anthology. I resumed my
post as a college instructor and
continued teaching canonical
English as expected. But I was
changed as a person and as
an educator.
This essay explores my
discoveries from CVEEC and
embraces the belief that we
need experiential, place-based,
hopeful ecopedagogy in our
English classrooms2. In the
“Classroom Ideas,” I offer lesson ideas, projects and
resources that teachers can implement when they do
not have the luxury of traveling with their students
to a national park.
Experiential Ecopedagogy
“We are rational creatures. Eventually. But first,
wonderfully first, we are feeling creatures. And if we
do not begin in feeling, our rationality becomes a
cold, dead, dangerous thing.”
(G. Lynn Nelson, Writing and Being 22)
At this point in time, it would be difficult to deny
that we are destroying our planet. Clear-cutting, strip
mining, arctic drilling, crop sterilization, acid rain,
chemical spills, rapid extinction of species, raging
wildfires, holes in the ozone, genetic engineering,
global warming, bio-warfare and population
explosion have pushed nature to the threshold of
catastrophe. In Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500
Years, Winona LaDuke states that over 650 atomic
weapons have been detonated on the Shoshone
Nation alone (Bigelow and Peterson 160); Patricia M.
Mische reports in her article, “Toward a Pedagogy of
Ecological responsibility” that in the Pacific Islands,
“whole family lines have died out from the effects of
radiation exposure from nuclear testing” (sect. 11 par.
4). As Scott Russell Sanders asserts in A Conservationist
Manifesto, “While comprising less than 5 percent
of the world’s population, Americans account for
some 25 percent of the world’s use of nonrenewable
resources, and the amounts we use are increasing year
by year. We likewise account for roughly 25 percent
of the world’s annual release of greenhouse gases” (xii).
One argument for experiential ecopedagogy is
that children cannot learn the value of nature if they
never come in contact with it. In order to foster a
love of the earth, we must expose children to nature
early and frequently. A century ago, Henry David
Thoreau’s famous lines, “Shall I not have intelligence
with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable
mould myself?” (114) felt familiar to most American
children. Likewise, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s evening
lament—“the air had so much life and sweetness,
that it was a pain to come within doors” (197)—was
a regular summer sentiment. But few American youth
still have this experience. Environmental Education
advocate Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) has
gone so far as to coin the term “nature-deficit disorder”
to describe the lack of contact with nature experienced
by Generations X and Y (34). With the disappearance
of the family farm and other outdoor ways of living,
and with the rise of indoor entertainment, Louv argues
that fewer and fewer children are growing up by way of
Dewey’s “experiential education” (teaching the natural
world via the five senses) (65). Expounding this, Louv
suggests, is “the wave of test-based education reform”
that began in the 1990s, allowing even less room for
experiential learning in nature (134). The danger in
honing rationality without feeling is that we educate
students not to care about what can’t be measured,
drastically reducing the likelihood that they will grow
up to be environmental stewards. In his 1949 Sand
County Almanac, Aldo Leopold warned that the future
crux of the environmental movement would be the
apathy of upcoming generations. “Perhaps,” he writes,
“the most serious obstacle impeding the evolution of a
land ethic is the fact that our educational and economic
system is headed away from, rather than toward, an
intense consciousness of the land. Your true modern is
separated from the land by many middlemen, and by
innumerable physical gadgets. He has no vital relation
to it” (239).
In addition to diminishing proclivity for
environmental stewardship, lack of exposure to nature
has negative repercussions for children’s health.
Louv suggests that America’s pandemic of childhood
obesity, ADHD, diabetes, depression, and behavioral
disorders is a direct result of the national move toward
indoors living (Louv 34, 47, 65). Sanders underscores
these findings with his assertion that “By the age of
21 the average American has encountered over thirty
million ads (…) and has spent more hours watching
television than attending school” (35). According to
Randy and Tanya Page, the average 8 to 18-year old
spends an average of 6 hours and 21 minutes per day
with indoor media (TV, videos, DVDs, MP3 Players,
video games) and only about an hour and 25 minutes
doing physical activity—one of the primary reasons
that childhood obesity has tripled over the last twenty
years (103,165). For many children, school recess may
be the sole source of exercise, fresh air, and exposure
to nature, which is tragic, since studies show nature
can have a powerful “restorative” effect for children
suffering from mental, emotional and physical
disorders (Louv 99).
The natural world also provides children thinkoutside-the-box experiences that hone critical
thinking and foster creativity. According to Robin
Moore, multisensory experiences in the natural
world help to build “cognitive constructs necessary
for sustained intellectual development” (Louv 85).
Andrea Faber Taylor and Frances Kuo have also
observed a marked increase children’s ability to
concentrate when in nature (Louv 88), and the studies
of environmental psychologists Stephen and Rachel
Kaplan reveal increased sense of wellbeing and focus
among those who spend sustained reflective time in
nature (Kaplan 195-198). In Mary Annette Pember’s
essay, “Diversifying Pedagogy” (2008), Dr. Dawn
Adrian Adams goes so far as to attribute all modern
struggles, including damage to the environment and
disease to “the disconnect to knowledge that students
internalize in the Western school setting” (20).
At CVEEC I repeatedly witnessed children
transformed by nature. Typically disinterested
students begged to observe pond scum through
microscopes and otherwise defiant learners waded
into the river to test PH balance. One day during
my poetry workshop a tattoo-ridden thirteen-yearold read a piece about the wind
and her teacher turned to me
with tears in her eyes: “I can’t
believe Jamiqua3 wrote that. I
didn’t think she even knew how.”
Another day, early in March, my
students and I stood mesmerized
by a field of brush crystalized by
an ice storm that glistened—to
the point of blinding—in the
sun. One of the fifth graders
uttered, “The light is reflecting
every single color of the world!”
and the rest of us nodded, our
experience of language fused with
our experience of nature. CVEEV
director Stacey Heffernan writes,
“The benefits of time spent in
nature are apparent every time
I observe a group of students—
there are always a lot of smiling
faces; interest and engagement is so evident.” She
describes one of her favorite CVEEC photos—a child
standing with arms out, face upward as autumn leaves
cascade down around him: “This pose is the most
common in our archive of pictures, and to me it says,
‘It feels so wonderful to be here! I want to soak it all
in! I love how this feels!’” (Heffernan).
Other teachers and scholars have noted similar
phenomena. In his essay, “Pedagogy and the Poetic:
Nurturing Ecological Sensibility through Language
and Literature,” Patrick Howard observes an “intimate
connection between ecological attunement and
language” (186) which helps students to dwell more
deeply in a sense of place and offers a “means to heal
and re-vision our human presence on the Earth” (191).
In her article, “Teaching Where We Are: Place-Based
Language Arts,” Merrilyne Lundahl writes of guiding
her students to “relate in a real way to what [they]
studied” (46). Metaphor, in particular, she says, is a
strong vehicle for “exploring inner and outer landscapes
and to connect the personal with environmental” (46).
In my poetry workshops at the CVNP, I frequently
observed students blurting out synonyms: “That’s not
a red leaf, that’s a crimson leaf! That leaf is red like
bloood!” …clambering for figurative language, “Ms.
Jones, what’s a word for ‘pokey’? I wanna say that this
teasel is ‘pokey’ like it doesn’t want to let anybody
in…” and describing themselves in direct comparison
to their surroundings: “My name is Tre. / My eyes are
like brown wood/ My shoes are like black rocks/ My
skin is like this smooth water.”
The natural world awakens in
children a desire to increase
language skills so that they might
better relay what they are seeing,
hearing, smelling, touching, and
feeling. Megan Pacione, Principal
at Crestwood Elementary School
in Elyria, Ohio, writes of her
observations at the CVEEC that
learning in an outdoor setting
increased her students’ desire to
communicate across differences.
“This was such a positive thing,”
she asserts, “as many times here
at school, children will cling to
stereotypes or pre-conceived
notions about each other. Yet
at camp, those seemed to go
away and the children found
themselves enjoying each other’s
company and support, regardless
of their relationships while at school” (Pacione).
How then, do we incorporate experiential
ecopedagogy into the English classroom? “We can
begin,” writes Patricia M. Mische, “by learning about
and appreciating the special geological, biological, and
human cultural evolution and qualities of our bioregion,
and by working with our neighbors to assure its present
and future sustainability” (sect. 12 par. 5). Such teaching
and learning may begin with something as simple as
giving our students “peppermint to put in their pockets”
as they walk home from school (Oliver 56).
Classroom Ideas for Experiential
Ecopedagogy
Establish a schedule (every Friday
afternoon, for example) in which students
walk the school premises to observe
seasonal changes. Emphasize the five
senses as they make notes in their journals
about shifts in plants, animals, weather,
light, shadow, wind. If your school is in
the city, look for signs of urban wild lands.
(Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole
New Way of Seeing the World Around You, by
Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth,
is a gorgeous illustrated guide with ample
tips, exercises and sketches.)
Design a unit on local flora in which
students learn which plants are edible,
which have traditional medicinal uses,
and which are invasive. Invite a naturalist
to class so that students can touch, taste,
and smell specimens. Follow-up with
readings from Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, Jon
Krakauer’s Into the Wild, or Jean Craighead
George’s My Side of the Mountain, in which
adolescent protagonists live off the land.
Assign students to write an adventure
story of their own—set in the local area—
in which characters must rely outdoor
knowledge to survive.
Introduce students to the short passage
from Thoreau’s “The Pond in Winter”
in which he surveys for depth. Team up
with a science teacher to take students
to a local body of water (or use ice in the
schoolyard of parking lot)
to perform simple tests
and measurements then
have students write about
their experience imitating
Thoreau’s style.
Get permission to plant
a garden in the school
courtyard or under windows
and let the students have
ownership. (Roots, Shoots,
Buckets and Boots, by Sharon
Lovejoy, is a delightful
illustrated how-to guide
with helpful and lighthearted advice, activities,
crafts, and recipes.) Help
students document seeding,
germination, weeding and
growth. Celebrate harvest
by eating the first produce
or making bouquets of the first flowers.
Assign students to write a feature article
for the school newspaper/newsletter about
their garden—be sure to include “before
and after” photos of the plot. A Place to
Grow, Voices and Images of Urban Gardeners,
by Ohio authors Lynn Gregor and David
Hassler, is an inspiring collection of
stories about urban gardeners that can
serve as a nice model for students’ writing
and photography.
Place-based Ecopedagogy
“How can anyone live a meaningful, gathered life in a
world that seems broken and scattered?”
(Scott Russell Sanders, Writing from the Center ix)
In her article, “A Pedagogy for Ecology,” Ann
Pelo writes: “We live in a culture that dismisses the
significance of an ecological identity, a culture that
encourages us to move around from place to place and
that posits that we make home by the simple fact of
habitation, rather than by intimate connection to the
land, the sky, the air. Any place can become home,
we’re told. Which means, really, that no place is home”
(sect. 1 par. 4). James Howard Kunstler calls this
placeless-ness the “Geography of Nowhere” (Sanders,
Manifesto 94); David A. Gruenewald suggests that our
contemporary understanding of “home” is marked by
homogeneity and lack of connection (314). For many
children, this unmet yearning to belong somewhere is
the norm.
Like Ohio native Scott Russell
Sanders, I am lucky to “carry
in heart and mind” a sense of
home, a corner of Ohio where
I can predict cloud formations
and have back roads memorized
like the back of my hand. But
during my residency with the
CVNP, I was startled to discover
the shallowness of my actual
knowledge. Though my mother
and grandmother could rattle off
vines, herbs, trees, I could hardly
identify poison sumac. Growing
up, I’d placed precedence on
my formal education, failing to
realize the importance in naming
natural things—that naming
brought a will, and a means, to
protect. Only by living immersed
in the Valley, hiking to work and walking the trails
with my students, did I come to recognize Emerson’s
“Succession of native plants in the pastures and
roadsides, which makes the silent clock by which time
tells the summer hours, will make even the divisions
of the day sensible to a keen observer” (197). The
discovery, as Louv writes, that “people are unlikely to
value what they cannot name” (41) alerted me to a
gaping hole in my schooling—and in my teaching. I
was disturbed to learn from the CVNP rangers that
even science departments no longer train naturalists,
a fact later reiterated in Last Child in the Woods (Louv
222), which underscored my growing fear that
conservationists themselves would soon be on the
endangered species list. And yet, in my students, I
saw the possibility for a new generation of concerned
naturalists, witnessed their boost in confidence,
their increased sense of belonging as they gained a
vocabulary for their natural surroundings. “Children
who can identify a brand of sneakers from fifty yards
away,” writes Sanders, “can learn to identify trees
and bushes, flowers and mushrooms,” (Writing from
the Center 20). Pelo echoes this sentiment, claiming
that each name is “a step closer into relationship”
(sect. 5 par. 2).
During my residency, I also learned, alongside
my students, about the grim history of the Cuyahoga
River. Rangers talked about the abuses of the Industrial
Revolution, walking us to the former Krejci dump
site and Erie canal locks, showing us photographs of
cars lined nose down into muddy banks, fifty gallon
oil drums floating downstream. We learned that the
mighty Cuyahoga had caught fire over a dozen times,
catching national attention and contributing to the
birth of the environmental movement. We also learned
that a small organization of persistent, hopeful citizens
protected the Valley from the development threats of
an interstate highway, a massive sports complex, and
an electrical company eventually gaining government
support to grant the Cuyahoga Valley status as a
National Park (Platt 48-49). The students—and
I—were outraged, energized, moved to action. We
weighed our scraps at dinner and composted them
behind the dining hall, practiced shutting off the
water when we brushed our teeth, and talked about
how many trees went into a roll of paper towels. In
the “Watershed” workshops, we talked about how to
create sustainable communities and wrote up plans
for imaginary “green” communities. Clearly, the
students, as well as their classroom teachers, wanted
to be talking about these things in their classrooms
back at school.
As Gruenewald writes, place-based ecopedagogy
“is usually not a part of a teacher’s job description,”
nor do teacher education programs equip us for such
ventures. “In place of actual experience with the
phenomenal world,” he says, “educators are handed,
and largely accept, the mandates of a standardized,
‘placeless’ curriculum and settle for the abstractions
and simulations of classroom learning” (317). But
placeless education—the kind that had left gaping
holes in my knowledge of home, is culpable of
exactly the kind of damage that nearly destroyed the
Cuyahoga Valley. This dangerous way of teaching and
learning, Pelo asserts, “leads to a way of living on the
earth that is exploitative and destructive. When no
place is home, we don’t mind so much when roads
are bulldozed into wilderness forests to make logging
easy. When no place is home, a dammed river is
regrettable, but not a devastating blow to the heart”
(sect. 1 par. 5).
At CVEEC, I saw place-based ecopedagogy
working. The watershed curriculum was successful
because it embraced the tenets set out by proponents of
educators like David Sobel, who urges that we “foster
empathy for the familiar” and “reclaim the heart” in
outdoor learning (Gruenewald 316). Sobel sees placebased education as a jumping off point “to teach
concepts in language arts…and other subjects across
the curriculum,” urging that place-based curricula
can improve academic performance and increase the
likelihood that our students will become “active,
contributing citizens” (Sobel, Place-based Education 7).
As I taught alongside the interns, rangers and
teachers, I became hopeful. When I visited CVEEC
headquarters and saw eager postcards from recent
attendees, or heard the director talking about the high
number of students who return as adults to volunteer,
intern, or work for the park, my faith in local-based
environmental education swelled. And reading Scott
Russell Sanders’ earlier account of the Ohio Valley,
in his essay “Buckeye,” I took fortitude knowing
that much had changed since his childhood near the
Ravenna Arsenal:
This ground was lost; the flood would
reclaim it. But other ground could be saved,
must be saved, in every watershed, every
neighborhood. For each home ground we
need new maps, living maps, stories and
poems, photographs and paintings, essays
and songs. We need to know where we are,
so that we may dwell in our place with a full
heart. (Writing from the Center 8)
We ourselves may not know the “blue sailors,
mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin-flowers” (Oliver 56),
but we can learn them with our students as we embrace
the places just beyond our classroom windows.
Classroom Ideas for Place-Based
Ecopedagogy:
Invite students to write place poems in
response to George Ella Lyon’s “Where
I’m from” (see Linda Christenson, Reading,
Writing, and Rising Up.) Ohio author/educator
Terry Hermsen also offers great suggestions
in Poetry of Place: Helping Students Write Their
Worlds, in which he outlines lessons from his
Mt. Gilead Project in central Ohio.
Have students read “Buckeye,” an Ohio-based
essay in Scott Russell Sanders’ Writing from
the Center and imitate his style or structure by
writing their own essay about a place that they
“dwell with a full heart.” Students may also
draw inspiration from the work
of Ohio poet Joanne Lehman
who writes about her rooted
heritage in Amish Country in
her chapbooks, Morning Song
and Driving in the Fog.
Include regional authors in
your curriculum and invite
them to visit your classroom.
Ohioana
(www.ohioana.
org) connects readers with
Ohio writers. Their website
showcases biographies of
canonized authors (O. Henry,
Langston Hughs, Sherwood
Anderson) and contemporary
writers
(Toni
Morrison,
Cynthia Rylant, Maggie
Anderson) and provides links
to “Poetry by Ohioans about
Ohio” and the “Ohio Author
Radio Series.” The Ohio Reading Roadtrip
(www.orrt.org) also offers useful tools, including
links to an “Ohio Literary Map” and “Timeline
of Ohio Authors.” Additionally, Kent State
University’s Wick Poetry Center (www.kent.
edu/wick) features a readers’ series and recent
publications, including an annual chapbook by
an Ohio author.
Have students interview their parents or
grandparents for stories about their childhood
memories in nature. Post sound-clips to a class
website or invite community elders into class
to share about changes to the local landscape.
Consider preceding this activity with Scott
Russell Sanders’ illustrated books, Warm as Wool
(an account of a female pioneer in Randolph
Township, Ohio) or Floating House (a 19th
Century journey down the Ohio River.) Marilyn
Seguin, another Ohio author, also offers
historical fiction for young adults, including
Song of Courage, Song of Freedom (the story of
Mary Campbell, a white child held captive in
Ohio by the Delaware Indians in the late 18th
century) and Silver Ribbon Skinny a tale about a
young mule driver on the Ohio & Erie Canal.)
Hopeful Ecopedagogy
“…The environmental crisis is made possible by a
profound failure of the imagination.”
(Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura Gray-Street, The
Ecopoetry Anthology xxvii)
“Morning air!” Thoreau cries in
Walden, “If men will not drink
of this at the fountainhead of the
day, why, then we must even
bottle up some and sell it in the
shops, for the benefit of those
who have lost their subscription
ticket to morning time in this
world” (115). At the time when
Thoreau wrote, he hardly could
have imagined the stench of diesel
or rubber factories, the irony
that this passage would come to
bear. The thought of marketing
water, too, or the fact that we
have islands of discarded bottles
floating in the Pacific would have
seemed surreal… our garbage
heaps far worse than the gahenna
(hell) described in Chaucer’s “The
Prioress’s Tale.”
When we face horrifying statistics like the
devastation of the rainforest—one acre burning every
nine seconds (Bigelow and Peterson 160), the perishing
of endangered species— one every hour (Mische sect.
10 par. 1) … or the catalogue of planetary damage
outlined at the beginning of this article, we have the
tendency to shut down. As Ann Fisher-Wirth writes,
in her dark play on Thoreau: “billions of people
worldwide, victims of environmental injustice, lead
lives of quiet or clamorous desperation” (xxxv).
If these realities are hard for us to take, as adults,
as teachers, how must our students feel? David
Sobel suggests that when we “fill our classrooms
with examples of environmental abuse, we may be
engendering a subtle form of disassociation” (Beyond
Ecophobia 2). Similarly, in her article, “Creating a
Culture of Possibility,” Kimberly F. Curtis suggests
that to crush students’ hope is to immobilize
environmental progress. We must, instead, give
our students “opportunities to develop capacity
for collective agency” (355-56) and open their
imagination to solutions that have not yet been
dreamed into being. Yes, students should know about
our global circumstance: younger students can learn
about pollution and endangered species, and older
students can discuss the failures of Earth Summits at
Copenhagen and Kyoto, BP oil spills, and fracking in
Alaska. But if we are going to save our Earth, we must
also model for our students diligent, daily activism and
nurture in them a habitual sense
of capability. As G. Lynn Nelson
warns, in Writing and Being,
“Our society conditions us away
from commitment and toward
the glitter of things that happen
fast and easy” (6). Students must
be taught good habits and a belief
in change by adults who care.
One place to start is threading
our lessons with stories of hope.
In his essay, “The Common Life,”
Scott Russell Sanders writes:
“history of local care hardly ever
makes it into our literature, for it
is less glamorous than rebellion,
yet it is a crucial part of our
heritage” (Writing from the Center
77). There are many moments in
the history of environmentalism
that can be celebrated. One of the
things that impacted me the most during my residency
in the Cuyahoga Valley was that CVNP is a textbook
example of environmental healing: a testament to
what a small band of dedicated citizens can do when
they persist against all odds for the betterment of
a beloved place. During a recent showing Mark
Kitchell’s documentary, A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle
for a Living Planet, I scribbled furiously to catch the
names of dozens of other success stories: the Sierra
Club’s opposition of dams in the National Parks, Lois
Gibbons’ fearless fight for chemical investigation
at Love Canal, Green Peace’s effects on the whaling
industry, the impact of Brazilian Chico Mendes on
conservation of the Amazon… to name only a few.
As James Loewen writes, “the antidote to feel-good
history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive
history” (97). This sentiment can be extended to
discussions of the past—and future—of our planet.
Knowing that heartening stories empower, I
try to conclude any lessons that touch on ecological
devastation with a brief spotlight on people that have
made a difference. At the end of a unit on Joseph
Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, I ask students to look
up the Green Belt Movement in Kenya and Paul
Farmer’s medical outfit in rural Haiti. Following a
discussion of Christopher Columbus’ violence in the
Americas, I point out that the Iroquois Confederacy
has continued through more than six centuries to
uphold their ecologically balanced system of Great
Law and still convene today (Warren 245). When we
research native land rights, I show slides of Emma
Yazzie defending her Navajo
home against electric corporations
(Bigelow 170), and during a unit
on argumentative writing, I
include short essays from Home! A
Bioregional Reader (Andruss, Plant,
Plant and Wright) and bring in
clippings from Yes! And Mother
Earth News, which advocate for
solar power, organic farming
and recycled art. I supply snacks
from local orchards and namedrop the farmers who grew the
produce. Sometimes I celebrate
Earth Day by holding an in-class
reading during which students
select pieces from The Ecopoetry
Anthology (Fisher-Wirth and
Street) and I share student poetry
from my residency at Cuyahoga
Valley Environmental Education
Center (www.dayinthewoods.blogspot.com.)
Becoming educated about the state of our planet
is harrowing. But there is a legacy of hope that we can
hitch onto, and which, if we are responsible teachers,
we can pass on to our students, giving them, as Mary
Oliver urges, “the possibility of the world salvaged
from the lords of profit” (56).
Classroom Ideas for Hopeful Ecopedagogy
Watch excerpts about conservation,
rescue, and rehabilitation of the land from
documentary films such as A Fierce Green Fire:
Battle for a Living Planet (dir. Mark Kitchell),
The Return of the Cuyahoga (dir. Lawrence Hott)
or The National Parks, America’s Best Idea (dir.
Ken Burns). Hold a mock-debate afterward,
in which students take the opposing sides
represented in each film. Fantastic teacher
resources for The Return of the Cuyahoga are
available at: www.wviz.org/edsvcs/cuyahoga.
PBS also offers lesson plans, discussion
guides, and interactive digital modules for
Ken Burns’ National Parks series at: www.
pbs.org/nationalparks/for-educators.
Help students write a proposal for a school
cafeteria “Farm to Plate” initiative. The
Ohio Farm to Schools Program has a great
website, with a list of Ohio schools that
have successfully linked up with local farms
or grown their own produce, as well as
PDF resources, such as the “Ohio Farm to
School Guidebook” and the “Ohio Seasonal
Availability Chart for Produce.” For research
and interview practice, students can also
contact organic farmers within Cuyahoga
Valley National Park via Countryside
Conservancy (a park partner of CVNP) at:
www.conservancyforcvnp.org/experience/
foods-farms/.
Assign students to research the movement
for “green” architecture in
Ohio. Check out the list of
green buildings on the Green
Energy Ohio website (http://
www.green
• energyohio.org), and, if
possible, schedule a fieldtrip.
Afterward, have students
write argumentative essays
and work in groups to make
posters. How can your school
facilities be improved? What
evidence can they provide to
support that green energy
is beneficial? Present the
papers and posters at the school science fair.
Check out Quest Ohio: The Science of
Sustainability (http://science.kqed.org/quest/
• stations/ohio) for ideas, kits, lesson plans,
slideshows, videos, and articles powered by
PBS and Ideastream. Links include resources
for discussions and projects on water, food,
energy, climate, biodiversity, astronomy,
health, and geology.
CONCLUSION:
“Whatever else we teach our children, we owe them
an ecological education.”
(Scott Russell Sanders, A Conservationist Manifesto 214).
I recently saw an “Alaska” edition of children’s
board game, Monopoly. The strip around the board
pictured small photos of Glacier Bay ($300), Denali
National Park ($320), the Bald Eagle ($350), Mount
McKinley ($400). In the center of the board were
the dotted outlines labeled “Community Chest” and
“Chance.” A chill ran down my spine as I reckoned
the potential truth in the juxtaposition of these two
phrases—the well being of planet Earth and all its
inhabitants left to chance. What do we teach our
children if we give them games that suggest nature
is up for grabs, to be gambled away for the profit of a
select few?
According to Richard Louv, attendance at National
Parks has been on the decline (148), a statistic that
scares both him and me, as our current nature-deprived
youngsters will someday be the citizens responsible
for voting our parks into survival or demolition (155).
“What we humans disregard, what we fail to know
and grasp,” writes Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura GrayStreet, “is easy to destroy: a mountaintop, a coral
reef, a forest, a human community” (xxvii). Sadly, we
English teachers may be the only
source of nature education in our
students’ lives.
As we grapple for effective,
profound ways to integrate
Common Core State Standards
(CCSS), especially across content
areas, ecopedagogy makes sense.
At the CVEEC, I observed the
CCSS Anchor Standards for
Reading being met as students
sought the integration of
knowledge and ideas in the “All
the Rivers Run” curriculum, and
as they read for key ideas and
details in my poetry workshops. I saw the CCSS
Anchor Standards for Writing fully embraced as
students researched to build upon present knowledge
in their lab experiments and outdoor lessons, and I saw
them engaged in the process of writing—both over a
sustained period of time as they prepared presentations
for “Rivers Run,” and in short sittings as they composed
reflective pieces in my poetry workshops. The CCSS
Anchor Standards for Language were celebrated as
students (and teachers!) acquired and rehearsed new
vocabulary, determining and classifying the meanings
of dozens of new terms. In each case, the CCSS for
English Language Arts overlapped transparently
with history, social studies and science. For me, these
experiences underscored the endless possibilities in
taking experiential, place-based, hopeful ecopedagogy
back to the English classroom.
If we wish to give our students a future on this
planet, we must expose them to the pleasures of
water, soil, wind, and seasons. We must teach them
the preciousness of what lies near so that they will
know to defend it when it is in danger. And we must
“head them up stream,” as Mary Oliver urges (56),
modeling stories of stewardship and hope so that they
believe—in their marrow—that they can become
stewards themselves.
Suggested Resources
Books:

A Place to Grow, Voices and Images of Urban Gardeners,
by Lynn Gregor and David Hassler

Home! A Bioregional Reader, edited by Van Andruss,
Christopher Plant, Judith Plant and Eleanor Wright

Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of
Seeing the World Around You, by Clare Walker Leslie
and Charles E. Roth

Poetry of Place: Helping Students Write Their Worlds, by
Terry Hermsen

Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots: Activities to do in the
Garden, by Sharon Lovejoy

Sharing Nature with Children: The Classic Parents’ and
Teachers’ Nature Awareness Guidebook, by Joseph Cornell
Films:

A Fierce Green Fire: Battle for a Living Planet, directed by
Mark Kitchell

The Return of the Cuyahoga, directed by Lawrence Hott

The National Parks, America’s Best Idea, directed by Ken
Burns
Organizations:

Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park http://www.
conservancyforcvnp.org/education/resident-program/
Cuyahoga Valley National Park offers need-based student
scholarships to the CVEEC and provides professional
development for teachers that is fully compatible with
CCSS.
For more information or to request a brochure, email info@
forcvnp.org or phone: 330-657-2796 ext. 100.
 The Orion Society
http://www.orionmagazine.org
www.orionsociety.org/teachfellow.html.
Stories in the Land teaching fellowships are available
to help teachers foster an education of place. The Orion
Society awards $1,000 stipends toward activities and
teaching resources for K-12 teachers in the U.S. Contact:
K. Meagan Ledendecker, Education Coordinator, 195
Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230
Works Cited
Bigelow, Bill and Bob Peterson, Eds. Rethinking
Columbus: The Next 500 Years. Milwaukee:
Rethinking Schools, 1998. Print.
Christenson, Linda. Reading, Writing and Rising Up:
Teaching about Social Justice and the Power of the
Written Word. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools,
Ltd., 2000. Print.
Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Web. 16 January 2014.
Curtis, Kimberly F. “Creating a Culture of
Possibility: A Case for Engaged Pedagogy.”
Human & Society 36.4 (2012): 354-373. SAGE.
Web. 22 June 2013.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Selected Writings of Ralph
Waldo Emerson. Ed. William H. Gilman.
New York: Penguin, 1983. Print. Expeditionary
Learning. Web. 12 December 2013.
Fisher-Wirth, Ann and Laura-Gray Street, Eds.
The Ecopoetry Anthology. San Antonio: Trinity
University Press, 2013. Print.
Gruenewald, David. “The Best of Both Worlds:
a Critical Pedagogy of Place.” Environmental
Education Research 15 (2008): 308-324. Taylor
and Francis. Web. 22 June 2013.
Heffernan, Stacey. “EEC articles.” Message to the
author. 25 June 2014. E-mail.
Hermsen, Terry. Poetry of Place: Helping Students
Write Their Worlds. Urbana: NCTE, 2009.
Print.
Howard, Patrick. “Pedagogy and the Poetic:
Nurturing Ecological Sensibility through
Language and Literature.” Canadian Journal for
Environmental Education. 14.3 (2010): 185-197.
EPSCOhost. Web. 22 June 2013.
Kaplan, Rachel and Stephen. The Experience of
Nature: A Psychological Perspective. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1989. Reprinted
1994. Print.
Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches
Here and There. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1949; reprinted 1989. Print.
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Everything Your American History Textbook Got
Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 1995. Print.
Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods. Chapel Hill:
Algonquin books of Chapel Hill, 2005. Print.
Lundahl, Merrilyne. “Teaching Where We Are:
Place-Based Language Arts.” English Journal
100.3 (2011): 44-48. Web. NCTE Online. 20
December 2013.
Pember, Mary Annette. “Diversifying Pedagogy.”
Diverse Issues in Higher Education. April (2008):
18-20. Diverseeducation.com. Web. 26 January
2014.
Mische, Patricia M. “Toward a Pedagogy of
Ecological Responsibility: Learning to Reinhabit
the Earth.” Convergence 25.2 (1992): n. pag.
EPSCOhost. Web. 22 June 2013.
Platt, Carolyn V. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Handbook. Kent: Kent State University Press,
2006. Print.
Moore, Alicia. “Words of Support.” Message to
Stacey Heffernan. December 2013. E-mail.
Sanders, Scott Russell. A Conservationist Manifesto.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.
Print.
Nelson, G Lynn. Writing and Being: Embracing Your
Life through Creative Journaling. San Franciso:
Inner Ocean Publishing, Inc. 2004. Print.
---. Writing from the Center. Bloomington and
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Print.
Oliver, Mary. Blue Iris: Poems and Essays. Boston,
MA: Beacon Press, 2004. Print. Outward Bound.
Web. 20 January 2014.
Sobel, David. Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the
Heart in Nature Education. Great Barrington,
Massachusetts: The Orion Society, 1996. Print.
Pacione, Megan. “Letter of Support.” Message to
the CVEEC. 15 April 2013. TS. Page, Randy
M. and Tanya s. Page. Promoting Health and
Emotional Well-Being in Your Classroom, 4th
Edition. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers,
2007. Print.
---. Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms &
Communities. Great Barrington: Orion Society,
2004. Print.
Pelo, Ann. “A Pedagogy for Ecology.” Rethinking
Schools Online. Summer (2009): n. pag. Web. 15
June 2013.
Warren, Donald. “We the Peoples: When American
Education Began.” American Education History
Journal Volume 34.2 (2007): 235-247. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings.
New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1993.
Print.
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Post-Secondary
Our Hands, Our Future
Jeff Buchanan
Teachers who have spent time working to
understand the Common Core State Standards
(CCSS), the PARCC assessments, and new teacher
evaluations realize that their classrooms must
evolve to meet shifting demands and challenges.
The Common Core emphasizes nonfiction and
argument; the PARCC requires that students work
simultaneously with multiple texts, prioritizes
research, and reclassifies narrative; and new teacher
evaluations make the consequences for not evolving
pedagogically and curricularly serious.
What, though, are the implications of these
recent changes on teacher education, on the
preparation of future English teachers? How should
the work of a university education program evolve?
Clearly, teacher education must prioritize
process work, must open the ways we construct
knowledge via reading, writing, and thinking to
examination and discussion. We have made great
strides teaching writing processes; we must put
as much emphasis on reading processes. Teacher
candidates need to understand how arguments
work—in terms of generic conventions, disciplinary
conventions, stylistics, rhetoric, organization, and
the selection and arrangement of source material.
These are the demands implicit in the new standards
and assessments. We have to talk about how we
read, what we notice and why, and we must write
in response to our reading. These are activities
we must have teacher candidates do and activities
that we must model for them. As teachers, we are
required to understand the rhetorical and stylistic
strategies that make up the texts we read and write;
teachers need to develop fluency in the incredibly
rich area of process work.
To do so, we have to make a place in all classrooms
for meta-cognitive reflection. Teacher educators
should model this work for teacher candidates,
help teachers become self-aware of the strategies
they employ, the features they background or miss,
the learning style they rely on. I think this kind
of work requires plenty of what Peter Smagorinsky
labels “exploratory talk,” informal, ungraded,
tentative, experimental—an in-process working
out of the matter. At the same time, the CCSS and
PARCC expect a product; the process work has to
produce an answer, an analysis, a response. Writers
must take what they see as readers and construct
an argument in return, utilizing purposefully what
they notice as readers.
English teachers who successfully integrate
reading and writing know this feeling of doubleness,
when the activities of reading and writing become
so bound together that attempts to talk about them
as singular activities create nothing but blurriness.
English educators get this same sense from teaching
teaching, from trying to keep the processes of
teaching and learning separate. They aren’t
separate; they are intimately bound together. That
makes for a wonderful experience, but it makes
what we do difficult to talk about.
Our work, as English educators, has to stay
centered in the difficult to talk about; we should
seek blurriness and doubleness, insist that our
role as teacher is never separated from our role as
student and our learning is never divorced from our
teaching. As we make our disciplinary home in the
midst of all of this process work, we will begin to
talk about it more clearly, begin to find a way to
communicate what we do.
Jeff Buchanan is Professor of English and Teacher Education at Youngstown State University and Coordinator of its
English education program. He’s a former editor of OJELA. Contact him: jmbuchanan@ysu.edu.
4 Sites
Post-Secondary Continued
I believe our work is harder in English
education. We can’t only talk about how to read
literature; we have to talk about how to teach our
students how to read literature. We don’t talk only
about what makes good writing; we also include
how to teach students to produce good writing.
There always seems to be another aspect to what we
have to do. That’s why I think we are prepared to
lead, to take over conversations about educational
policy and what’s best for our schools. As we begin
to articulate what we do as we prepare students in
the context of Common Core, we’re placing value
on the skills, strategies, and processes we believe
are most important for a student’s work in English/
language arts. Let our values lead us; let us speak
them; let us lead.
Look, teaching was hard before Common Core
and the PARCC exams; it may be even harder now.
But this isn’t a challenge to shrink from. We have
always worked to prepare the best teachers; we will
continue to do that. When we find uncertainty
and difficulty, we should continue to approach it
strategically. We know what works, and we know
how to do research and plan. We are resourceful,
and we must take on the role of resource.
Changes in P-12 education are not the only
changes that will have an effect on post-secondary
English education. National accreditation is
evolving; the new CAEP standards include an
expectation that we work toward social justice,
construct a multicultural pedagogical practice
throughout our programs.
EdTPA is not so new anymore, but it, too,
stresses reflection, the cycle of planning and
assessing, gathering data and using that data to
chart what comes next. We all need to work on how
to help teacher candidates read data, differentiate,
and plan next steps. That is that back and forth
work again, the blurriness, seasickness, that we
must master and learn to talk about.
In the end, English educators should assert what
matters, should define what we do and how, and
should speak out and lead. We should voice concerns
about the amount of time dedicated now to testing.
We should voice concerns about the technological
demands of the new tests on our schools and ask
questions about access to adequate technology
and fairness. We should voice concerns about the
alignment of the new assessments to the standards.
Positive action on the part of teacher educators
and teachers perhaps turns the lens, and popular
opinion begins to rightly value the work of the
teacher again. If our political leaders can’t find ways
to acknowledge the successes teachers initiate, then
we must do it. If there is no celebration of our good
work, then let’s celebrate. What English educators
must do for their profession, for teachers, and for
their students is communicate that the future is in
our hands.
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little control over how their students perform on these
tests. How could a teacher possibly give up the little
control he or she has? And give it over to a novice?
Secondary
Cooperating Teachers: Reinventing
the CT/ST Relationship
Angeline Theis
“You’re taking a student teacher this fall?”
“You’re nuts!”
“You understand that OTES starts this year, right?”
And these were just a few of the comments I heard
from colleagues as we started the 2013-14 school year.
While I am sure their comments were born of concern
for my students and for me, my fellow teachers
thought my decision to accept a student teacher was
completely irrational. After all, how could a teacher
possibly meet all of the demanding requirements found
in the sea of new educational acronyms—OTES, SLO,
CCSS, PARCC, NGA, OLS—while turning over one’s
class to a novice?
But it is not time for teachers to shut our doors;
rather it is time to open them and re-invent what the
relationship between student teacher and cooperating
teacher looks like.
As the student teaching semester began, my
student teacher and I co-taught. Co-teaching is
when “two or more professionals deliver substantive
instruction to a diverse or blended group of students in
a single physical space” (Cook and Friend). We began
co-teaching as a way to make us all comfortable—the
student teacher, our students, and me. With both
teachers active and engaged in leading or supporting
instruction, my student teacher was able to utilize my
experience in a way she would not have been to if I
was seated in a desk on the margins of the classroom.
We simply planned our roles in advance, alternating
between lead and support.
A fair question. But, somehow, I did. I did meet
my school’s and State’s requirements, my—our—
students learned, and the time spent mentoring my
student teacher proved invaluable to my growth as a
professional.
Students benefited from this model of teaching.
In some class periods, thirty students filled the desks.
Often, we split the group into two and did parallel
teaching. The smaller group size spurred student
participation; they asked better questions, probed
more deeply, and shared openly with their peers. We
were also able to group students by learning style and
tailor the lesson to the strengths and weaknesses of
each group of students, delivering the same content
in different ways. We taught close reading in this
way, and I noticed an increase in students’ confidence
and in their level of mastery of close reading skills.
I probably don’t have to explain that due
to the new assessments, standards, and teacher
evaluations, the stakes are higher than ever for
teachers, administrators, and students. Many of
us are rethinking our curriculums as we align to
Ohio’s Learning Standards. At the very same time,
our local colleges and universities are preparing
teacher candidates to enter into this new educational
climate as well. Teacher candidates must spend
time in the classroom to complete their student
teaching and their Teacher Performance Assessment
(edTPA). Unfortunately many practicing teachers
are apprehensive or simply unwilling to open their
classrooms to these new professionals at this time.
This reluctance is understandable; 42.5 to 50% of a
teacher’s evaluation comes from the growth of their
students (Substitute House Bill 362) as measured by a
standardized test. Teachers already feel as if they have
In addition, teaching alongside of my student
teacher provided me with a common experience
through which to filter and deliver feedback. Instead
of sitting idly by at the back of the classroom, I
stood with her, and that gave my recommendations
authenticity. In a sense, I was sharing my own
experience of and reflections on our lesson. This
altered our relationship; we were both in the
position of learners, learning together. While more
experienced, I wasn’t an expert offering a checklist
of what to do from behind the teacher’s desk. I
was a practitioner, speaking through experience,
modeling for this new teacher how to think about
what goes on in a classroom and what that means
for what we do tomorrow. While co-teaching, my
student teacher became a part of our classroom family
faster than she would have in a traditional model of
teacher preparation and she quickly became part
Angeline Theis teaches 10th and 11th grade English at Jackson-Milton High School in North Jackson, Ohio. She is pursuing her
Masters degree in English at Youngstown State University.
4 Sites
Secondary Continued
of the professional community of teaching too—
immediately reflecting, evaluating, and planning.
I know this sounds counterintuitive, but our
co-teaching model also helped my student teacher
experience autonomy faster. She quickly came to
rely on herself, her preparation and training, her
experience, her impressions. I became a valuable
resource. It is easy just to tell someone what to teach,
but I resisted that inclination. What does one really
learn from being told? Instead, I talked with her
about which standards needed to be rooted within
her units. I took time to explain the importance of
backwards planning or Understanding by Design. In
their book Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins
and Jay McTighe explain the importance of unit
planning by first deciding upon the end results. They
stress the value of “identifying the desired results,”
“determining the acceptable evidence,” and then
“planning learning experiences and instruction.”
This model of planning curriculum is “backwards”
compared to a more tradition model that begins with
a favorite text or learning activity.
For example, when my student teacher was
planning her unit for her Teacher Performance
Assessment, she was struggling to pick a text to use
while teaching tone and mood. During one of our
evening telephone conversations, I asked what she
wanted the students to be able to do by the end of
her one-week unit. Like many new teachers, she was
focused on what text the students could read and
discuss in the allotted time period, not on learning
outcomes. Together, we took some time to look
at CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4: “Determine the
meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the
text, including figurative and connotative meanings;
analyze the cumulative impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone.” She realized that
she wanted students to understand connotation and
denotation and analyze the author’s choice of words
in establishing tone. Once my student teacher better
articulated her learning goals, she was able to move
forward in her planning. She was also then prepared
to share those goals with the students. And as we
progressed through the semester, I gave my student
teacher the chance to “pitch” me a unit she always
dreamt of teaching, but only after she showed me her
planning process. We all need opportunities to try,
succeed or fail, and reflect. Experiencing this while
under the guidance of a veteran teacher is an chance
for significant growth.
As cooperating teachers, though, we must be
willing to learn from emerging teachers as well as
counsel them. When we allow student teachers in
our classrooms, we are helping to ensure that there
will be a strong generation of educators ready to
teach our children for years to come. Mentoring
young teachers also encourages us to continue
healthy reflection practices. Sharing my classroom
with a student teacher reminded me how important
it is to take time and reflect on all facets of my
teaching from planning to assessing; this experience
became a touchstone in my own professional
development. I have learned, simply, that opening
our doors and sharing our classroom space is the
best way to foster growth.
Works Cited:
Cook, Lynne, and Marilyn Friend. “Co-Teaching:
Guidelines For Creating Effective Practices.”
Focus On Exceptional Children 28.3 (1995): 1.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 July 2014.
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by
Design. Alexandria: ASCD, 2005. Print.
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Middle
Making the Leap
Jody Sturgeon-Edwards
Yesterday I leaned back into my Adirondack chair to
just relax and reflect. I really tried to concentrate on
what I had learned these past few years not only about
teaching the Common Core standards but about
teaching in general. This was not an easy task as I
had company in my yard. A half dozen or so squirrels
call my yard home and they were hard at play. Bring
on the adult ADD jokes; I was literally distracted
by squirrels. Let’s face it: squirrels are playful and
spirited and they make me smile. One squirrel in
particular climbed high into the oak tree, scurrying so
far out onto the thinnest and most fragile of branches
near the top. I watched him choose his steps carefully
and pause as if weighing his options. Then, decision
hastily made, the squirrel rambled to the treacherous
tips of the oak and leaped toward the perilously
delicate branches of the neighboring maple. I held
my breath when the creature jumped, hoping that
it would have enough momentum to actually reach
its target, fearful that somehow this little guy’s quest
might result in disaster. For a second I was still not
sure what was going to happen. I heard the branches
bending, the leaves rustling, paws scrambling, and
claws scratching for a hold. Then I saw the little
black squirrel moving quickly to gain his footing
on a stronger limb and sitting quietly in the top of
that maple for a minute or two. That moment of
stillness brought me back to my task and made me
reflect on the leaps that we all make as teachers. I
suppose some teachers are satisfied to play it safe and
stick with exactly what they know, but I believe that
passionate teachers are willing to explore new ideas
and take risks to help students.
The ELA Common Core State Standards and the
PARCC Assessments are a reality that will require
teachers to make many daring leaps in order to ensure
student success. We will have to be willing to make
some changes, take risks, and find our footing when
the path to progress seems most perilous.
The first time I looked at the Common Core
Standards I recall thinking: these are not so different
from what I am already doing with my students. Several
of the new standards appeared to be somewhat
broader versions of the Ohio Academic Content
Standards I was already teaching. It wasn’t until I
began deconstructing those standards, reading them
closely, and asking myself what exactly the Common
Core wanted my students to do that I realized that
this was going to be an uneasy transition. While
the number of standards may have decreased, the
number and complexity of skills required for success
has increased. This realization was important because
it would have been too easy to just keep teaching the
old standards, telling myself I was already meeting
Common Core expectations. The PARCC preview
tests available online were an eye opener. A close
look at these assessments revealed the precarious gap
between familiar and unexplored territory, a bold leap
that each of us would have to make this year. This
was definitely not just an online version of the OAA
and my students needed a new approach in order to
accomplish these tasks. I knew my classroom would need to change to
meet these new expectations but like other teachers I
did not want to give up those lessons and texts that
were important experiences for my students. How
was I going to achieve this balancing act between the
Common Core push for depth and complexity with
the students’ affective needs? At first I thought I was
going to have to give up rich texts like The Watsons
Go To Birmingham. While the content of this novel
addresses the complex issues of civil rights, racism,
and violence, the reading level makes this book
approachable to all of my readers. I didn’t want
to forsake Watsons but I felt guilty for using this
classroom favorite because maybe it wasn’t enough of
a push toward the all-elusive “complexity.” At times
like this I reflect on my teaching, my students, and
I turn to my colleagues for advice and reassurance.
Ultimately, I realized that texts like Watsons have an
important place within a Common Core curriculum.
Students need to experience and understand how
texts fit together. When I taught The Watsons Go
to Birmingham, I never taught this text in isolation.
I used the novel as a starting place and segued to
more complex informational texts, magazine articles,
poetry, lyrics, and historical documents related to
the book’s challenging content.
By focusing solely on text complexity I had
stranded myself out on a limb. I needed to take a few
Jody L. Sturgeon-Edwards is a 7th grade Language Arts teacher at South Side Middle School in Columbiana, Ohio.
4 Sites
Middle Continued
steps back and see the whole tree. The goal of the
Common Core is to prepare students for career and
college and that requires them to make connections.
The standards are more comprehensive and focus
on finding of meaning not just identification.
Connecting texts and seeing patterns are significant.
In many ways they allow greater flexibility in terms
of selecting texts with broad goals of understanding
rather than a checklist of literary definitions. We are
only trapped if we allow ourselves to be.
Like backyard squirrels exploring those highest
limbs, teachers facing the inevitable changes
and challenges that accompany new standards
and assessments may experience trepidation and
hesitation. I think that’s to be expected. It is new
territory for all of us and sometimes we will stumble
until we find our balance. This transition is going
to make us second-guess our professional expertise.
It is going to be a skittish crossing—a frenetic series
of leaps until we finally feel comfortable with new
expectations. Ultimately we will find our footing if
we can turn to one another and trust our own ability
to bridge this gap.
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T HE P ROFESSIONAL H OME
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OF THE
E NGLISH L ANGUAGE A RTS C OMMUNITY
2/19/10 10:26:25 AM
4 Sites
Elementary
Three Essential Ingredients in a Time
of Mandates: Time, Space and Support
By Meg Silver, from interviews of elementary teachers
at MCESC Workshop Survival Group
The Workshop Survival Group began at
Mahoning County Educational Service Center five
years ago as a professional support space for teachers
implementing Reading and Writing Workshop-style
classrooms. It has turned into so much more. We
meet monthly and during the summer, like-minded
teachers from grades K-12,
to support one another,
share resources, and navigate
the changes within our
professional field.
This summer during one
of our three two-day work
sessions, I wandered over
to the table with the seated
elementary school teachers.
As a long-time middle school
teacher who is secondary
trained, I love the exuberance
and color that populates
these tables, and I find myself
drawn to them. I found teachers who, like me, are
overwhelmed with new standards, new assessments
and new evaluations. But unlike me, these teachers
were juggling four subject areas, with all new
standards and assessments, at once. Suddenly, the
landscape of the elementary teacher turned into a
colorful, exuberant blur.
But with continued conversation, I have
discovered that these teachers have survived the
onslaught much the same way I have. Teacher
after teacher has told me that the support of their
professional colleagues has been essential in enduring
the changes that we all are facing.
The table of fourth grade teachers were making
cursive name strips for a crop of new students as they
spoke to me (always multitasking). They confessed
that all of the separate sets of standards left them
feeling as though they were juggling much, and not
doing anything good. They fretted that with all of the
new “stuff” populating our professional lives, that it is
easy to forget that we are teaching children—living,
breathing, dynamic kids who are ready to learn.
So I asked, “How do you keep that perspective?
How do you keep your focus on the kids?” Their
answer, unanimously, was about support. Not
support from administration or parents (though
that is nice, they said), but support from each other.
Support from the teacher across the hall, the teacher
the next district over, the teacher that you contact
through social media. Having a “team” of supportive
colleagues—to vent, to help and to share—is
essential for perspective. Having a “team” allows us
to disseminate and process all of the “new” and keep
our focus on what is best for kids.
While nodding and leaning into one another,
these women reveal their friendship in words and
actions—confessing
that
they are “friends, not just
colleagues.” This friendship is
forged in shared experiences—
stresses and fears and
responsibilities that are shared
only by other teachers. And
having that trust, that love, is
essential when we are facing
the unknown landscape of
education these days. Having
a safe place to vent, to admit
confusion, to confess mistakes
is necessary in a professional
atmosphere where we are
increasingly judged, evaluated and criticized (and
sometimes vilified) at every turn. The support we
receive from our colleagues is not only academic, but
necessarily personal. And this group of colleagues
has found and treasured that relationship.
And these teams work—and work hard. The
fourth-grade team admitted to meeting on weekends
and evenings, grateful for the school building keys
that allowed them the space and flexibility for that
collaboration. Similarly, the second-grade team
across the room fully utilized the space in the county
work room, spreading paper, scissors and binders
across many tables. This was academic collaboration
at its height—and it looked messy.
What looked messy to me, however, was the
culmination of many initiatives—state, district
Meg Silver is a founding member of the MCESC Workshop Survival Group. She teaches at Columbiana South Side Middle School.
4 Sites
Elementary Continued
and grade-level alike. This team of teachers was
transitioning all of their standards to Common Core,
had created new curriculum maps for this reason, and
had worked with administration to create a standardsbased report card to reflect this new instruction—all
while teaching last year. This summer, the team
met at the county to organize their instruction for
this coming school year. An inspired teacher of the
group had taken all of the standards from all subject
areas, put them in order following the team-created
curriculum map, and bound them into a standardsbased “grade” book. She put only one to two
standards on a page, and put her class list of students
on the facing page. This, way, she explained, she
could track student mastery of each standard. I was
amazed at her organization and foresight.
More amazing was that she would not credit
herself with the finished product. “Oh, I saw
someone else do something similar, and it looked
great. So I tweaked the idea for the team.” Indeed,
she was sharing the wealth with the other secondgrade teachers at the table, and each were affixing
the standards for each week of instruction into their
own grade book. “We’re on week twenty-five. Get
the Math standard four and Science standard two,” I
would hear. I snuck in my questions while teachers
were cutting and gluing onto color-coded books,
so as not to upset the rhythm and energy. While
the product was indeed creative and useful, more
impressive was the collaboration that it represented.
While this team of teachers acted as friends, they
were clearly driven by an enormous set of initiatives
that they chose to tackle as a team.
As I looked around the room after these
conversations, I saw in action the support that
teachers need. The room was abuzz. Teachers shared
electronic folders of resources. Teachers asking one
another for help with a handout. Teachers leaning
over laptops together searching for text sets. With a
mandate-a-day appearing in our teacher mailboxes,
we don’t need more orders from above. And while
time and space to work are essential, having a
professional support community that helps without
lecturing, that offers assistance without commands,
is the necessary third component.
Story as the Landscape of Knowing
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Postconvention Workshops, November 24–25, 2014
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A
New Titles for Text Complexity
–Cindy Beach
t the Conference Room Table, OJELA’s department dedicated to professional development, we
wish to provide information about books, about new books for young adults that teachers and
librarians might be interested in making available for independent reading, and about books
that teachers might consider using in their classrooms. So we asked Cindy Beach, a frequent contributor to
OJELA, for help. We also asked her to review these books through the lens of our theme, The Evolving English
Classroom. A couple of significant results of the Common Core State Standards on classrooms will be the increased
integration of nonfiction into the curriculum and attention to text complexity. Cindy has considered both of
those effects in the reviews she offers below. Scowler
(2013) by Daniel Kraus.
Delecorte Press Fans of horror will find a rare gift
in this novel. It is by far the darkest, most brutal
and disturbing young adult book that I have ever
read. Daniel Kraus, author of the cringe-inducing
classic Rotters, is the king of creepy and with Scowler he
is at his best. This story is not for the timid because the
monster at the heart of it is not a vampire, werewolf
or other foul creature, but a man, a husband, a father.
Marvin Burke is cruel and horrifically abusive and
has finally been imprisoned, but like the meteorite
en route to crash on the family farm, Marvin is
coming home.
The story begins in 1981 with nineteen-year-old
Ry Burke, who is trying desperately to keep the dying
family farm together, but the time has finally come
to move on. He, his mother and his younger sister
are packing up to leave, and Kraus slowly ratchets
up the tension with a countdown to the impact of the
meteorite at the beginning of each section.
The story continues, alternating the current
timeline with brief visits to 1971 and 1972, where
readers find the backstory and are introduced to Ry’s
three childhood friends, toys that helped him cope
with the terror he suffered at the hands of his father.
Ry will turn to these friends to help him once again
when Martin escapes prison.
The writing in Scowler is spectacular, and the use
of advanced vocabulary, flashbacks, foreshadowing
and figurative language make it a challenging read
for the evolving common core standards.
Grasshopper Jungle: A History
(2014) by Andrew Smith. Dutton Books
Grasshopper Jungle, as the subtitle states, is a history.
More precisely, it is Austin Szerba’s post- apocalyptic
chronicle of the end of the world, which has come
about because Austin and his best friend Robby have
accidently unleashed the apocalypse in the form
of giant, unstoppable, killer praying mantises that
want nothing more than to eat people and procreate.
Austin feels compelled to accurately record a history
now that he, Robby, and his girlfriend Shann, along
with a handful of others, are the only humans left to
live out their lives in a bunker built by scientists for
just such an accident.
I realize that this sounds like a bad science fiction
B movie, but it is a whole lot more. Grasshopper Jungle
is also a coming of age story set in a fictional town
Cindy Beach is the Teen Services Specialist for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. In her 15 year career with the library,
she has been a Reference Librarian and Assistant Supervisor of the Austintown Branch. In 2001, she was a founding member of TeenXTreme,
the library’s Teen Services Department, and in her current position supervises book selection and programming for teens county-wide.
beaten down by recession with vacant homes and a
half empty mall. The desolation is palpable. It is also
a very personal history of Austin’s family with its roots
in Poland as well as Austin’s musings on everything:
human nature, the economy, philosophy, how he feels
about his brother being wounded in Afghanistan,
and- of utmost concern to him- the question of why
he is physically attracted to both Shann and Robby
and exactly what that means. Austin’s thoughts
return time and again to sex making this a choice for
older teens.
At times both darkly comic and soul-crushingly
desperate, Grasshopper Jungle is sure to add to
Andrew Smith’s list of prestigious awards. Smith, no
stranger to dark subjects (The Marbury Lens, Winger),
paints the perfect wasted landscape in which to view
the near annihilation of the human race.
Though not exceptionally high in lexile measure
(910L) it does have text complexity in the form of
multiple plot lines, non-sequential presentation, an
unreliable narrator and themes that require various
levels of interpretation. There is a lot to think about
in this novel, not the least of which is the question of
why the end of the world directly follows the act of
Austin Szerba kissing his best friend.
Half Bad
(2014) by Sally Green. Viking Children’s
Sally Green’s debut novel, the first of a planned
trilogy, is the story of an infamous witch family
set in modern-day England. It is somewhat Harry
Potteresque in that the heart of the story is an ancient
struggle between “white” and “black” witches that
continues right in the everyday world of Fains, who
are non-magical humans (Muggles). Nathan Byrn,
our protagonist, happens to have the rare misfortune
of being the son of a white witch mother and a
dark witch father, hence the title, Half Bad. I say
misfortune because the Council of White Witches has
the power to capture or kill black witches on sight.
This is where the similarities end, for the supposed
“good guys” are not above performing cruel and evil
acts to come out on top.
A major fact in Nathan’s life of ostracism and
abuse is a bleak series of assessments given by the
council to determine if he poses a threat. As the
assessments continue year after year, more and more
strict and very limiting rules are imposed until he
is so restricted that he begins to rebel. Bullied at
home and school, blamed for his mother’s suicide
and suspected of trying to contact his father, Nathan
is finally captured, caged and left with a jailer until
the council is ready to use him to hunt his father, the
murderous Marcus.
Though not at all interested in helping the
Hunters of the White Council, finding Marcus is of
utmost importance to Nathan as he nears his 17th
birthday. He must receive his three gifts by that day
to come into his power and avoid a painful death.
Nathan fears that the council will not allow his Gran to
perform the giving ceremony, one in which the young
witch must drink blood from a family member, so the
countdown is on to find Marcus. Nathan encounters
many witches along the way and can never be sure
just who he can trust.
This is a strong first novel that will engage readers
while providing a complex story line that alternates
between first and second person narratives. Spacetime distortions, flashbacks, and themes that require
various levels of interpretation add to the complexity
of the reading.
Eleanor & Park
(2013) by Rainbow Rowell. St. Martin’s Griffin
Eleanor & Park is a hauntingly beautiful story of first
love that takes place over the course of one school
year in 1986. Eleanor, a little overweight with bright
red, uncontrollable hair and funky, weird clothes is
an original. She’s the new kid at school because she’s
spent the last year living away with family friends
after being kicked out of the house by Ritchie, her
abusive, controlling step-father. Her family is beyond
poor so that whatever her mother manages to have
extra rarely goes to Eleanor. This means finding
creative ways to wear the same clothes over and over,
not having batteries for her Walkman and making do
without a toothbrush until she manages to steal one
from her birth father.
Park, though gifted with a secure home life and
enjoying a modicum of popularity, stands out as
well. It’s hard to be with the “in” crowd when you
are a half-Korean boy that likes to wear eyeliner and
prefers comic books and music to sports.
The star-crossed lovers meet on the school bus
where they promptly ignore each other for the first
few days until Park discovers that Eleanor is reading
his comic books over his shoulder. He adjusts them
in his lap so that she can see better, which leads to
him picking out titles for her to borrow and take
home. They also discover their mutual love of music
and share a set of earbuds so that Park can introduce
her to new bands. This leads to gifts of batteries and
mix tapes and hand holding which eventually leads to
other things.
Rowell, a 2014 Printz honor winner, by telling
the story of first love in alternating points of view
between Eleanor and Park allows the reader to see
inside this fragile relationship that seems to be so
obviously doomed to failure. There are just so many
hurdles to get over. You will want to cheer them on
and take them under your wing.
Students will be challenged by multiple
narratives, figurative language, flashbacks and levels
of meaning.
Courage Has No Color: The True Story
of the Triple Nickles: America’s First
Black Paratroopers
(2013) by Tanya Lee Stone. Candlewick Press
In World War II, following the success of the Tuskegee
Airmen, President Roosevelt ordered the formation of
an all-black Army Paratrooper unit, which led to the
birth of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the
Triple Nickles. Trained in the same way that white
paratroopers at Fort Benning, Georgia were being
trained, the members of this unsung group didn’t
suspect that they would never be given the chance to
use their new found skills in battle. Instead they were
sent to fight fires on the west coast.
Ms. Stone, no stranger to telling the little known
story (Almost Astronauts), not only gives a detailed
account of this brave band of soldiers, but covers
the broader scope of racism in the U.S. military
and the home front as well. Told through personal
accounts with many quotes from the servicemen
themselves, the narrative allows readers up close and
personal access to this little known piece of history.
Courage Has No Color is also visually rich with black
and white photographs, illustrations and artwork of
veterans serving during the time period. Expertly
researched with back matter that includes a list of
the men serving in the battalion, a timeline, source
notes, bibliography and an index, this book is sure to
engage interest as well as inform.
Let me end this review by saying that I learned
a great deal from this book. I had some sense of
racism in the military from other sources that I have
read, but not until I read Courage Has No Color did
I have a chance to really understand the frustration
these servicemen must have felt after having been
denied the chance to use the skills for which they so
diligently trained.
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies
and Survivors Captured the World’s Most
Notorious Nazi
(2013) by Neal Bascomb. Arthur A. Levine Books
Based on Hunting Eichmann, Bascomb’s novel for
adults, The Nazi Hunters, is a riveting work of narrative
nonfiction that details the hunt, capture and trial of
Adolf Eichmann. A handy list of participants precedes
the text to assist in keeping track of the many agents,
spies and civilians that assisted in bringing Eichmann
to trial for his crimes.
Bascomb begins the book by outlining Eichmann’s
role in Hitler’s “Final Solution”, explaining how at
the end of the war, knowing that the Allies would be
victorious, Eichmann refused even Hitler’s orders to
stop the killing at concentration camps. The sections
dedicated to the hunt and capture are thrilling
and read like a spy novel including fake identities,
disguises, secret rooms and codes. The format, layout
and visual matter add to the feel of the reader being
a part of the investigation. There are maps, photos
of the participants, pictures of documents, both the
fake ones used by the spies to gain information and
those that were authentic such as correspondence,
warrants and identity cards. There is even an image
of the hypodermic needle used to sedate Eichmann
before the flight to take him to Israel. The Nazi
Hunters ends with the trial itself and includes a
photo of Eichmann standing in his bulletproof glass
booth awaiting his sentence. Back matter includes
an author’s note, bibliography, chapter notes, photo
credits and an index.
Meticulously researched, The Nazi Hunters had
me hooked from the first page. This is an important
book and an excellent choice to round out a study of
the Holocaust.
Have a response to
share with the editor?
Want to converse with other
OJELA readers?
Send a letter for our
“Reader Forum”
to Patrick Thomas, OJELA editor,
at pthomas1@udayton.edu.
A Closing Lesson
–Patrick Thomas
Evolution or Bust? Some thoughts on the changing nature of literacy
IntroductionLast spring, as the semester came to
a close, I attended an annual year-end meeting for
humanities faculty (which, at my school, includes the
English, religious studies, history, and philosophy
departments). This regularly scheduled event marks
a time for all faculty to consider the progress made
in our required first-year humanities courses, which
recently had undergone significant curricular revisions,
and to brainstorm how faculty might incorporate
“innovative experiential learning opportunities” for
our incoming students.
One of those opportunities was very close to my
heart. Along with seven other faculty members, I
am on the committee to bring to campus the firstever public exhibit of rare books from a local book
collector. Entitled Imprints & Impressions: Milestones
in Human Progress – Highlights from the Rose Rare Book
Collection, the exhibit features 50 rare and first edition
copies of some of the most well-known works in
human history. From ancient Egyptian scrolls and
8th century BCE Buddhist sutras, to medieval and
early Renaissance manuscripts of Chaucer, Dante,
Galileo, and Aquinas, and even first editions of works
by Marie Curie, Abraham Lincoln, Issac Newton and
Virginia Woolf, this unparalleled exhibit was certain
to inspire faculty in the humanities, or bibliophiles in
any discipline, to think creatively about how to bring
these one-of-a-kind books into their first-year courses.
Which is why I was stunned to observe, when the
collection was presented to them, the rather allergic
reaction from faculty. Admittedly, many instructors
were astonished at the array of treasures the exhibit
provided them, and most have already planned to
attend one or more of the twenty-five curricular
events being offered around this exhibit, which opens
in September. But the more vocal opponents from
all four disciplines were highly antagonistic about the
fact that the university would host such an exhibit
at all. Immediately, these individuals began to ask
pointed – and I believe important – questions about
the exhibit texts: who chose them? What kinds
of authors and disciplines are represented? Would
visitors find the collection too Westernized, Eurocentric or canonical? Their opposition gradually
narrowed to the exhibit’s subtitle, specifically the
“Milestones in Human Progress” part: who decided
that these books represent “human progress”? What
kinds of hegemonic cultural forces would characterize
these works as “progressive,” and at what cost to the
numerous subjugated groups throughout history?
Finally, whether from exhaustion or obstinacy, the
question that received the most support among
these 120 or so faculty: Could the subtitle be changed to
include a question mark after the word “progress” so as to
indicate the contested nature of these texts as representations
of humanistic milestones?
From an outsider’s perspective, the entire episode
seems silly. Or, it might seem as if some faculty
were blatantly arguing against the display of some of
the most germinal texts they teach; after all, what
philosopher wouldn’t want to show their students a
16th century copy of Aristotle’s Logic? Humanities
teachers – especially those in English – are supposed
to cherish books. We preserve them to preserve
human history. What better way to instill in students
the inherent value in seeing, feeling, and appreciating
the originality of these texts? But appealing on these
grounds was unsuccessful, as it did not accurately
capture the motivation of those opposing this exhibit.
What these folks were really arguing about – and
why I am relaying this story despite my concerns for
perpetuating the misperception of college faculty as
erudite, out-of-touch, overly politically correct, or
just plain nitwitted – relates to discussions about
“evolution” that our current issue asks us to consider.
For one, this instance reveals a maxim that English
teachers know all too well: punctuation matters. Indeed,
including the question mark in the subtitle would
Patrick Thomas, PhD is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dayton and the new editor of OJELA.
A Closing Lesson
literally call into question the status of these exhibit
texts as representations of human progress. The
question mark represents the potential for opening
further discussion and inquiry into what counts as
“accurate” representations of cultural achievement.
More importantly, however, was that those
opposed to the exhibit demonstrated an important
consideration for English teachers concerning the
theme of our current issue, the Evolving English
Classroom. In the culture of education, as in our larger
cultural landscape, I believe we have a predilection
for evolution. This stems, I think, from an innate
subjectivity in our culture – a lens through which we
view history that is colored by a preference for our
own historical moment. Claims of “progress” and
“evolution” are inherently positive because we are a
culture that, as Lakoff and Johnson (2003) observed,
understands “time” and “progress” through similar
metaphors of forward momentum (p. 78). So as
we “move forward” in time, we tend to think of the
history behind us and consequently “less than” our
current status and time.
The problem with claims of “evolution” and
“progress” is that the inherent positive attributes
we assign to them often mean that we sacrifice
many practices and tools that we have come to
understand as “good teaching” simply for the sake
of move forward, staying current in our field, or
to fit new curricular demands. In considering the
evolving English classroom, I find such a perspective
problematic, particularly in a time in which teachers’
professional authority and autonomy is diminished.
We should not let go of the practices, tools, and
methods that ensure good learning and teaching in
our classrooms. As anyone who has written an OTES
Professional Growth Plan or reviewed the diagnostic
assessments for our third grade reading guarantee
knows, focusing on “evolution” and “progress” also
limits what we are able to see as evidence of good
learning and teaching. Are such tools really indicative
of “progress” or “evolution”?
That, of course, depends on our definition of the
term “evolution.” Rather than debate about which
definition of “evolution” is most appropriate, I propose
instead that we re-articulate our conceptualizations of
“evolution” and “progress” outside of their inherent
positive attributes. Instead, I find it more appropriate
– as a teacher, a researcher, and a writer – to think
in more simple terms of cultural change. On paper,
the difference may be minor, but the connotative
differences are significant. A focus on change, as
opposed to evolution, helps us understand more
readily not only what practices, tools, and methods
form the basis of our current pedagogies, but also
how they work in relation to the practices, tools, and
methods that appeared before them.
Nowhere is this distinction more important than
in discussions and studies of literacy. To be clear,
in the past 10-15 years, literacy itself has changed;
the fundamental practices of reading and writing are
not the same as those that appeared in the late 20th
century. As teachers and scholars interested in what
“literacy” is now, it is important to consider some of
these changes and their consequences for our teaching.
In what follows, I aim to provide some broad-stroke
observations on the changing nature of literacy in our
contemporary culture and invite readers and authors
to take up these observations in subsequent issues
of OJELA.
The practices of literacy are different now
As Deborah Brandt (2012) observed, two technological
changes have caused major shifts in literate culture:
the printing press and the internet. The invention
of the printing press brought about mass change in
the practice of literacy through the development of
a reading public, impacting not only the spread of
literacy but also how religious and scientific work
was conducted (see Eisenstein, 1979). Conversely,
the rise of the internet – and more recently the social
turn of Web 2.0 – brought about cultural changes in
the production of print and online content. In short,
while the printing press gave rise to a reading culture,
the internet gave rise to a writing culture.
Similarly, these technological changes impact
the practice of literacy in divergent ways. While I
do not intend to create a binary between these two
technologies, the shift from our previous “reading
culture” to our current “writing culture” is observable
in a number of ways. For example:
• Whereas in the past silent reading was the
primary form of literate practice, reading
in the last 30 years has taken increasingly
participatory, collaborative forms (readalouds, literature circles, book clubs, to
name a few). Therefore, more of our reading
experiences are shared experiences with
others.
• In the past, writers were few; now everyone is
a writer (Lankshear & Knobel 2007; 2012).
The proliferation of writing tools enables
individuals to write and publish without
the constraints of a print-based process of
A Closing Lesson
production. Further, no longer are writers
writing for readers; rather, they are writing
to other writers. Consequently, we must ask:
how does this conception of audience – not of
“readers” but of other “writers” – complicate
the work and the identity of a writer?
• Reading is now part of the writing process
(Brandt, 2012). While independent reading
is still a popular and common practice, the
act of reading now serves as part of the
process of writing; that is, we read so as to
produce more (informed) writing.
• Reading strategies today are mediated
by screen-based technologies.
While
skimming, scanning and browsing have
always been important components of the
reading process, today they are increasingly
the primary means of information selection
and comprehension, due in no small part to
the fact that reading most frequently occurs
on screens and across multiple tabs/sites at
the same time (Keller, 2013, p. 101).
What these general observations reveal is
that the dominance of writing has significant
consequences for our contemporary understanding
of literate practice, both within and outside
academic contexts. In fact, even the most manual
types of labor rely on writing ability to direct
everyday activities; for example, Jeremy Cushman’s
(2013) study of rhetorical action in an auto repair
shop details the role of writing in managers’ abilities
to diagnose vehicle problems and invent approaches
to repair procedures. More importantly, these
observations detail not only the new pressures on
contemporary writers to negotiate the needs of
audiences, but also how the changes evident in
general practices of writing and reading call for new
forms of engagement for our students. At the very
least, they highlight just how much our language
arts classrooms must attend to writing instruction.
The “stuff” of literacy is different now
While writing dominates reading in our contemporary
culture, it is important to note as well that what
constitutes “writing” is itself a fluid subject. Just
what is writing now? One way to answer this is by
examining the kinds of writing that people produce
in the course of their everyday lives: the Stanford Study
of Writing does just that. Beginning with 189 firstyear students, Andrea Lunsford and her colleagues at
Stanford collected an entire year’s worth of writing
from students – including both academic and personal
writing – followed by a five-year study of writing
development. Their initial corpus of over 15,000
texts shows the complex landscape of textual forms
that appear in academic and non-academic settings
alike, including journal entries, poetry, librettos, text
messages, editorials, dramatic scenes, tweets, status
updates, PowerPoint slideshows, blog posts, among
other text types (Lunsford, Fishman, & Liew, 2013).
Clearly, the variation in types of writing that students
produce demonstrates that the notion of writing is
writing is writing regardless of where, how, or for
whom it is produced is an outmoded characterization
of literacy. Perhaps more importantly, the idea that
“good” writing can be characterized through a onesize-fits-all set of criteria no longer meets the demands
of writing in our contemporary culture.
In another vein, that the majority of writing now
takes place within the framework of a screen and
with digital tools that enable multimedia production
means that now more than ever, the “stuff” of writing
is no longer simply printed language. What we
generally think of as written text appears alongside
still images, video, sound, or a combination of these
forms. The multiplicity of modes appearing on screen
forces us to reconsider what is “written” – and what
“writing” is. On one hand, we might view only the
printed text as “writing,” delineating the visual and
sonic components as “bells and whistles” of digital
production. However, as linguist Gunther Kress
(2004) notes,
we can no longer treat [written] literacy (or
‘language’) as the sole, the main, or even
he major means for representation and
communication. Other modes are there
as well, and in many environments where
writing occurs these other modes may be
more prominent and more significant. …[L]
anguage and literacy now have to be seen as
partial bearers of meaning only. (p. 35)
On the other hand, opening up our view of
“writing” to new forms of representation leads to a
host of difficult questions, especially for the teaching
of writing. What, exactly, are teachers responsible for
knowing and teaching when it comes to a multimodal
view of literacy and literacy instruction? If images or
even sound can be considered “writing,” then what
are writing’s essential characteristics, its enduring
qualities? How should such writing be assessed?
These are questions teachers will continue to grapple
with, but for now, I highlight these questions to show
just how much the “stuff” of literacy – the material
A Closing Lesson
of which is it made, the forms it takes, and the tools
used to make it – forces us to consider how even our
basic definitions of reading and writing are changing.
This also means that as literacy educators, we must
acknowledge and surrender our preference (or is it
prejudice?) for written language, in the form of the
academic essay, as the superior form of expression.
Conclusion
Our ability to adapt to the conditions of any particular
place and time is part of what makes us human. It is
also a key characteristic of evolution, even if we are, as
I tend to think, partially blinded by our own historical
moment. The danger of this limited perspective is
that we assume our forward momentum is somehow
“better” than what came before, that our teaching is
inherently “advanced” simply because we are doing it
now and not in the past. One way to avoid this pitfall
is to approach sweeping changes in our pedagogical
practices with a healthy skepticism. Call it a critical
eye, a distanced perspective, or whatever label helps
us to recognize that critiques of our changes in
literacy education can be productive, particularly in
leveraging our professional expertise against many
top-down mandates handed to teachers amid other
encroaching demands on our time, our classroom
interactions, and our abilities to impact students’
lives. One important step in doing so is to continue
to pay attention to the nature and function of literacy
in our culture. Documenting changes in how literacy
is practiced helps to understand “the way things are”
and, perhaps, envision “the way things should be,”
whether that means returning to previous strategies
for engaging students in literate practices or creating
new forms of engagement, new classroom practices,
or new opportunities for learning. It seems to me that
documenting the kinds of changes in what people
do with literacy, like those listed above, may be a
productive approach to making pedagogical choices
that uphold familiar forms of reading and writing or
forge new ones.
Like organisms in an ecosystem, language and
literacy practices must either adapt or risk extinction.
So too must our teaching practices, as we continue to
enact culturally responsive pedagogies, and respond
to the particularities of our cultural moment. That
is not to say, however, that culturally responsive
pedagogies should ignore cultural history. While
we contemplate progress in our field, we also need
to return to the question motivating this issue: are
we necessarily better off now – as teachers, as a
profession, or even as literate individuals – than we
have been in the past? Once again, I’m stumped by
the question mark.
References:
Brandt, D. (2012, March). Legacies, gateways, and
the future of literacy studies. Paper presented at
the annual meeting of the Conference on College
Composition and Communication, St. Louis,
MO.
Cushman, J. (2013). Selling a $600 piece of paper:
Rhetorical action in an automotive repair shop.
(Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Purdue
University Libraries ePubs. (AAI3604758)
Eisenstein, E. (1983). The printing revolution in early
modern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Keller, D. Directing attention: Multitasking,
foraging, oscillating. In Chasing literacy: Reading
and writing in an age of acceleration (pp. 99-126).
Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
Kress, G. (2004). Literacy in the new media age. London:
Routledge.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). The coherent
structuring of experience. In Metaphors we live
by. 2nd ed. (pp. 77-86). Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2011). New literacies:
Everyday practices and classroom learning. 3rd ed.
Berkshire, UK: Open University Press.
Lunsford, A., Fishman, J., & Liew, W. (2013). College
writing, identification, and the production of
intellectual property: Voices from the Stanford
Study of Writing. College English, 75(5), 470-492.
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Volume 54.1

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