This book takes up the question of what shape high school English studies should take in the coming years. It describes an English program that blends philosophical depth with classroom practicality. Drawing examples from commonly taught texts such as "Macbeth,""To Kill a Mockingbird," and "Lord of the Flies," the book places literary analysis within a postmodern framework. It explores recent literary and educational theory--including reader response theory and cultural studies. The book devotes attention to the process of reading and its relationship to creative writing, which is put forward as an essential rather than a supplementary part of high school English programs. The end result is that the book provides insights on textuality, media studies, drama, and the 5-paragraph essay. The book also serves as a call for increased teacher involvement in curriculum reform. While the book's primary purpose is to examine what does and does not make sense in high school English teaching in view of current theory, it offers readers examples of effective classroom practice that takes English in the right direction. (NKA)

In The Transformation of Great American School Districts, William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of public education--apolitical governance, local control, professional hierarchy, and the logic of confidence--and show that recent developments in school governance have challenged virtually all of these assumptions. Drawing on case studies of five urban districts--Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, and Los Angeles--they trace the rise of new ideas and trends that are reshaping the institution of public education: mayoral control, shifting civic coalitions, federal and state involvement, standards-based accountability, and the role of educational outsiders in district administration. Although each city has evolved along a different path, the editors argue, the transformation of these districts reflects the auditioning of a new set of underlying ideas and the transition to a new institutional model of public education. "The Transformation of Great American School Districts provides fascinating portraits of the governance changes now occurring in America's major urban school systems, along with a trenchant discussion of the extent to which these changes signal a new direction for American education. The book will make a strong contribution to research on the politics of education in the United States and shows the promise of applying insights from the new institutionalism to research on educational governance." -- Brian Rowan, Burke A. Hinsdale Collegiate Professor in Education and Research Professor, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan "An important analysis of the evolution of urban education and some provocative ideas about what might be next. Whether your interest is urban schools or American education more generally, you'll learn from this book." -- Andrew J. Rotherham, Co-Director of Education Sector, Member of the Virginia Board of Education, and Author of Eduwonk.com "This cogent collection employs a cultural/historical lens to assess the challenges communities face in their decades-long struggles to transform failing urban school systems. These groundbreaking reflections make a persuasive case for devoting more attention to the political, cultural, and social dimensions of district reinvention--an endeavor that is often treated as a technical challenge alone." -- Warren Simmons, Executive Director, Annenberg Institute for School Reform William Lowe Boyd is Batschelet Chair Professor of Educational Leadership at the Pennsylvania State University and editor of the American Journal of Education. Charles Taylor Kerchner is research professor at Claremont Graduate University. Mark Blyth is associate professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University and the author of Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century.

Understanding and Shaping Curriculum: What We Teach and Why introduces readers to curriculum as knowledge, curriculum as work, and curriculum as professional practice. Author Thomas W. Hewitt discusses curriculum from theoretical and practical perspectives to not only acquaint readers with the study of curriculum, but also help them to become effective curriculum practitioners. Key Features: Emphasizes the various dimensions of curriculum practice: Becoming a curriculum practitioner requires understanding academic-practice knowledge, the forces shaping curriculum, the array of curriculum work from policymaking to evaluation, and how those are integrated forming a sense of professional practice. This book examines curriculum knowledge that is both academic and practice based. Brings theoretical concepts to life: ′Perspective into Practice′ sections illustrate the relevance of the material to both elementary and secondary school settings and contexts. In addition, end-of-chapter resources provide ideas for further discussion and assignments that address different roles and the various dimensions of curriculum practice. Examines current issues: Part of being a good practitioner is understanding the inevitability of change and the necessity to keep current about issues and trends that affect both the knowledge and the work of curriculum. Separate chapters on issues and trends give students the opportunity to explore what is happening in today′s schools and curriculum. Intended Audience: This is an ideal text for masters and doctoral-level courses on Curriculum, Curriculum Development, and Curriculum Design.

Grounded in solid theory with new field-tested classroom activities, the fourth edition of Critical Encounters in Secondary English continues to help teachers integrate the lenses of contemporary literary theory into practices that have always defined good pedagogy. The most significant change for this edition is the addition of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical lens. CRT offers teachers fresh opportunities for interdisciplinary planning and teaching, as it lends itself to lessons that encompass a variety of disciplines such as history, sociology, psychology, and science. As with the previous edition, each chapter concludes with a list of suggested nonfiction pieces that work well for the particular lens under discussion. This popular text provides a comprehensive approach to incorporating nonfiction and informational texts into the literature classroom with new and revised classroom activities appropriate for today’s students. Book Features: Helps both pre- and inservice ELA teachers introduce contemporary literary theory into their classrooms.Offers lucid and accessible explications of contemporary literary theory.Provides dozens of innovative and field-tested classroom activities.Tackles the thorny issue of Critical Race Theory in helpful and practical ways. Praise for the Third Edition “What a smart and useful book! It provides teachers with a wealth of knowledge and material to help their students develop critical perspective and suppleness of thought.” —Mike Rose, University of California, Los Angeles “This Third Edition proves that Appleman still has her hand on the pulse of the rapidly changing landscape of education.” —Ernest Morrell, Teachers College, Columbia University “This new edition of Deborah Appleman’s now classic book demonstrates even more dramatically than previously how the critical theories she so skillfully teaches serve not only as lenses for the reading of literature, but as tools for discovering, interrogating, and challenging injustice, hypocrisy, and the hidden power relations that students are likely to encounter.” —Sheridan Blau, Teachers College, Columbia University

"[Book title] documents a descriptive case study of teenage girls who created autobiographical avatars for their social online spaces. It explores the complex and often conflcited negotiations behind girlhood identity and representation in a cyber-social world."--Back cover.

This popular textbook introduces prospective and practicing English teachers to current methods of teaching literature in middle and high school classrooms. It underscores the value of providing students with a range of different critical approaches and tools for interpreting texts and the need to organize literature instruction around topics and issues of interest to them. Throughout the textbook, readers are encouraged to raise and explore inquiry-based questions in response to authentic dilemmas and issues they face in the critical literature classroom. New in this edition, the text shows how these approaches to fostering responses to literature also work as rich tools to address the Common Core English Language Arts Standards. Each chapter is organized around specific questions that English educators often hear in working with pre-service teachers. Suggested pedagogical methods are modelled by inviting readers to interact with the book through critical-inquiry methods for responding to texts. Readers are engaged in considering authentic dilemmas and issues facing literature teachers through inquiry-based responses to authentic case narratives. A Companion Website [http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com] provides resources and enrichment activities, inviting teachers to consider important issues in the context of their current or future classrooms.

Research shows that only half of teachers say digital tools make writing instruction easier... Research Writing Rewired shows us how to channel students’ passion for digital communication into meeting our goals, and provides a vision for teaching English in today’s classroom. The authors provide you with a clear model for tech-rich research that will inform your own units. Guiding components include: An inquiry-based, technology-rich unit 28 model lessons and a framework including extensions, tech tips, and activities Best practices on formative assessment, close reading, and think alouds Activities built around students’ favorite technology QR codes to video clips on a companion website

Explicitly linking curriculum inquiry to English education via recurring themes of representation, democracy and knowledge, this book is a call for both researchers and practitioners to engage with curriculum, explicitly and deliberatively, as both a concept and a question. The approach is broadly conceptual and constitutes an exercise in theoretical and philosophical inquiry. While deeply informed by North American debates and developments, this book offers a distinctive counterpoint and a strategically ‘ex-centric’ perspective, being equally informed by the curriculum scene in Australia, as well as the UK and elsewhere. Divided into two sections, this book first addresses matters of general curriculum inquiry, while the second turns more specifically to English teaching and to associated questions of language, literacy and literature in L1 education. Green brings the two together through a critical examination of the Australian national curriculum, especially in its implications and challenges for English teaching, and with due regard for the project of transnational curriculum inquiry.

Sixteen teachers. Sixteen journeys. All on a quest to become outstanding teachers of writing. All taking different paths to acquire and hone those skills that make a teacher effective. From kindergarten to college, teachers are faced with the daunting task of instilling the art of writing in their students. From creative writing to research, the art of writing incorporates the writing process to create the inking of our thinking. These 16 teachers from across the nation have traveled a long and arduous path to seek and to reach for the methods and strategies that will make them successful writing teachers. These are their stories.