Description
Book SynopsisNew Directions in Teaching English: Reimagining Teaching, Teacher Education and Research attempts to create a comprehensive vision of critical and culturally relevant English teaching at the dawn of the 21st century. This book is multi-voiced. It includes perspectives from classroom teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in language and literacy, positioned to respond to recent changes in national conversations about literacy, learning, and assessment. These variously situated authors also recognize the rapidly changing demographics in schools, the changing nature of literacy in the digital age, and the increasing demands for literacy in the workplace. This book is critical. At all times education is a political act, and schools are embedded within a sociocultural reality that benefits some at the expense of others. Therefore the approach advocated through many of the chapters is one of critical literacy, where English students gain reading and writing skills and proficiency with digital technologies that allow them to become more able, discerning, and empowered consumers and producers of texts.
Trade ReviewNew Directions in Teaching English a must read for anyone interested in closing the literacy achievement gaps for the 21st century. It showcases useful and important knowledge from the field, from highly effective teachers who are having demonstrable success. It also offers concrete suggestions for how we might rethink teacher education, how we might develop more sensitive assessments, and how we might advocate for critical change. -- Sarah Freedman, University of California at Berkeley
This is an excellent collection, showcasing some of the latest and most radical thinking about the future of English teaching in the US. It is firmly rooted in real classrooms whilst highlighting research and critical enquiry throughout. Its overarching themes of social justice and the celebration of difference and diversity give the book an energy and a drive for positive change and also for sustaining the great teaching that can already be found in the most forward thinking English classrooms. The collection has much to offer teachers and researchers around the world who believe passionately that English teaching is about breaking down prejudice and opening our students hearts and minds to the creation of a more just society. -- Andy C. Goodwyn, University of Reading (United Kingdom)
This is the book that English teacher educators and classroom English teachers have been waiting for. It takes us deeply and informatively into the culture and promise of literacy in a new age of multi-literacies, multiple diversities, and a multitude of new challenges and opportunities for English teachers and their students. New teachers will find this a valuable resource for navigating the teaching world they have entered. Veteran teachers will welcome the reorienting and reaffirming scholarship and wisdom offered here by a trustworthy group of emerging and well-established scholars in our field. -- Sheridan Blau, Teachers College, Columbia University; UC Santa Barbara (emeritus)
Table of ContentsDedication Preface Introduction Section 1: Classroom Teaching Chapter 1: Critical Multiliteracies Pedagogy in a Secondary English Classroom Jerica Coffey Chapter 2: Cultural Relevance in the Modern Language Arts Classroom Jose Paco Fiallos Chapter 3: Distraction, Differentiation, & Socialization: English Education, Pedagogy, and Literacy Acquisition in an Era of Social and Mobile Media Antero Garcia Chapter 4: Towards a Literacy Continuum Latrise P. Johnson and Maisha T. Winn Chapter 5: Black and Latina/o Youth Linguistic Repertoires in Urban English Language Arts Classroom Danny C. Martinez Section 2: Teacher Education Chapter 6: Service Learning in New Spaces: Transforming Preservice Teachers Lisa Scherff Chapter 7: English Teacher Education for Rural Social Spaces Leslie S. Rush Chapter 8: Learning from Equity Audits: Powerful Social Justice in English Education for the 21st Century sj Miller Section 3: Scholarship and Advocacy Chapter 9: Critical Engagement through Digital Media Production: A Nexus of Practice Cynthia Lewis and Lauren Causey Chapter 10: Digital Literacy Advocacy: A Rationale for Shifting Policy, Infrastructure, and Instruction Troy Hicks Chapter 11: ”Don’t Say Gay”: Using Action Research to Interrogate Language Use in the English Classroom Susan L. Groenke and Judson C. Laughter Chapter 12: Practitioner Research in English Education Patricia Lambert Stock About the Contributors
