Critical content knowledges in the English language arts classroom: examining practicing teachers' nuanced perspectives

Dyches, Jeanne; Boyd, Ashley S.; Schulz, Jessica M.

doi:10.1080/00220272.2020.1836260

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In this article, we focused squarely on teaching the discipline-specific skills that are needed to promote disciplinary literacy in history. We agree with Dyches et al (2021) that, "any text can be taught for social justice . .…”

Section: Rationalementioning

confidence: 65%

Using virtual teacher PD to support implementation of a historical literacy curriculum

De La Paz,

Otarola,

Butler

2023

SSRP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis study aims to explore how teachers in a large, diverse district could use a complex adolescent literacy curriculum, and it coincided with the start of the coronavirus 2019 pandemic, also a time of great upheaval for this nation. The authors and district partners collaboratively designed document sets that could help students explore socially complex historical topics with discipline-specific reading and writing support. These challenges led to fully virtual PD and redesigned cognitive tools and lesson materials that could be used in a fully distanced learning environment.Design/methodology/approachPD and data collection were ongoing and iterative, as the authors' goals were to understand variability in teachers' understanding and how the social unrest in the nation and the need for distance learning would influence their application of our curriculum. Data sources included teacher artifacts, interviews and implementation surveys and anonymized student work samples. The third author wrote memos during webinars and district meetings. The authors employed a grounded theory approach to analyze teachers’ evolving understandings of how to teach students to make judgments, their lesson differentiation and their attention to social justice issues.FindingsTeachers who attended the authors' online PD increased their knowledge of the authors' cognitive apprenticeship (CA) approach to instruction, demonstrating more sophisticated understandings of important historical thinking skills and the need to provide students with explicit instruction and appropriate cognitive scaffolds. By the end of the year, teachers also showed ease in using new technological platforms and a more flexible use of disciplinary thinking scaffolds in ways the authors hoped. Finally, teachers in the authors' sample (and their students) frequently made connections between topics and sources in the authors' curriculum and ongoing societal problems (such as systemic racism) in this nation.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' original sample of teachers was over 70; however, this number eventually fell to nine teachers (about 12.5% of the eligible participants) due to many ongoing challenges (e.g. teaching while parenting) during this time period. The authors note that teachers who remained engaged with the authors had over 10 years of experience and all but one had at some point been in a leadership position such as a team lead or department head. It is possible that experience teachers found on the authors' curriculum intervention to be too challenging to implement during the pandemic.Practical implicationsOnline PD can be successful when sessions focus on content that teachers will use with students. We provided video models showing teachers how to teach historical reading and writing using the authors' tools and supports authors' platform. Although brief, the authors gave teachers opportunities for collaborative practice during webinars, and time to share challenges related to virtual teaching. In return, teachers shared what was working for them and allowed the authors to use anonymized student materials as the basis for subsequent materials for teaching students to make historical judgments.Social implicationsAll students, including those with learning or attentional disabilities/difficulties, emergent bilingual students, underrepresented students or marginalized students, must learn to grapple with complex historical and political information. Doing so will support their ability to make sense of conflicting and/or politicized information that pervades the media today and to judge for themselves what counts as evidence and truth.Originality/valueAlthough there are a small number of teachers, this study shows that a strong research partnership between a university and district office can support the successful implementation of a complex historical literacy curriculum that allows students to explore social justice issues while learning important disciplinary literacy skills. Future work will share student learning outcomes.

show abstract

Section: Rationalementioning

confidence: 65%

Using virtual teacher PD to support implementation of a historical literacy curriculum

De La Paz,

Otarola,

Butler

2023

SSRP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Diverse books allow students to engage with characters that provide mirrors to see themselves, windows to look out into the world, and telescopes to step out of their own experience and into the broader reality and aspects of the human condition (Irvin, 2024;Sims Bishop, 1990;Toliver, 2021). Additionally, more teachers nowadays are engaging in critical teaching practices with these "taboo" texts, prompting students to develop empathy for our common humanity by critically examining, discussing, and researching topics that are impacting students and the communities in which they live (Dyches et al, 2020;Meixner & Scupp, 2020;Toliver & Hadley, 2021). This type of teaching is necessary because when a teacher's pedagogy incorporates a critical literacy lens, students can become critical readers.…”

Section: A R T I C L Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

Savitz,

Irvin,

Soulen

2024

J Adolescent & Adult Lit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Book banning and censorship in the U.S. prompts necessary conversations on how critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry are used in various school and library settings. We share guiding questions alongside three examples of textual analyses centering on gender fluidity with three young adult novels. We believe that English language arts teachers will benefit from seeing examples of how we responded to these texts with critical analysis questions that require students to analyze gender representation and identity within the stories. By developing an empathic analysis, students can engage in this critical work within classrooms and libraries, where reading diverse texts is encouraged.

show abstract

“…A deeply ingrained allegiance to teaching canonical works has characterized the U.S. English Language Arts (ELA) classroom for over 150 years (Applebee, 1974;Stotsky, 2010). Applying critical literacies-lenses and skills that help students "read the word and the world" (Freire & Macedo, 1987) to notice and disrupt systems of power-can prove particularly difficult to apply when reading these texts because students see them as neutral and ideology free (Dyches, 2018a(Dyches, , 2018bDyches et al, 2020); archaic and difficult to access (Dyches et al, 2021); and, given their often culturally and linguistically exclusionary properties, dialogically polarizing (Borsheim-Black, 2015;Carter, 2007). Despite these canonical confinements, literacy stakeholders committed to working for social justice iteratively locate and creatively craft instruction that helps students learn about, and seek to dismantle, the various power structures at play in both their ELA classrooms and across the broader social milieu (see, e.g., Dyches et al, 2020;Macaluso & Macaluso, 2018).…”

Section: Sharpening Students' Racial Literacies Through Multimodal Su...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharpening Students' Racial Literacies through Multimodal Subversion

Howell¹,

Dyches²

2022

J Adolescent & Adult Lit

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This case study shares the experiences of 24 students in an urban high school in the U.S. Midwest who spent 6 weeks learning about, and applying tenets of, critical race theory (CRT) to their analysis of the canonical The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Students created a visual essay reflecting their understanding of CRT in the novel and in their broader social milieu. Drawing from, and sharing possibilities for, merging theoretical principles from CRT, multiliteracies, and the writing process, we/the authors ask: How can students utilize multiple perspectives to sharpen racial literacies through multimodal design? These findings include three points of integration: (a) overt instruction, Whiteness, and organizing; (b) critical framing, intersectionality, and address; and (c) transformed practice, critical stance, and revise and survey again.

show abstract

Critical content knowledges in the English language arts classroom: examining practicing teachers' nuanced perspectives

Cited by 8 publications

References 46 publications

Using virtual teacher PD to support implementation of a historical literacy curriculum

Using virtual teacher PD to support implementation of a historical literacy curriculum

Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

Sharpening Students' Racial Literacies through Multimodal Subversion

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About