Our current "culture wars" have reshaped the politics of secondary literature instruction. Due to a variety of challenges from both the left and the right-to language or subject matter, to potentially triggering content or to authors who have been cancelled-school reading lists are rapidly shrinking. For many teachers, choosing which books to include in their curriculum has become an agonising task with political, professional and ethical dimensions. In Literature and the New Culture Wars, Deborah Appleman calls for a reacknowledgment of the intellectual and affective work that literature can do, and offers ways to continue to teach troubling texts without doing harm. Rather than banishing challenged texts from our classrooms, she writes, we should be confronting and teaching the controversies they invoke. Her book is a timely and eloquent argument for a reasoned approach to determining what literature still deserves to be read and taught and discussed.

Now in its fourth edition, this popular textbook introduces prospective and practicing English teachers to current methods of teaching literature in middle and high school classrooms. This new edition broadens its focus to cover important topics such as critical race theory; perspectives on teaching fiction, nonfiction, and drama; the integration of digital literacy; and teacher research for ongoing learning and professional development. It underscores the value of providing students with a range of different critical approaches and tools for interpreting texts. It also addresses the need to organize literature instruction around topics and issues of interest to today's adolescents. By using authentic dilemmas and contemporary issues, the authors encourage preservice English teachers and their instructors to raise and explore inquiry-based questions that center on the teaching of a variety of literary texts, both classic and contemporary, traditional and digital. New to the Fourth Edition: Expanded attention to digital tools, multimodal learning, and teaching online New examples of teaching contemporary texts Expanded discussion and illustration of formative assessment Revised response activities for incorporating young adult literature into the literature curriculum Real-world examples of student work to illustrate how students respond to the suggested strategies Extended focus on infusing multicultural and diverse literature in the classroom Each chapter is organized around specific questions that preservice teachers consistently raise as they prepare to become English language arts teachers. The authors model critical inquiry throughout the text by offering authentic case narratives that raise important considerations of both theory and practice. A companion website, a favorite of English education instructors, http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com, provides resources and enrichment activities, inviting teachers to consider important issues in the context of their current or future classrooms.

Now in its fourth edition, this popular textbook introduces prospective and practicing English teachers to current methods of teaching literature in middle and high school classrooms. This new edition broadens its focus to cover important topics such as critical race theory; perspectives on teaching fiction, nonfiction, and drama; the integration of digital literacy; and teacher research for ongoing learning and professional development. It underscores the value of providing students with a range of different critical approaches and tools for interpreting texts. It also addresses the need to organize literature instruction around topics and issues of interest to today's adolescents. By using authentic dilemmas and contemporary issues, the authors encourage preservice English teachers and their instructors to raise and explore inquiry-based questions that center on the teaching of a variety of literary texts, both classic and contemporary, traditional and digital. New to the Fourth Edition: Expanded attention to digital tools, multimodal learning, and teaching online New examples of teaching contemporary texts Expanded discussion and illustration of formative assessment Revised response activities for incorporating young adult literature into the literature curriculum Real-world examples of student work to illustrate how students respond to the suggested strategies Extended focus on infusing multicultural and diverse literature in the classroom Each chapter is organized around specific questions that preservice teachers consistently raise as they prepare to become English language arts teachers. The authors model critical inquiry throughout the text by offering authentic case narratives that raise important considerations of both theory and practice. A companion website, a favorite of English education instructors, http://teachingliterature.pbworks.com, provides resources and enrichment activities, inviting teachers to consider important issues in the context of their current or future classrooms.

Words No Bars Can Hold provides a rare glimpse into literacy learning under the most dehumanising conditions. Deborah Appleman chronicles her work teaching college-level classes at a high-security prison for men, most of whom are serving life sentences. Through narrative, poetry, memoir and fiction, the students in Appleman's classes attempt to write themselves back into a society that has erased their lived histories. The students' work, through which they probe and develop their identities as readers and writers, illuminates the transformative power of literacy. Appleman argues for the importance of educating the incarcerated and explores ways to interrupt the increasingly common journey from urban schools to our nation's prisons. From the sobering endpoint of what scholars have called the "school to prison pipeline", she draws insight from the narratives and experiences of those who have travelled it.

Critical thinking and online reading need to go hand in hand—but they often don’t. Students click, swipe, and believe because they don’t know how to do otherwise. At times, so do we. And that’s a problem. Fighting Fake News combats this challenge by helping you model how to read, myth-bust, truth-test, and respond in ways that lead to wisdom rather than reactivity. No matter what content you teach, the lessons showcased here provide engaging, collaborative reading and discussion experiences so students can: Notice how teacher and peers read digital content, to be mindful of how various reading pathways influence perception Identify the author background, the website sponsor, and other evidence that help set a piece in context Stress-test the facts by evaluating news sources, reading laterally, and other critical reading strategies Use "Reader’s Rules of Notice" to learn to identify common rhetorical devices used to influence the reader Be aware of how for-profit social media platforms feed on our responses to narrow rather than widen our reading landscape We are still in the wild west era of the digital age, scrambling to impart a safer, ethical framework for evaluating information. Thankfully, it distills to one mission: teach students (and ourselves) how to think critically, and we will forever have the tools to fight fake news.

Leave instruction to the experts! Uncommon Core puts us on high-alert about some outright dangerous misunderstandings looming around so-called "standards-aligned" instruction, then shows us how to steer past them-all in service of meeting the real intent of the Common Core. It counters with teaching suggestions that are true to the research and true to our students, including how: Reader-based approaches can complement text-based ones Prereading activities can help students meet the strategic and conceptual demands of texts Strategy instruction can result in a careful and critical analysis of text while providing transferable understandings Inquiry units around essential questions can generate meaningful conversation and higher-order thinking

Leila Christenbury is well known as a writer and researcher in English Education: her classic book ""Making the Journey"", now in its third edition, has been a guide to countless middle and high school language arts teachers. In her new book, this veteran teacher and teacher educator reveals what did and - more surprisingly - did not happen when she returned to the high school classroom after a hiatus of many years. Exploring her experiences in light of current teacher preparation reform efforts, the author's compelling narrative is a continuation of her earlier work that will resonate with those concerned about the state of today's American secondary education.In addition to personal reflections on her practice, Christenbury also: provides specific recommendations for enhancing the English classroom; explores the state of the American comprehensive high school and the fiction of excellence; examines the role of school in relation to the suburban middle class; addresses a number of problem areas: the timing of high stakes tests, policies regarding academic regulations, the uncritical adoption of a college ""model,"" the widening use of dual enrollment courses, and more.