Middle Ground: Ten Remarkable Middle School Language Arts Teachers

1998 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Mary Mercer Krogness
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Arts Teachers

scholarly journals How teachers adapt to curricular and structural change : a multi-case study of three middle school language arts teachers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Stephanie Wightman
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Start Time ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Teacher Understanding ◽  
Arts Teachers

This study examined the experiences of three middle school language arts teachers during a time in their teaching careers where their school district underwent structural and curricular changes. During the restructuring of the grade configuration, curriculum, course assignments, teachers, teams, start time, and schedules, teachers at Smiley Middle School teachers experienced a radical change. Through interviews, blogs, professional learning team observations, and field notes, this qualitative case study examines the experiences of three language arts teachers one and a half years after the transition. The findings indicated that these teachers were largely impacted by the transition. They relied on their teacher identity to ground their day-to-day classroom changes. Their agency was disrupted, but the teachers were able to rely on professional learning teams and units of instruction to help them build back their agency. Finally, resilience was a large factor in helping the three teachers power through the changes. This study has lasting implications for building leaders, teachers, and pre-service teacher. Understanding and building up identity, agency, and resiliency among teacher may play a role in helping teachers negotiate complex changes in their school structure.

scholarly journals State educational agencies in an uncertain environment: Understanding state provided networks of English Language Arts curricular resources

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Serena J. Salloum ◽  
Emily M. Hodge ◽  
Susanna L. Benko
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Quadratic Assignment ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Arts Teachers ◽  
Organizational Ties ◽  
State Educational

Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and backlash around these policies created widespread uncertainty among state educational agencies (SEAs). SEAs may have not had a clear direction about how to support standards implementation in a new context, and therefore, may have looked to their professional networks, their geographic neighbors or other highly regarded SEAs, or other sources for information and resources to guide their decisions about where to send teachers for information about standards. Drawing on institutional theory (Meyer Rowan, 1977) and isomorphism specifically (DiMaggio Powell, 1983), we posit that coercive forces (primarily due to RTTT application and CCSS status) as compared to mimetic and normative forces influenced the organizations to which SEAs turn for curriculum materials. Using Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure and a data set of over 2,000 state-provided resources for secondary English Language Arts teachers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., we indeed found that coercive forces had a relationship with shared organizational ties, demonstrating that RTTT application and CCSS adoption influenced resource provision.

Building Awareness of Language Structures with Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting

2013 ◽  
pp. 21-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngmin Park ◽  
Mark Warschauer ◽  
Penelope Collins ◽  
Jin Kyoung Hwang ◽  
Charles Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Arts Teachers ◽  
Authentic Writing ◽  
Writing Technology ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Structures

The recently adopted Common Core State Standards emphasize the importance of language forms and structure in learning to write. Yet most language arts teachers have either downplayed the linguistic structure of writing in favor of process approaches or emphasized the teaching of grammatical structures outside of the context of authentic writing. Technology-supported writing activities tend to mimic these two approaches, with teachers using technology for either process-based writing or for grammar drills. Most teachers are not well prepared to teach linguistic structures in context or to deploy technology for that purpose. This chapter introduces a new tool called Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting (VSTF) that has powerful affordances for teaching linguistic and textual structures in the context of authentic written genres. Drawing on an empirical study and an action research project conducted by the authors, they share evidence for the value of using VSTF and point to ways that it can be used in the classroom to help students master language structures and employ them in their composition.

It’s All about Personal Connections

2012 ◽  
pp. 185-202
Author(s):  
Luke Rodesiler ◽  
Lauren Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
English Language ◽  
Networked Learning ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Secondary English Language Arts ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
Arts Teachers

Given the potential of informal online learning via social networks for supporting the career-long professional growth of in-service teachers, research must be conducted to better understand the ways in which today’s future teachers are being prepared for and experiencing such practice. This chapter presents the authors’ efforts to move in that direction, a qualitative study describing six pre-service secondary English language arts teachers’ perceptions of self-directed networked learning during a teaching internship. Findings suggest that participants perceived networked learning as a viable and valuable approach to supplementing professional growth despite also perceiving challenges in the form of context, identity, and time.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document