Exploring Adolescents’ Multimodal Responses to The Kite Runner: Understanding How Students Use Digital Media for Academic Purposes

This qualitative study explores how adolescent high school students in an AP English class used multiple forms of media (the Internet, digital video, slide show software, video editing tools, literary texts, and writing) to respond to and analyze a contemporary novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Using a multimodal analysis framework, the author explores the following question: How are students’ multimodal retellings with literary devices mediated by the text, the choice of compositional tool, and the use of different modes? The findings of this study can be used to shape our understanding of adolescents’ multimodal composition practices in academic settings

Creating Critical Readers and Responders Using the Common Core State Standards

In this article, we offer a framework that supports teachers as they create opportunities for students to become critical readers and responders. With the Critical Reader and Responder (or CR2) Framework, teachers can use their understandings of readers, texts, and tasks as entry points for planning critical literacy response activities that meet Common Core State Standards (CCSS). We provide specific examples of how elementary teachers, faced with a myriad of constraints in their instructional planning, can use the framework to meet CCSS and prepare students to be critical readers in and out of the classroom

Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English

Since 2003, RTE has published the annual “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English,” and we are proud to share these curated and annotated citations once again. The goal of the annual bibliography is to offer a synthesis of the research published in the area of English language arts within the past year that may be of interest to RTE readers. Abstracted citations and those featured in the “Other Related Research” sections were published, either in print or online, between June 2019 and June 2020. The bibliography is divided into nine subject area sections. A three-person team of scholars with diverse research interests and background experiences in preK–16 educational settings reviewed and selected the manuscripts for each section using library databases and leading empirical journals. Each team abstracted significant contributions to the body of peer-reviewed studies that addressed the current research questions and concerns in their topic area

Lesson learned from PD on Problem-Solving and Sense-Making

This presentation describes findings from a study of an integrated, interdisciplinary, and multi-faceted professional development program designed to support secondary mathematics teachers in integrating problem-solving and sense-making practices into their classrooms. We will discuss several elements of the PD, including computer science problem-solving sessions, mathematical literacy sessions, and a reflective video case study club, that supported teachers’ in increasing mathematical content knowledge and integrating interdisciplinary STEM instruction. Drawing on findings from a mixed methods analysis of survey results, teacher content knowledge tests, video-taped PD interactions, and classroom observations, we will offer implications for designing professional development programs to engage teachers in thinking critically about integrating interdisciplinary problem-solving and sense-making activities into content instruction