In this episode of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy podcast, host Matt Sroka welcomes Dr. John Strong and Dr. Laura Tortorelli to discuss their article, Read STOP Write: Teaching foundational skills in a multicomponent informational reading and writing intervention written by John Z. Strong, Laura S. Tortorelli, and Blythe E. Anderson

Strong and Tortorelli explore the design and impact of Read STOP Write, an intervention developed to support upper-elementary and middle grade students in building foundational reading and writing skills through a multicomponent approach. The intervention integrates multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and vocabulary with strategies for comprehending and writing about informational texts.

Dr. John Z. Strong is Assistant Professor of Literacy Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. He is also Associate Director of Research in the Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction and Co-PI in the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. His research focuses on developing and testing reading and writing interventions to support students’ foundational reading skills and comprehension of complex texts. A former high school English language arts teacher, he is coauthor of professional books on literacy instruction in grades 4-12 and has published in leading journals. He has served as associate editor of The Reading Teacher and serves on the editorial review boards of leading journals, including Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

Dr. Laura Tortorelli is an Associate Professor of Elementary Literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Tortorelli's research focuses on the texts, technologies, and evidence-based practices for developing foundational reading and writing skills. She also teaches future teachers how to teach reading in Michigan State’s #1 ranked elementary education program. Her work has been funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, and the International Literacy Association. Her current projects focus on supporting informational text reading and writing in 4th and 5th grade and integrating AI into early reading instruction.

Resources:

Read STOP Write: Teaching foundational skills in a multicomponent informational reading and writing intervention 

https://www.readstopwrite.com/

In this episode of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Podcast, host Matt Sroka welcomes Dr. Abigail Amoako Kayser and Katie Keown for a conversation about their article on culturally and linguistically sustaining approaches to foundational skills instruction.

Dr. Kayser and Keown discuss how students’ home languages, dialects, and cultural knowledge are too often overlooked in literacy instruction. Together, they explore how classroom teachers can design joyful, rigorous instruction that honors students’ full linguistic repertoires while building the knowledge needed to access complex academic texts. This conversation is based off the JAAL article: Redefining and reimagining foundational skills: Centering joyful, culturally, and linguistically sustaining instruction in literacy instruction for CLD students written by Abigail Akosua Amoako Kayser, Katie Keown, Carey Swanson, Madeleine Mejia, and Brian Kayser.

Katie Keown serves as a Literary Director at Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit focused on improving student outcomes by ensuring all children receive equitable and essential instruction. Her work focuses on the organization’s secondary literacy initiatives, including teacher training and aligning systems to ensure all students receive the high-quality reading instruction they deserve. Prior to her time at SAP, she worked on the assessment team at HMH-Riverside and taught middle and high school students in Illinois and Mississippi. Katie is currently in the Reading Science doctoral program at Mount St. Joseph University, where her research interests include adolescent literacy and teacher preparation. She holds a Master’s in Reading Science from the Mount and a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Illinois. 

Abigail A. Amoako Kayser, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Early, Elementary, and Reading Education at James Madison University. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a former elementary school teacher. Her research explores how educators can engage in practices that promote equitable, joyful literacy development in culturally and linguistically sustaining ways for students in both the United States and Ghana.

Primary Resources: 

Special Issue: Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy

Redefining and reimagining foundational skills: Centering joyful, culturally, and linguistically sustaining instruction in literacy instruction for CLD students

Additional Resources:

IES Guide for Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9

Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading

Increasing reading Fluency for Middle and High School Students

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms

Welcome to the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Podcast! I’m your host, Matt Sroka, and today’s episode as promised continues a series of episodes on the foundational literacy skills for adolescents. These discussions will be taken from a recent special issue of The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, which explores supporting adolescent readers' foundational literacy skills. Last episode I talked with the editors of this special issue. Today, I welcome my first author from this special issue Dr. Brennan Chandler. 

As students progress into middle and high school, the expectation is that they can independently engage with complex texts. However, for students with or at risk for learning disabilities (LD), decoding multisyllabic words remains a significant challenge, often hindering their ability to access content knowledge and read for understanding. 

In this episode of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy podcast, host Matt Sroka welcomes Dr. Brennan Chandler to discuss the importance of word reading efficiency, the unique challenges faced by secondary students with LD, and the instructional strategies that can help bridge this gap. 

This conversation is based on the article written for JAAL titled: Instruction to Support Word-Level Reading Skills for Adolescent Learners with Learning Disabilities written by Brennan W. Chandler, Jessica R. Toste, Elizabeth J. Hart, and Devin M. Kearns. 

Brennan Chandler is an assistant professor of dyslexia and special education in the Department of Learning Sciences at Georgia State University. He received his Ph.D. in Special Education from The University of Texas at Austin with a focus on learning disabilities. His research focuses on improving outcomes for students with dyslexia and other significant reading and writing disabilities through developing, testing, and implementing intensive interventions. 

Resources:

Special Issue: Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy

Instruction to Support Word-Level Reading Skills for Adolescent Learners with Learning Disabilities

In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka welcomes Drs. Sarah Lupo, Dianna Townsend, Rachel Knecht, and Dixie Massey, guest editors of a special issue of The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy on Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy. They discuss the motivation behind the special issue, the collaborative process of putting it together, and key themes that emerged. This conversation centers on their introductory commentary, Recognizing Complexity and Taking Action: Supporting Adolescents' Foundational Literacy Skills in Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Ways

Sarah M. Lupo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the Middle, Secondary, and Mathematics Department at James Madison University. Prior to working at JMU, she worked as an English teacher, ESL teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach in Washington D.C., Istanbul, Turkey, Phoenix, AZ, and Charlottesville, VA. Her research strives to put theory into practice to find practical ways teachers can improve comprehension and disciplinary learning for K-12 students, while positioning all learners’ as capable and bringing cultural and linguistic assets to the reading experience.

Dr. Dianna Townsend’s research centers the language development of adolescents, with specific attention to vocabulary. She examines both the unique language demands of the disciplines and effective instructional strategies to help students understand and use the language of the disciplines. Her most recent book is Words Worth Using: Supporting Adolescents’ Power with Academic Vocabulary, published by Teachers College Press in 2022. Dr. Townsend’s research has been funded by the Spencer Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. She is also a member of the Reading Standing Committee for the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). In Nevada, Dr. Townsend is the co-founder and President of the Nevada Adolescent Literacy Network (NALN) and a lead author of the Nevada State Literacy Plan. Dianna is a winner of the University of Nevada Reno’s Tibbetts Distinguished Teacher Award. She created the innovative Virtual Reading Clinic in the online M.Ed. Program in Reading Curriculum & Instruction to support remote and rural teachers in a graduate-level practicum experience. Within the College of Education and Human Development at UNR, Dr. Townsend is the Program Coordinator of the Literacy Studies Program.

Dr. Dixie Massey teaches at Seattle Pacific University. Her research interests include the role of motivation in literacy learning, the history of literacy instruction, and teacher decision making. She is co-author of Teaching with children’s literature: From theory to practice and Overcoming Reading Challenges: Kindergarten through Middle School.  She is a contributing author for the Social Studies Schools Services. She has served as historian for the Literacy Research Association and the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers and currently chairs the History of Literacy ICG for the Literacy Research Association.

Rachel Knecht is an Assistant Professor of English Teaching at Brigham Young University. A former middle and high school ELA teacher, Rachel’s research focuses on supporting upper elementary and secondary students' reading comprehension, particularly through metalinguistic development. Rachel is also interested in cultivating dialogical spaces and instructional approaches in which students can draw on their cultural and linguistic resources and further develop metalinguistic awareness to comprehend and critically examine text. She is also committed to research-practice partnerships with public schools.

Resources:

Special Issue: Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy 

Recognizing Complexity and Taking Action: Supporting Adolescents' Foundational Literacy Skills in Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Ways

In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka welcomes Dr. Amy Crosson for an in-depth conversation on vocabulary instruction for multilingual students. They explore her research on academic vocabulary and word analysis through Latin roots, highlighting strategies that empower students to draw on their linguistic knowledge. This episode provides valuable insights into how teachers can harness students' diverse language backgrounds to deepen their understanding and appreciation of words.The discussion centers on the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy article, “Think Like a Linguist: Leveraging Multilingual Students’ Expertise about Language”.

Amy Crosson is an associate professor at Penn State’s College of Education and is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Language Science at Penn State. She started her career teaching English as a Second language in a middle school in rural Guatemala and then as a bilingual Spanish-English kindergarten teacher in urban school districts in Massachusetts.

Amy’s research focuses on developing and evaluating instructional programs that are designed to improve and accelerate learning for multilingual learners in public school settings. Her work has focused on supporting multilingual learners (1) to sharpen their metalinguistic and language awareness, (2) to utilize their metalingual resources; (3) to engage in oral and written argumentation; and (4) to read with understanding.

In addition to the JAAL article on “Think Like a Linguist”, she and her colleagues recently published an article on the instructional program-- English Learners’ Robust Academic Vocabulary Encounters (EL RAVE)-- that gave rise to Think Like a Linguist. That article addresses the effects of Think Like a Linguist and the overall EL RAVE instructional program on multilingual adolescents’ language and reading outcomes. You can read about that in the journal, Scientific Studies of Reading (2025).

Article: “Think Like a Linguist: Leveraging Multilingual Students’ Expertise about Language”

Other Related Resources:

EL RAVE Website: https://sites.psu.edu/elrave/

Words as Tools: https://ies.ed.gov/use-work/awards/words-tools-vocabulary-development-emergent-bilinguals-science-and-beyond?ID=5857

Carlson, M. & Crosson. (2025). The synchronic status of historical bound roots in the mental   lexicon: A dynamic, psychocentric perspective.  The Mental 

Lexicon.

Crosson, A.C., Kieffer, M.J., McKeown, M.G., & Nagy, W. (2025). Cross-language   morphological analysis improves academic word learning for multilingual 

adolescents. Scientific Studies of Reading [Special issue on the science of teaching   reading.] 10.1080/10888438.2024.2415916

Crosson, A.C. & Silverman, R.D. (2022). Impact of COVID‐19 on early literacy instruction for emergent bilinguals, Reading Research Quarterly, 57. 5-14. 

10.1002/rrq.456 

Crosson, A.C., McKeown, M.G., Lei, P., Zhao, H.*, Li, X.*, Patrick, K. & Brown, K. & Shen,   Y.* (2021). Morphological analysis skill and vocabulary 

knowledge are malleable through intervention and may contribute to reading comprehension for multilingual adolescents.  Journal of Research in 

Reading, 44, 154-174. 10.1111/1467-9817.12323 {Winner of the 2022 United Kingdom Literacy Association/Wiley Research in Literacy Education 

Award]

Crosson, A.C., McKeown, M.G., Robbins, K. & Brown, K. (2019). Key elements of robust vocabulary instruction for emergent bilingual adolescents.  

Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50, 493-505. 10.1044/2019_LSHSS-VOIA-18-0127

Crosson, A.C., McKeown, M.G., Moore, D.W. & Ye, F. (2019). Extending the bounds of morphology instruction: Teaching Latin roots facilitates academic 

word learning for English learner adolescents. Reading and Writing, 32, 689–727. 10.1007/s11145-018-9885-y 

In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka sits down with Drs. Marco Triulzi and Andrea DeCapua to explore the literacy challenges faced by migrant workers. They discuss the hidden barriers embedded in language learning textbooks and how educators can navigate these obstacles while leveraging students’ existing backgrounds and cultural resources. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: Unmasking hidden challenges for migrant learners with few prior experiences with formal education: An exploration of language learning textbooks

Dr Marco Triulzi is an applied linguist whose research focuses on German as a second and foreign language, multilingualism and language education. He received his PhD from the University of Cologne (Germany) in 2023 with a dissertation on biliteracy in Italian and German, focusing on multilingual children's transition from bilingual primary to monolingual secondary school. His work combines linguistic, sociological and educational perspectives.

Currently, Dr Triulzi is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (Germany), where he teaches Applied Linguistics and German as a Foreign Language, coordinates the International Research Centre for Multilingualism, and supervises undergraduate and graduate theses in these subjects. Previously, he was a DAAD exchange lecturer for German as a Foreign Language at the Sapienza University of Rome from 2019 to 2024 and a research fellow at the Mercator Institute for Literacy and Language Education at the University of Cologne from 2016 to 2019. From 2014 to 2015, he taught in German as a Second Language courses for recently arrived migrants and refugees, including learners with emergent literacy skills.

His research focuses on multilingual language diagnostics, bilingual education and second language acquisition. Dr Triulzi has published extensively on multilingualism and second language acquisition and teaching, including a monograph and articles in high-impact journals, and has actively participated in several international conferences.

Andrea DeCapua, Ed.D. is an educator, researcher, and educational consultant with over thirty years of experience, both here and overseas. She has held academic appointments at various institutions, including Assistant Professor in Multilingual Multicultural Studies at the College of New Rochelle, NY and adjunct appointments at New York University and the University of North Florida. Now retired from her academic appointments, Dr. DeCapua focuses on writing, research on and training for teachers working with low-educated adolescent and adult learners. 

Her research interests include second language acquisition and non-traditional approaches to classroom learning and language for struggling culturally and linguistically diverse students. Dr. DeCapua has published articles in the European Journal of Applied Linguistics, Language and Linguistic Compass, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Urban Review, ELT Journal, and TESOL Journal among others. 

She is also the author/co-author of eight books, the most recent of which is Breaking New Ground for SLIFE: The Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (2nd ed.) This book is the third in the series she has co-authored with Helaine W. Marshall that focus on the innovative Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm® (MALP®) approach for successful classroom learning and inclusive school environments for low-educated adolescent and adult learners.

Resources:

Article: Unmasking hidden challenges for migrant learners with few prior experiences with formal education: An exploration of language learning textbooks

Other Related Resources:

Checklist for learning materials evaluations for LESLLA/SLIFE learners 

https://malpeducation.com/

In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka welcomes Drs. Matthew Deroo, Daryl Axelrod, and Jennifer Kahn to discuss engaging students in community-based inquiry utilizing multimodal artifacts to analyze signs and symbols. The conversation explores how students can draw upon their own cultural and linguistic resources to analyze artifacts. Together, we also discuss how teachers can do similar work in connecting school literacy with student and community resources. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: Engaging culturally and linguistically diverse youth in semiotic analysis for community-based inquiry

Matthew R. Deroo is Associate Professor of Digital Literacies for Multilingual Students in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami. In his research, Matt seeks to learn with and from youth and their communities. His language and literacies-oriented research includes examination of the social and cultural contexts of immigrant and refugee youth, critical, digital media literacies, language education, and citizenship, civic engagement, and belonging.

Dr. Axelrod a Learning Specialist at Columbia University’s Disability Services, a part of Columbia Health. His collaborative learning with digital literacies research covers two primary areas of interest. One is emergent bi/multilingual students’ multimodal composing practices, such as how adolescents create digital compositions using augmented reality apps on mobile devices. He also examines youth and families’ storytelling practices that incorporate data visualization tools, such as families telling migration stories while examining related census data maps. His other line of inquiry concerns qualitative and quantitative research design accessibility, specifically for young adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities and autism.

Jennifer Kahn, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning and Learning Scientist in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami. Dr. Kahn studies how to broaden participation in interdisciplinary, technology-rich activities to support youth learning across school and community settings. 

Resources:

Article: Engaging culturally and linguistically diverse youth in semiotic analysis for community-based inquiry

Other Related Resources: Activity Guide 

Questions to Consider in your group's Semiotic Analysis:

What is the content of your artifact?

What text or numbers are present?

What signs or symbols are present?

What is the color scheme?

How are the words and images positioned? 

What is foregrounded or backgrounded?

Are facial expressions present, if so, what are they?

Then Discuss:

How might this artifact be understood within a specific cultural or language based context?

How did your group make meaning (make sense of) your artifact?

Finally:

Write a Memo- narrative form below (about your meaning-making process and your group’s analysis of the artifact)

In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka welcomes Drs. Heather Waymouth and Madison Weary to discuss their study on the language teachers use within disciplinary literacy instruction. The conversation explores the power that teachers have in shaping how students view and use literacy in their classroom. Offering critical insights, this episode encourages educators to reflect on their own practices to ensure they empower all learners equitably. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: Teachers' perceptions of disciplinary literacy: A critical discourse analysis. 

Heather Waymouth is an assistant professor in the Literacy Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She teaches classes on literacy across disciplines for undergraduate and graduate students, middle grades literacy for undergraduate students, literacy development and assessment for graduate students, and college reading and study skills for undergraduate students. As a previous high school literacy specialist with additional certifications in middle and high school Biology and general science, she is passionate about the ways literacy and science complement one another.

Madison Weary is an adjunct professor in the Literacy Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She also teaches classes on literacy across disciplines and literacy development and assessment for graduate students, and college reading and study skills for undergraduate students. She works as an MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support) Coordinator in a K-12 setting, and has previous experience as a reading specialist and middle school social studies teacher. Her work on disciplinary literacies focuses on classroom practice, professional development, and teacher education.

 Article:

Teachers' perceptions of disciplinary literacy: A critical discourse analysis. 

Additional Resources:

Tucker-Raymond, E., Gravel, B. E., Kohberger, K., & Browne, K. (2017). Source Code and a Screwdriver: STEM Literacy Practices in Fabricating Activities Among Experienced Adult Makers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(6), 617–627.

‪Angela Calabrese Barton - ‪Google Scholar

‪Daniel Morales-Doyle - ‪Google Scholar

In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka welcomes Drs. Mary McConnaha and Joanne Marciano to discuss student-led community-based book clubs focused on racial justice. The conversation explores how students perceive these book clubs compared to their school-based reading experiences and the critical role of thoughtful text selection. Together, they unpack how book clubs can inspire meaningful change, foster deeper discussions, and empower students as readers and thinkers. The episode also offers insights for teachers on how to nurture students’ reading lives both inside and outside the classroom. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: “They can learn it through us”: Youth seeking racial justice through a community-based book club

Mary "Maggie" McConnaha is a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education program at Michigan State University. Her research interests include English education, the school-to-prison nexus, and young adult literature. She has been published in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan and EdWeek and has been featured on CNN. 

Dr. Joanne E. Marciano is an Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University, and a former New York City public high school English teacher. In 2019, she collaborated with community partners to start The Youth Voices Project, an on-going community-based Youth Participatory Action Research initiative that seeks to disrupt educational inequities while acknowledging and extending youth participants’ literacy practices as strengths across varied contexts. She is currently PI of the National Science Foundation-funded project Community-Situated Data Practices in Multiethnic, Youth-Led Research Partnerships. Dr. Marciano’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Harvard Educational Review, Urban Education, Journal of Teacher Education, and Journal of Literacy Research. She is co-author with Dr. Michelle Knight-Manuel of the books Classroom cultures: Equitable schooling for racially diverse youth and College ready: Preparing Black and Latina/o youth for higher education – a culturally relevant approach, both published by Teachers College Press.

Resources:

Article: “They can learn it through us”: Youth seeking racial justice through a community-based book club

Other Related Articles:

Marciano, J.E., Peralta, L. M. & Lee, J. S. (2024). Examining the schooling desires of youth during the COVID-19 crisis. Harvard Educational Review, 94(3), 425-447.

Marciano, J.E., Johnson, L.& Beymer, A. (2023). “Our voice and dreams matter”: Supporting youths’ racial literacy. Journal of Literacy Research, 55(2), 145-169.

Marciano, J.E., Peralta, L. M., Lee, J. S., Rosemurgy, H., Holloway, L., & Bass, J. (2020). Centering community: Enacting culturally responsive-sustaining YPAR during COVID-19. Journal for Multicultural Education, 14(2), 163-175.

In this episode, host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Sarah Levine and Sarah black about how students are using ChaptGPT in the classrooms and what this means for teachers. This conversation stems from their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: How do students use ChatGPT as a writing support?

Sarah Levine is an assistant professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. She studies teaching and learning of literary interpretation and writing in urban high schools. She also studies ways that students can use AI and digital media (for example, natural language processing models like ChatGPT; visual representations of text like word clouds; and radio production) to support their writing.

Sarah Beck is a teacher educator and literacy researcher on the faculty at New York University. In addition to the JAAL article on students' use of ChatGPT, she and Sarah Levine have also written a conceptual paper on imagining futures for generative AI in literacy, published in Reading Research Quarterly.  She has also published widely on dialogic writing assessment, in JAAL, Literacy, and English Teaching: Practice and Critique. Her book-length description of this approach is A Think Aloud Approach to Writing Assessment (2018) Teachers College Press.  

Resources:

How do students use ChatGPT as a writing support?

The Next Word: A Framework for Imagining the Benefits and Harms of Generative AI as a Resource for Learning to Write

Beyond CheatBots: Examining Tensions in Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Cheating and Learning with ChatGPT

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Phillip Wilder, James Cohen, Moses Deogratius, and Andrea Trudeau about Nonviolent Communication being used to support partnerships between the Global North and the Global South, emphasizing the need to foster “power with” rather than a “power over” relationships. This conversation stems from their commentary for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: “Cultivating nonviolent relationships within global literacy education partnerships”

Dr. Phillip M. Wilder is an associate professor of literacy at Clemson University where his current research explores how youth and educators practice nonviolent communication. A longtime educator with over two decades of experience leading international educational partnerships including Mwangaza Education for Partnership in Tanzania, Phillip guides educational programs which emphasize conscious communication and agency within communities.

Dr. James Cohen is a professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at Northern Illinois University. He currently researches areas such as undocumented immigration in the U.S., identity construction of EFL teachers, and partnerships between the global north and global south. James spends his summers taking pre-service teachers to places such as Indonesia, Tanzania and Kenya to provide “Power with” teaching experiences.

Moses Deogratius a chief librarian at Madaraka Nyerere library and community resource centre Musina Tanzania since 2016 up until now. Moses was also a Kiswahili teacher at Nyegina secondary school from 2014 to 2019. He also has been working with Tanzania development support for six years. His email is deogratiusmoses73@gmail.com

Andrea Trudeau, Ph.D., NBCT, is an award-winning, human-centered school librarian with 27 years of teaching experience in a public middle school in the Chicagoland area. A passionate advocate for school libraries, she creates a vibrant, student-centered learning commons while also supporting global librarianship and girls' education in East Africa and conducting research on virtual reality's impact on adolescent empathy. You can learn more about Andrea at https://www.noshhlibrarian.com/ or connect with her on X at @Andrea_Trudeau.

Resources:

“Cultivating nonviolent relationships within global literacy education partnerships”

Tanzania Development Support 

Librarians Building Libraries

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Anne Gill and Olivia Stewart about the instructional implications of using podcasts framed by a critical media literacy framework in a high school social justice classroom. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: The instructional implications of a critical media literacy framework and podcasts in a high school classroom

Dr. Anne Gill is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education at West Chester University, where she is part of the Secondary Education and K-12 Health and Physical Education Department. She works closely with pre-service social studies teachers to prepare them for effective, culturally responsive, and impactful instruction at the secondary level. Dr. Gill's research interests center on innovative teaching methods, particularly integrating social media and media texts into classroom instruction. She is passionate about fostering critical media literacy in the social studies classroom, emphasizing media analysis and incorporating diverse voices and stories—especially those that challenge dominant narratives.

Dr. Olivia G. Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Literacy at St. John's University in New York City. Her research interests center on the inclusion of critical digital literacies and multimodal assignments in classrooms, particularly for academically marginalized students, to counter traditional power structures often found in increasingly outdated school policies and oppressive systems. She examines how students can use various digital media for authorship that allows them to make meaning in non-traditional forms to push back on “what counts” as writing in today’s classrooms. From a critical theoretical perspective, she also examines how teachers and students can co-create spaces to understand the relationships between power and language and the inherently non-neutral ideologies that are conveyed through texts.

She has also applied this critical lens to: 1) research surrounding AI, creating a framework for critically engaging AI in education, 2) and humanizing online learning environments, conducting studies on humanizing online courses to improve equity and to explore what elements serve to best humanize courses, focusing on multimodality and other contributing factors.

Resources:

The instructional implications of a critical media literacy framework and podcasts in a high school classroom

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Nancy Hulan and Leslee Bailey Tarbett about how a group of teacher candidates responded to a community devastated by tornadoes through a unique, literacy-focused service-learning initiative. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: Building literacy connections after disaster: Teacher candidates engaging with community through a service-learning lens

Dr. Nancy Franklin Hulan is an associate professor of Literacy Education at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Her research focuses on development of teacher self-efficacy through service-learning, the potential impacts of involvement in a disciplinary community of practice, and teachers’ use of and stances toward GenAI in production of tools to foster literacy development with striving readers and writers. Dr. Hulan serves as the Director of the WKU Literacy Clinic and serves as a faculty mentor for the WKU Literacy Ambassadors. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in areas related to literacy.

Dr. Leslee Bailey Tarbett is an Assistant Professor in Literacy Education at Western Kentucky University. Before earning her doctorate, she spent over a decade teaching primary grades in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her research focuses on preservice teacher education, teacher professional development, and qualitative and postqualitative research methodologies. Her work has been published in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, and the Journal of Public Pedagogies, among others. Leslee is passionate about advancing literacy education with a focus on community-based service learning, care pedagogies, and empathetic teaching practices.

Resources:

Building literacy connections after disaster: Teacher candidates engaging with community through a service-learning lens

https://www.wku.edu/ste/literacy-ambassadors/

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Carrie James and Sarah McCarthey about a shift in how we think about writing instruction in our classrooms. This conversation centers on their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacytitled: Reimagining writing: Integrating wicked problems into secondary writing instruction through a research practice partnership.

Dr. Sarah McCarthey is the Sheila Miller Professor Emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on students’ literate identities, classroom writing instruction, and the role of professional development in teachers’ understandings of writing. Her work has been published in Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, Written Communication, Journal of Writing Research and Pedagogies: An International Journal and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. McCarthey served as Department Head and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Literacy Research Association from 2017-2020 and Co-Director of the University of Illinois Writing Project, sponsoring professional development for Illinois teachers.

Dr. Carrie L. James is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Siebel Center for Design (http://designcenter.illinois.edu) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Before completing her PhD at the U of I, she taught secondary English language arts in New York City. Her research interests include literacy teacher education, writing instruction that centers multimodality and student's authorial agency, and humanizing literacy instruction. Her work at the Siebel Center for Design also allows her to explore empathy and its role in supporting culturally sustaining teaching practices. She is currently working with college composition instructors to incorporate "wicked problems" into their composition courses.

Resources:

Reimagining writing: Integrating wicked problems into secondary writing instruction through a research practice partnership

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Dr. Jin Kyeong Jung about students' digital multimodal composing practices while writing for a global online community. This conversation centers around their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled:  Writing globally: South Korean adolescents' digital multimodal composing practices in a global online community. 

Resources:

Writing globally: South Korean adolescents' digital multimodal composing practices in a global online community

Literacies in Global Context (Special Issue) 

Write4Change 

Adult Writing Motivation with Jennifer Martinez and Daphne Greenberg 

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Jennifer Martinez and Dr. Daphne Greenberg about what motivates adult learners to improve their writing skills. This conversation centers around their article for The Journal for Adolescent & Adult Literacy titled: Utility value of improving writing skills for adult basic education students.

Jennifer Martinez is an assistant researcher at the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University. She previously taught high school English Language Arts and writing classes. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, and her research interests include adolescent writing development and motivation, adult literacy, and adult developing writers.

Daphne Greenberg is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Learning Sciences at Georgia State University where she is also the Director of the multi-disciplinary Adult Literacy Research Center (https://education.gsu.edu/research-outreach/alrc/). Her research focuses on adults who attend adult literacy programs. She is a strong advocate for adults who struggle with foundational academic skills (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGad2PKUhbE ) 

IES Disclaimer Statement: 

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305N210030 to Georgia State University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Resources:

Utility value of improving writing skills for adult basic education students

The Writing in Adult Secondary Education (W-ASE) Project

Dr. Jody Polleck is a professor in literacy at Hunter College--CUNY (City University of New York). She also continues to teach adolescents through the CUNY College Now Program. Jody began her work with youth in 1994 as an outreach counselor, and since 1998, has been teaching adolescent literacies within urban contexts across the disciplines. Her research focuses on culturally sustaining literacy instruction and culturally-affirming and healing-centered social-emotional learning. Jody was a 2019 Fulbright scholar and has been published in over 25 academic and practice-based journals; her first book entitled Facilitating Youth-led Book Clubs as Transformative and Inclusive Spaces was released by Teachers College Press in 2022.

Resources:

Using culturally sustaining science fiction book clubs to address agency and academic and emotional literacies with Dutch neurodiverse youth.

Facilitating Youth-Led Book Clubs as Transformative and Inclusive Spaces

Educate for Action

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Lauren Liang and Raven Cromwell. They discuss the lack of global and culturally diverse texts being in the classroom, and how schools can get more diverse texts in the classroom. This conversation centers around their article for JAAL: The impact of children's and young adult literature courses on teachers' selection of global and culturally diverse texts for the classroom

Lauren Aimonette Liang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on the selection and educational use of children's and young adult literature, children's literature in teacher preparation programs, and text characteristics as related to K-12 student response and understanding of texts. Dr. Liang is a board member for the United States Board on Books for Young People, a past-president of the Children’s Literature Assembly, and has served on a number of children’s literature award committees, including the 2020 Mildred L. Batchelder Award (Chair) and the 2017 Caldecott Medal committee.

Raven N. Cromwell is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Utah Valley University. Her research interests include the science of reading, culturally diverse books, and partnerships between school districts and educator preparation programs. She is the chair of the Ways and Means Committee of the Children's Literature Assembly, a past chair of the International Literacy Association's Children's and Young Adult Book Awards, a member of the United States Board on Books for Young People and the National Council of Teachers of English, and a member of the planning committee for a Utah branch of The Reading League. 

Resources:

The impact of children's and young adult literature courses on teachers' selection of global and culturally diverse texts for the classroom 

United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) Outstanding International Book List: https://www.usbby.org/news/2024-outstanding-international-books-list-announced

 International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Hans Christian Anderson Award: https://www.usbby.org/ibby-hans-christian-andersen-award.html

Mildred L. Batchelder Award: https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/batchelder

Promoting Understanding With International Literature (Free ILA Webinar)

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Dr. Emily Zoeller about how teachers can draw on the knowledge of our multilingual students in order to cultivate joy and genius in our classrooms. This conversation centers around her article for JAAL titled: “You have to start with what they know:” Cultivating genius and joy with multilingual adolescents.

Dr. Emily Zoeller is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of ESL, Bilingual, and Reading Education. Emily holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. from the University of San Diego. She earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Edgewood College, where she researched teacher leadership in two-way dual language education. Emily’s research interests include biliteracy development, educational leadership, and bilingual teacher preparation. Prior to her role at Edgewood College, Emily worked in Madison Metropolitan School District as a bilingual teacher, a reading specialist, and an instructional coach. She is passionate about leading for equity among teachers of multilingual learners.

Resources:

“You have to start with what they know:” Cultivating genius and joy with multilingual adolescents

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Rachelle Savitz and Vanessa Irvin about using Young Adult Literature to critically examine issues around gender. This conversation centers around their article for JAAL titled: Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

Rachelle S. Savitz is an associate professor of reading/literacy at East Carolina University. She was previously a K-12 literacy coach/interventionist and high school reading teacher. She values working with graduate students and teachers and learning with and from them. She has served on the board of directors for numerous national and state literacy organizations – wanting to be a part of the learning and collaboration pushing thinking in the realm of literacy. Dr. Savitz spotlights the necessity of teacher collaborators in her co-edited book, Teaching the "taboo": Diverse and inclusive literature is the way, with Routledge, where teachers highlight their classroom practices. She emphasizes teacher instruction with over 15 snapshots in the book with Teachers College Press, Trauma-sensitive literacy instruction: Building student resilience in English language arts classrooms. This book extends learning shared in Teaching Hope and Resilience for Students Experiencing Trauma: Creating Safe and Nurturing Classrooms for Learning, coauthored with Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. She received the East Carolina University College of Education 2023-2024 Profiles in Diversity Award, the 2019 Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher’s Jerry Johns Promising Researcher Award, and the 2018 Early Career Literacy Scholar Award from the American Reading Forum.

Dr. Vanessa Irvin is an associate professor with the Master of Library Science Program at East Carolina University (USA). Dr. Irvin has authored three books and 35 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. V has led grant-funded research projects that explore ways in which heritage-based knowledge systems impact our information-seeking behaviors and literacy practices in daily life. Irvin's work investigates libraries as collaborative communities of literacy practices and platforms for literacy justice for diverse and local/Indigenous communities. Dr. V is equally interested in the social informatics of informal learning and the evolution of librarian professional practices with reference services under the influence of emerging technologies. Irvin serves as Co-Editor of the open-access peer-reviewed journal, The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, where she manages an editorial team of 20 librarians and an editorial board of 35 LIS scholars. Dr. Irvin is President-Elect of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). 

Resources:

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

Gender Equality in Education Multi-Journal Special Issue

In today’s episode host Matt Sroka chats with Drs. Michael DiCicco and Eileen Shannaon about a literacy strategy that can help students to become better readers and better writers. The strategy is called text reformulation. This conversation centers around their article for JAAL titled: Dr. Seuss, police reports, and lamb recipes: Examining text reformulation as a literacy strategy. 

Dr. Eileen Shanahan is an associate professor at Northern Kentucky University. She began her career as an eighth-grade language arts teacher and then served as a middle school curriculum and literacy coordinator. Her interests include writing and grammar instruction, discourse and teacher learning, and teaching English from a social justice perspective.

Dr. Michael DiCicco is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Northern Kentucky University. A former middle school teacher. Dr. DiCicco has been an educator for 16 years. His research focuses on literacy teacher preparation and development and middle level literacy. 

Resource:

Dr. Seuss, police reports, and lamb recipes: Examining text reformulation as a literacy strategy

How can secondary educators support adolescent readers to become strong readers of complex texts? In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Dr. Margaret Opatz and Sara Kocherhans about their work investigating multicomponent reading intervention in order to improve adolescents reading achievement. This conversation stems from their article “Using a supplemental, multicomponent reading intervention to increase adolescent readers' achievement”. 

Margaret Opatz, Ph.D., is a Reading Research Scientist at Capti, an edtech company, where she leads literacy initiatives. Margaret is a former K-12 teacher, reading interventionist, and Equity Coach. She specializes in foundational reading skills, covering the developmental stages of both young and adolescent readers, as well as effective teaching methods and strategies for addressing reading difficulties. Margaret is dedicated to advancing reading interventions and assessments to support learners of all backgrounds. 

Sarah Kocherhans is a PhD student in the Literacy, Language, and Learning program at the University of Utah. She works as a reading interventionist at the University of Utah Reading Clinic, where she researches and implements reading interventions for elementary and secondary students. Sarah's background is in the elementary classroom as a 3rd-grade teacher, where she first discovered her passion for remediating reading difficulties in developing readers. Through her work, she is dedicated to improving reading instruction for students of all ages.

Resource:

“Using a supplemental, multicomponent reading intervention to increase adolescent readers' achievement”. 

In today's episode, Matt Sroka chats with Beverely Jennings about high-stakes testing? How much should our instruction be geared towards preparing students for high-stakes testing? How do we know if what we’re teaching and what we are having students read is preparing them for high-stakes tests? What if preparing students for a high-stakes test is at odds with our goals and objectives for the class? Matt and Beverely explore these questions as they talk the article “A Corpus Study of English Language Exam Texts: Vocabulary Difficulty and the Impact on Students' Wider Reading (or Should Students be Reading More Texts by Dead White Men?)” by Beverley Jennings, Daisy Powell, Sylvia Jaworska, and Holly Joseph.

Beverley Jennings is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Education at the University of Reading in England. Her research is on adolescent reading comprehension, with particular focus on assessment and vocabulary. She has also been an English teacher in secondary (high) schools in England for 20 years. 

Resources:

A Corpus Study of English Language Exam Texts: Vocabulary Difficulty and the Impact on Students' Wider Reading (or Should Students be Reading More Texts by Dead White Men?)

In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Katrina Tour and Ed Creely about a framework they developed with colleagues for teaching Digital literacies to adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds. This framework is interesting and important in its own right, but their work also offers valuable tools and guidance for literacy teachers and scholars across various fields.. In our conversation we discuss the four key principles that guide their framework (Authentic Learning Contexts, Problem-Based Learning, Strength-Based Approach, and Multiple Dimensional Practices). And how each of these principles were or were not enacted by teachers in this study. This conversation stems from their article in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy  titled:  “Investigating the efficacy of the AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide for adult EAL settings” by Ekaterina Tour, Edwin Creely, Peter Waterhouse, and Michael Henderson. 

Dr Katrina Tour is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research focuses on the digital literacies of children and adults from refugee and migrant backgrounds. It investigates the ways in which these groups use digital technologies in English as an Additional Language (EAL) for life, learning and employment, and explores how these experiences can be used to enhance educational policies and pedagogies for digital literacies in EAL/TESOL settings

Dr Edwin Creely is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. He is a strong contributor to international conferences and is widely published. His research interests include digital literacies and pedagogies, computers in education, creativity, critical thinking, literacies across the years, and artificial intelligence and language learning. He has also developed a strong interest in adult learning and especially involving adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Also, as mentioned in the opening, the latest Literacy Insights is now available: Guiding and Assessing Student Writing

Resources:

“Investigating the efficacy of the AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide for adult EAL settings”

AMEP Digital Literacies Framework and Guide 

AMEP Digital Literacies: Teaching Resources 

In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Drs. Cynthia Greenleaf, Kathleen Hinchman, and Willard Brown about using and selecting texts in Science classrooms. They discuss why teachers should go beyond just teaching the textbook, and how teachers can find authentic, engaging, and appropriately challenging multimodal texts for their classrooms. They also discuss how teachers can go about teaching these multimodal texts to their students, so they can be accessible for all students. This conversation centers on their article: Science teachers designing text use for equitable Next Generation Science instruction.

Cynthia Greenleaf, Senior Research Scientist (emerita) in Literacy at WestEd, is a passionate advocate for high-quality literacy education for all. Dr. Greenleaf leads collaborative, design-based research supporting the ongoing development of Reading Apprenticeship and its inquiry-based professional learning model and contributes to national and international efforts to advance academic and disciplinary literacies. Her work to design, develop, and bring Reading Apprenticeship to scale has improved teaching and learning for hundreds of thousands of secondary and college students and their teachers, nationally and internationally. A member of the Reading Hall of Fame and recipient of several awards and honors, Dr. Greenleaf received her doctorate in language and literacy education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kathleen A. Hinchman, PhD., is a literacy education Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University. She has taught, coached, and conducted research in elementary, secondary, adult literacy, and literacy teacher education settings. She has published numerous articles, chapters, and texts and served on local, state, and national literacy-related boards of directors. Her participation in this science and literacy collaborative design study stemmed from her lifelong interest in studying approaches that optimize disciplinary teachers’ support of students’ literacies. She can be reached at kahinchm@syr.edu.

Willard Brown is STEM instructional coach for Envision Schools. Dr. Brown leverages his passion for literacy to support learning outcomes in STEM education and support the Envision Schools vision for pro-Black education. Previously, Willard worked at WestEd providing Reading Apprenticeship professional development and researching disciplinary literacy and science instruction. Earlier, he taught high school science in the Oakland Public Schools. His classes appear in multiple publications and instructional videos. Willard holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Resources:

Science teachers designing text use for equitable Next Generation Science instruction.

https://readingapprenticeship.org/resources/

Scroll down to select from a list of resource types linking to classroom resources, classroom videos, and curriculum. Open source curriculum units developed during this project are housed on this website, along with instructional support for teachers, videos of classroom instruction, and resources for school teams. 

In today's episode, Matt Sroka talks with Dr. Jennifer Kobrin about adult and digital literacies. They cover topics from critical media literacy to navigating digital platforms, exploring how past experiences and identities influence our interactions, and discussing ways to have agency in this digital landscape. 

This conversation centers on Dr. Kobrin’s article, Identity, positioning, and platforms: A case study of an older job seeker in a community technology center. 

Dr. Jennifer D’haem Kobrin is an Assistant Professor of Adult and Continuing Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. She received an Ed.D. in Literacy Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. Prior to this, Dr. Kobrin also worked for decades as a practitioner in education and in adult education, most recently as Director of Digital Inclusion at the Office of Adult Education, City of Philadelphia. She is passionate about bridging theory and research with practice, especially as it pertains to adults’ learning and literacy practices in the digital world.

Resources:

Identity, positioning, and platforms: A case study of an older job seeker in a community technology center. 

In today’s episode Matt Sroka chats with Dr. Thomas DeVere Wolsey about disciplinary literacy. They discuss what disciplinary literacy is and how it can be applied in today’s classrooms. They also explore some perceived limitations of disciplinary literacy and how educators should react to those limitations. Their conversation stems from the article Intersections of Literacy and Teaching With the Disciplines and Professions: We Asked Some Experts by Thomas DeVere Wolsey, Diane Lapp, Maria C. Grant, and Ibrahim M. Karkouti. 

Thomas DeVere Wolsey, EdD, teaches graduate courses in research and literacy. He leads professional development for teachers in Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, China, on the Hopi Reservation and throughout the United States, among other places. He is the author or co-author of 12 books for teachers and teacher educators with two more in development. Dr. Wolsey has developed training materials for the California Department of Education, TextProject, San Diego State University, and North County (San Diego) Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program. His specialties include exploring intersections of literacy and technology, middle grades and secondary literacy practices, teacher preparation, and green school design. 

Resources

Intersections of Literacy and Teaching With the Disciplines and Professions: We Asked Some Experts

Dr. Sarah Beck is a teacher educator and literacy researcher on the faculty at New York University. In addition to an article and book chapter on dialogic assessment in Social Studies classrooms with Andrew O. del Calvo, her publications include  A Think Aloud Approach to Writing Assessment (2018) Teachers College Press, an analysis, with Amanda Godley, of features of exemplary college application essays.  

Related Article:

Beck, S. W., Jones, K., Storm, S., & Smith, H. (2020). Scaffolding students’ writing processes through dialogic assessment. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(6), 651-660.

Other Resources:

Beck, S. & del Calvo, A. (2023) Using dialogic writing assessment to support historical literacy. Literacy, 57,1, 61-71. 10.1111/lit.12309 del Calvo, A. O. & Beck, S. (2023). 

del Calvo, A. O., & Beck, S. W. (2023). Dialogic Writing Assessment in the History Classroom. In Assessing Disciplinary Writing in Both Research and Practice (pp. 227-251). IGI Global.

Reynolds, D. (2017). Interactional scaffolding for reading comprehension: A systematic review. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 66(1), 135-156.

How do we as educators go about connecting our academic work in ways that are challenging, relevant, engaging, and meaningful to our students? One way to achieve this is by tapping into students’ (and our culture at large) love of sports. In this episode, I chat with Dr. Luke Rodesiler about his article, “Controversies, Rivalries, and Representation: Sports Culture as a Site for Research and Inquiry”.

Luke Rodesiler, a former high school English teacher, works as an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Purdue University Fort Wayne. His research interests include the role popular cultural texts play in literacy teaching and learning, non-traditional forms of teacher professional development, and English education. He is a co-editor (with Alan Brown) of Developing Contemporary Literacies through Sports (NCTE, 2016), the author of Bringing Sports Culture to the English Classroom (Teachers College Press, 2022), and a co-author (with Mark A. Lewis and Alan Brown) of Reading the World through Sports and Young Adult Literature (NCTE, forthcoming in 2024).

Related Article:

Rodesiler, L. (2021). Controversies, rivalries, and representation: sports culture as a site for research and inquiry. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(1), 55-63.

Other Resources:

Rodesiler, L. (2022). Bringing Sports Culture to the English Classroom: An Interest-Driven Approach to Literacy Instruction. Teachers College Press.

As technology becomes more and more interwoven into educational spaces, how do we as educators utilize digital tools in ways that are effective and beneficial for ourselves and for our students? In this episode I talk with Dr. Jocelyn Washburn and Dr. Suzy Myers about the term “connective literacies” in their article titled “Adolescents' perspectives about their digital and connective literacies”

In this episode we explore what are connective literacies and what is the Connective Literacies Framework. We investigate what we can learn from adolescents and their experiences and perceptions toward technology use in the classroom. And we close by discussing how educators can help students navigate these connective and digital literacies in the classroom. 

Resources:

 “Adolescents' perspectives about their digital and connective literacies”

Literacy Insights

In today's digital age, the classroom is undergoing a transformation. Teachers and students are navigating a world filled with digital tools and platforms. But how do we go about using these tools effectively? How do we leverage digital tools to support discipline specific ways of thinking, reading, and writing? In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Ms Johanna Keene and Dr. Mellinee Lesley about their article “Exploring the connections between disciplinary and digital literacies in history”. We discuss how teachers combine disciplinary literacy with digital tools and all the challenges and opportunities that this presents in the classroom. 

Johanna Keene is a doctoral student at Texas Tech University. She previously taught and was a literacy coach. Her research interests lie at the intersection of literacy, teacher development, and play. Currently she is a lecturer in the Teacher Education Department at Texas Tech University. 

Dr. Mellinee Lesley is a Professor in the Language, Diversity & Literacy Studies program in the College of Education at Texas Tech University. She has previously worked as a high school English teacher and served as the director for a developmental reading program. Dr. Lesley has earned several teaching awards at the secondary and university level, is a fellow of the National Writing Project, and recently received the Community Engagement Scholarship Award for Exemplary Projects from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. 

Throughout her scholarship and teaching, Dr. Lesley has been committed to fostering agentic identities and literacy skills for historically marginalized adolescent and adult learners. A significant part of this work has focused on disciplinary literacies and its role in advancing academic opportunities for underrepresented populations of students. Dr. Lesley is also pursuing a line of inquiry around pairing engaged scholarship with literacy reform in K-12 settings.

Related Article:

“Exploring the connections between disciplinary and digital literacies in history”

In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Dr. Richard Beach as we explore critical inquiry and literacy as it relates to climate change. Join us as we discuss what we as teachers can do to adopt roles and employ tools to help our students meaningful engage with this issue. This conversation stems from Dr. Richard Beach’s article Teachers and students use of systems thinking about their participation in school environmental clubs

Richard Beach is Professor Emeritus of Literacy Education, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He has conducted research and published books in response to literature, composition instruction, use of digital media, and teaching about climate change for supporting English language arts instruction.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

Round-table sessions at the NCTE conference 

Interdisciplinary chapter Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents

Mary Robinson Foundation Climate Justice

Teaching Climate Justice Curriculum 

InTeGrate Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future

Lists of YA Cli-Fi texts

Resources on Teaching Cli-Fi

Youth Created Media for Addressing the Climate Crisis: Hear Our Voices 

Teaching Adolescents about Climate Change

Addressing the Challenges of Preparing Teachers to Teach about the Climate Crisis

Richard Beach’s  Publications

Resources on Teaching Climate Change in ELA/Literacy Classrooms

Beach, R. (2015). Imagining a future for the planet through literature, writing, images, and drama. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 59(1), 7-13. DOI:10.1002/jaal.412

Beach, R., Share, J., & Webb, A. (2017). Teaching climate change to adolescents: Reading, writing, and making a difference. Routledge. http://climatechangeela.pbworks.com

Polk, E., Beach, R., & Webb, A. (2023). Fostering climate crisis global literacies in the classroom. In S. N. Kerkhoff & H. A. Spires (Eds.). Critical perspectives on global literacies: bridging research and practice (pp. 230-246). Routledge. http://t.ly/3wlGG

Beach, R. (2023). Addressing the challenges of preparing teachers to teach about the climate crisis. The Teacher Educator, 58, 507-522. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08878730.2023.2175401

Beach, R. (2023). Literacy research, systems thinking, and climate change. Research in the Teaching of English, 58(1), 105-122. https://t.ly/xCAVt

Using Digital Tools/Media for Teaching Climate Change in ELA/Literacy Classrooms

Castek, J., & Beach, R. (2013). Using apps to support disciplinary literacy and science learning. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 56(7), 554-564. https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.180

Castek, J., Beach, R., Cotanch, H., & Scott, J. (2014). Examining middle-school students' uses of Diigo annotations to engage in collaborative argumentative writing. In R. S. Anderson & C. Mims (Eds), Handbook of research on digital tools for writing instruction in K-12 settings, IGI Global.

Beach, R., & Smith, B. E. (2019). Using digital tools for studying about and addressing climate change. In P. M. Sullivan, J. L. Lantz, & B. A. Sullivan (Eds.), Handbook of research on integrating digital technology with literacy pedagogies (pp. 346-370). IGI Global.

Beach, R., Boggs, G., Castek, J., Damico, J., Pano, A., Spellman, R., & Wilson, N. (2020) Fostering preservice and in-service ELA teachers’ digital practices for addressing climate change. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(1). http://t.ly/eFhJw

Share, J., & Beach, R. (2022). Critical media literacy analysis and production for systems thinking about climate change. The Journal of Media Literacy—Research Symposium Issue. http://t.ly/ueE6Z

Beach, R., & Smith, B. (2022). Using digital tools for studying about and addressing climate 

      change. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Research anthology on environmental and societal 

      impacts of climate change (pp. 724-747). IGI Global.

Share, J., & Beach, R. (2022). Critical media literacy analysis and production for  

      systems thinking about climate change. Journal of Media Literacy. http://t.ly/je0HZ

Beach, R., & Smith, B. (Eds.) (2023). Youth created media on the climate crisis: Hear our 

      voices. Routledge. http://youthclimatecrisismedia.pbworks.com

Beach, R., & Smith, B. (2023). Youth production of digital media to address the climate  crisis. Journal of Climate Literacy, 1(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5349

Rob Simon is associate professor and Associate Chair of Student Experience in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and has been a teacher educator since 2003.  At OISE, Rob teaches courses in critical literacy and practitioner research. He is also academic director of the Centre for Urban Schooling (https://cus.oise.utoronto.ca) and director of the Toronto Writing Project (https://www.torontowritingproject.com). Rob began his career in education in 1998 as a founding teacher of Life Learning Academy (http://www.lifelearningacademysf.org), a high school for youth who experienced struggles in traditional school settings. Rob’s current research explores how teachers and students inquire into and co-research issues of social justice, and how they use the arts, film, writing, and other creative mediums to share their findings with the world.

Doug Friesen is a teacher and musician based in Toronto and has worked as a classroom teacher and consultant in public schools since 2002. During this time, he has also taught a number of post-secondary and additional qualification courses for teachers. He is currently an adjunct professor at Queen's University and is finishing a PhD on sound and listening pedagogies with a focus on critical practitioner research and collaborative inquiry. 

During her 15 years in education, Heather Pule has taught middle and high school English Language Arts, worked as a secondary ELA district coordinator and is now an Assistant Professor in the Literacy, Language Arts, and Literature Program in the College of Education at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She specializes in English Language Arts Education and Secondary Literacy. Her research centers on exploring preservice teacher’s identities through authentic literacy and antiracist teaching practices.

Related Article:

“Exploring young adult texts within the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework with preservice teachers”

Natalie Martinez, Ph.D. (K’awaika-meh, Laguna Pueblo) is a professional educator. She was a principal and teacher at her Pueblo Nation, and taught middle schoolers and high schoolers at other schools in New Mexico. Dr. Martinez’s collaborations on Indigenous-centered curriculum projects include: Indigenous Wisdom; Indigenous New Mexico; the curriculum guide for An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People; and the teacher guide for Indigenous Ingenuity. Her chapters appear in Luminous Literacies and The Yazzie Case: Interrogating the Yazzie/Martinez Lawsuit. Dr. Martinez most recently completed a Visiting Lecturer appointment at the University of New Mexico and is starting a full-time faculty position at Central NM Community College in teacher preparation this fall. Her research focus is education for Indigenous youth, professional curriculum development, and education policy.

Related Article:

Indigenous literacies: A look at pedagogies and policy in the Southwest United States.

Other Resources:

Debbie Reese: American Indians in Childrens' Literature blog, 

American Indian Library Association

Merete Kolberg Tennfjord is an associate professor with research interests within the field of adolescents and health, with special interest in how social media may impact on their quality of life, body image and general health. 

Ragnhild Eg is a senior scientist at the department of innovation, sensory and consumer sciences at Nofima. With a background in psychology, she has a great interest in human perception and behaviour, including multisensory experiences and interplays with digital technology.

Related article:

Exploring the role of social media literacy in adolescents' experiences with personalization: A Norwegian qualitative study

What does effective feedback on writing look like? How do we prepare others to give feedback in a way that is useful for the writer and values our own time?This episode, Matthew Sroka chats with Erika Bass about her article "Using university–school partnerships to facilitate preservice teachers' reading and responding to student writing. We discuss challenges with providing feedback and how these challenges impact pre-service teachers. We then explore the power of authentic feedback opportunities through a local school partnership. 

Erika L. Bass is an Assistant Professor of English Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Her research focuses on writing instruction, rural education, and teacher preparation; often those areas converge. She is currently working on a book manuscript on critically placed writing with rural high school students, conducting rural-focused book studies with secondary English teachers in her state, and writing feedback partnership to help preservice teachers engage in providing writing feedback to high school students. She is also a member of the Whippoorwill Award Committee for rural Young Adult novels and serves as the academic advisor for the English Teaching program at UNI. In her free time, she enjoys taking her dogs for walks and playing slow-pitch softball. 

Related Article:

Using university–school partnerships to facilitate preservice teachers' reading and responding to student writing.

Sam von Gillern is an assistant professor of literacy education in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri. His primary research interests include video game literacies and digital citizenship.

Related Article:

"Accessibility in video gaming: An overview and implications for English language arts education"

Poem of the Day with Meg Davis 

Have you ever found yourself dreading the teaching of poetry? Whether it’s because of your own personal feelings towards poetry or how you fear students will react to poetry? 

This episode, Matthew Sroka chats with Meg Davis about her article “Every day do something that won't compute”: Student perceptions of daily poetry practice. We discuss the poetry baggage that teachers tend to carry around and students' negative feelings towards poetry and what we as teachers can do about it.

Meg Davis is an adjunct instructor and doctoral student in English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She began teaching high school English in 2015. Meg’s classrooms focus on creative writing, contemporary poetry, and dialogic processes of learning. Meg is interested in poetry pedagogy, poetic inquiry, and practices that invite poetics more effectively and wholeheartedly into classroom spaces.

Related Article:

“Every day do something that won't compute”: Student perceptions of daily poetry practice

Kath Glasswell is an English, Scottish, Kiwi, Australian academic who has lived and worked in the United States. She has a strong international reputation for developing research-rich, practice-led, industry-engaged partnerships that deliver high impact literacy outcomes. Kath has successful experience in leading teams for research, teacher education and school engagement across six universities in three countries. She has spent over two decades investigating the teaching of literacy, and helping teachers master differentiated literacy practice that supports all learners to success. Her passion is supporting schools to find socially just, robust solutions to everyday problems of practice. One of the most important things to know about Kath is that she loves classroom teaching. She is often to be found co-teaching in schools, working with kids and teachers. There is nothing she enjoys more than thinking together with teachers as they design and test new models of teacher and student learning.  

Related Article:

“Redesigning Reading in and for the Disciplines”

Dr. Min Choi is an Assistant Professor of Education and Academic Literacy at Bronx Community College (CUNY). Her research interests include postsecondary reading instruction, disciplinary literacy, and integrated reading and writing instruction. Additionally, her research examines the use of narrative to explore the lived experiences of students, refugee populations, and immigrants. 

Dr. Joseph N. Todaro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Academic Literacy at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York where he teaches courses in developmental reading as well as creativity and the arts in early childhood education. 

Areas of academic interest include reading assessment and the impact of text and text complexity on comprehension.

Related Article:

 “From Considerate to Challenging Texts: A Four-Tiered Text Approach to Thematic Reading”. 

Contact Information:

Dr. Min Choi

Dr. Joseph Todaro

Theresa Redmond is a Professor of Media Studies at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, USA. Her research comprises a hybrid agenda focused on the intersections of media, literacy, curriculum design, and the arts.

In this episode we explore what Remix Journaling is, why it's important, and how we can bring it into our own classrooms. 

Related Article:

“Sparking Learning through Remix Journaling: Authenticating Participatory Ways of Knowing”

Connect with Dr. Theresa Redmond:

- LinkedIn

- Twitter 

- Webpage

Susana Ibarra Johnson is an assistant professor in bilingual/TESOL education in department of Curriculum and Instruction at New Mexico State University. Ibarra Johnson is one of the co-authors of The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning. Her commitment to improving the education of bilingual students is grounded in her experience as a bilingual learner and teacher. Her research focuses on biliteracy and translanguaging pedagogy in bilingual education and English language development contexts.  

Mary Neville is an assistant professor of literacy education at New Mexico State University. She is a former middle and high school English language arts teacher and is interested in culturally sustaining and responsive English language arts curriculum across secondary classrooms and teacher education contexts.

On this episode we explore what deficit-based thinking and acting look like for our bilingual and multilingual students in the school the system with some specific examples. We then talk about the types of assignments teachers can use to counteract these deficit approaches and work towards humanizing all of our students. We also touch on the power of collaboration amongst colleagues. 

Related article:

Neville, M., & Johnson, S. I. (2022). “My literacies expand over two languages”: Language and literacy autobiographies as justice‐oriented teacher education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 66(2), 111-121.

Dr. Theriault and I delve into the power of metaphors in the reading process. We examine how education reinforces or challenges these metaphors and how educators can guide students through different reading purposes to avoid the dangers of "reading as compliance". We also explore text complexity and ways to encourage students to navigate challenging texts transactionally and creatively, while considering the roles of both teachers and students in this process.

Related article:

Theriault, J. C. (2022). College students' conceptualizations of academic reading: What metaphors suggest about the important role of purpose in college reading and learning. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 66(1), 15-22.

Dr. McNeill and I explore the concept of "funds of knowledge," which refers to the cultural and linguistic resources that students bring from their homes into the classroom. We discuss why it is important to recognize and leverage these funds of knowledge in designing lessons that are culturally responsive and relevant to students' lives. We also discuss how to create a safe and inclusive classroom environment where students feel comfortable sharing their stories and experiences.

Resources Related to the Podcast:

McNeill, E. (2022). Immigration stories to reveal funds of knowledge and brave spaces in literacy curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 65(4), 287– 296.

Dr. Erin McNeill’s Website