Making the Journey, Fourth Edition: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English Language Arts / Edition 4

by Leila Christenbury, Ken Lindblom

Overview

Leila Christenbury’s Making the Journey has long been a beloved classic in English methods courses as well as with in-service English teachers whose dog-eared copies occupy a permanent place on their classroom desks. The Fourth Edition adds a fresh new voice from veteran English Education professor Ken Lindblom, whose expertise in writing instruction, teaching with technology, and teaching informational and nonfiction texts complements Leila’s love of  literature and vast knowledge and experience across the field. You’ll find brand new content on:

• CCSS and other college-and career-ready standards and assessments
• Genre studies, with special attention to informational nonfiction 
• Digital literacies and technologies for teaching
• Classroom management and communicating with parents, administrators, and colleagues
• Teaching ELLs and students with special needs.

Leila and Ken’s timeless advice, humorous anecdotes, and stories of successes and failures in the classroom infuse Making the Journey with life and light, and instill confidence in soon-to-be English teachers. Though ever reflective of the current realities of teaching, and chock full of stories about real students and their struggles and triumphs, the Fourth Edition remains a beacon of hope and optimism for all those willing to enter the greatest profession.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780325078212
Publisher:	Heinemann
Publication date:	10/14/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Leila Christenbury is Commonwealth Professor of English Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and a 40-year veteran teacher both in secondary English and higher education. She is a former editor of English Journal and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. In recognition of her account of returning to teach in the English classroom, she is the recipient of both the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in Teaching and the James N. Britton Award for Educational Research. Leila has recently served as NCTE's Council Historian for the organization's centennial and, at VCU, she has been professor, department chair, and interim dean.

Ken Lindblom is Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the School of Professional Development at Stony Brook University (SUNY), and a former high school English teacher. Ken has served as the editor of English Journal and is on the Executive Board of the Conference on English Education (NCTE).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

1 The Teacher, the Student, the School 1

Beginnings 1

Teacher, Student, School: The Dance of the Three 9

The Teacher/Learner 12

The Student/Learner 20

The School 28

References 45

2 What It's Like to Be a Teacher 48

From Expert Learner to Novice Teacher 48

What a Teacher Needs to Do 53

Beginning Your Life in the Classroom 57

The Politics of School 58

Discipline 59

Classroom Environment, Room Arrangement, Creature Comforts, Food 63

A Few Other Things: Getting Started, Openings, Voice, Body, Touch, Dress 70

Teaching as Failing 77

References 84

3 Planning for Your Teaching 86

Adopting a Teaching Model 87

Five Models of Teaching 90

Teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Five Models 96

It Didn't Work 99

Creating Activities 104

The House on Mango Street: From Chapter to Plan to Class 107

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" From Poem to Plan to Class 111

A Brief Word on Creating Tests and Test Items 116

The Place of Standards in Your Planning 118

A Final Caution About Planning 124

References 126

4 Those Whom We Teach 128

What Is Adolescence? 129

No One Ever Said It Was Going to Be Easy 132

The Tough Times of Teaching 133

Two Researchers on Students: William Glasser and Linda M. McNeil 135

The Alienated Student: Not Always Who You Think 137

Alienated Students: Stories from Our Classrooms 145

The Place of the School Counselor, the Parents, the Administration 153

The Average Student: Lost in the Middle 160

The Gifted Student: Burdens and Responsibilities 161

The Delicate Contract with Students 162

References 168

5 The World of Literature: Teaching and Selecting 170

The Fear of Not Knowing Enough 170

Literature: The Heart of Language Arts 172

Reading with Different Lenses 173

Transactional Theory and Reader Response 176

Organizing Literature 186

Teaching and Selecting Novels and Short Stories 189

Teaching and Selecting Poetry 192

Teaching and Selecting Plays 195

Teaching and Selecting the Plays of Shakespeare 197

Teaching and Selecting Young Adult Literature 202

New Kid on the Block: The Graphic Novel 206

The Specter of Censorship 208

Using Literature: Some Teaching Tips 210

A Final Note on Choosing Literature 220

References 223

Literature Cited 224

6 Nonfiction and Informational Texts 228

Harnessing the Power of Information 229

Nonfiction Text Types 231

Reading Informational Texts for Authentic Purposes 234

Approaching Informational Texts 235

Activities with Nonfiction 236

Augmenting Fiction with Informational Texts 237

Logic and Logical Fallacies 239

Studying Technical Writing Through Informational Texts 240

Disinformation, or Should We Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus? 242

Big Data, Visual Rhetoric, and Data Visualization 243

More Ideas and Resources for Teaching Nonfiction and Informational Texts 245

Understanding Information 247

References 248

Literature Cited 249

7 Words, Words, Words 252

"Just Give Us the Right Answer, Already!" 253

Prescriptive Versus Descriptive: The World of Linguistics 253

The Place of Standards in Language Instruction 259

Usage 261

Spelling 262

Vocabulary 264

Grammar 266

What Else About Language Should We Teach? 271

Activities for Teaching Language 273

Code-Switching and Code-Meshing 278

English Language Learners 282

The Language of Hate 285

The Glory and Richness of English Language 286

References 289

8 Writing, Revising, and Publishing 293

Teaching Writing 293

A Contemporary Model of Teaching Writing: Writing Process and POWER-P 295

Teaching with Authentic Writing 298

Traditional Writing Instruction Versus Authentic Writing Instruction 299

Helping Students Get Writing Ideas: Structuring Choice 300

But What About Timed Writing on Standardized Tests? 303

Peer-Response Groups: Questions, Answers, and Reasons 306

Conferencing with Students 313

The Place of Correctness and Grammar in Its Place 314

Now They've Written It-What Do You Do with It? Responding to Student Writing 317

Creating and Using Rubrics 319

Other Forms of Teacher and Student Response 324

The Journal or Writer's Notebook 325

The Research Paper and Encouraging Academic Honesty 326

What We Are About as Teachers of Writing 330

References 332

9 The Craft of Questioning 334

The Power of Talk 334

Why Do We Ask Questions? 336

Questions That Teachers Ask 337

The Questioning Circle 341

Beyond Hierarchies: Questions You Don't Want to Ask 344

Questioning Behaviors 347

When Questions Don't Work 351

Questions That Students Ask 353

Teacher Questioning and Student Teacher Assessment: edTPA and Other Tasks 354

Becoming Mrs. Ramsey 355

References 356

10 Teaching Today: Ethics, Social Justice, and the Challenges of the Times 358

English Class as Ethics Arena 359

Ethical Issues for the Classroom Teacher 361

Breaking the Rules 370

Being and Becoming an Ethical Teacher 375

The Challenges of the Times 375

Staying in the Classroom 383

Making the Journey 388

References 389

Index 393