In this collection of 32 narrative essays, scholars and teachers of English and English education share their excitement as they reflect on their professional growth over the last 30 years. The firsthand stories in the collection represent "a study of theory and applied theory, grounded in personal experience and academic study over many years." The essays are: (1) "Facing Yourself" (J. Tompkins); (2) "Surprising Myself as a Teacher in Houghton, America" (A. Young); (3) "Becoming a College English Teacher--More by Accident than Design"" (D.C. Stewart); (4) "On (Not) Being Taken In" (H.T. McCracken); (5) "How Do the Electrons Get Across the Two Plates of the Capacitor?" (D. Bleich); (6)"Teaching as a Profession" (A.S. Bayer); (7) "Going Back" (S. Hudson-Ross); (8) "I Did It My Way...With a Little Help from My Friends" (P. Smagorinsky); (9) "Illiteracy at Oxford and Harvard" (P. Elbow); (10) "Disrupting the Transmission Cycle in College Teaching" (G.M. Pradl); (11) "Out and About in English Education" (R.E. Shafer); (12) "Beyond the Obvious" (V.R. Monseau); (13) "My English Education" (S. Hynds); (14) "From Reading to Writing, from Elementary to Graduate Students" (S. Stotsky); (15) "Living with Tension: Doing English, etc." (J. Milner); (16) "What's A Story?" (M.C. Savage); (17) "Two 'Women's Ways of Knowing' Teaching Writing" (R.C. Grego and N.S. Thompson); (18) "The Teaching and Learning of English in the College Classroom: Creating a Unified Whole" (B.M. Greene); (19) "On English Teaching as Poetry, 'or,' Samuel T., You'll Never Know What Organic Unity Did for Me" (M.L. Angelotti); (20) "Learning to Love Being a Second-Class Citizen" (W.R. Winterowd); (21) "Falling into Narrative" (P. Donahue); (22) "English in Education: An English Educationist at Work" (H.M. Foster); (23) "Downshifting to Fourth" (T. Fulwiler); (24) "Connecting the Teaching of Reading, Writing, and Speech in Programs for Developmental Students" (J. Entes); (25) "Reuniting Grammar and Composition" (J.L. Collins); (26) "Confessions of a Teacher Who Has Not Learned about Teaching" (R.L. Larson); (27) "Teaching and Learning English: Two Views" (C. Moran and "College Writing" Students); (28) "The Way I Was/The Way I Am/And What I Learned in Between" (L.L. Meeks); (29) "Collaborative Computer Encounters: Teaching Ourselves, Teaching Our Students" (G.E. Hawisher and C.L. Selfe); (30) "Ideological Crosscurrents in English Studies and English Education: A Report of a National Survey of Professors' Beliefs and Practices" (C. Dilworth and N.M. McCracken); (31) "Interpreting the Reflective Stories: The Forces of Influence in Our Essayists' Lives" (R.L. Larson); and (32) "Interpreting Stories: Rebels in the Professoriate" (H.T. McCracken). (NKA)

English Studies Online: Programs, Practices, Possibilities represents a collection of essays by established teacher-scholars across English Studies who offer critical commentary on how they have worked to create and sustain high-impact online programs (majors, minors, certificates) and courses in the field. Ultimately, these chapters explore the programs and classroom practices that can help faculty across English Studies to think carefully and critically about the changes that online education affords us, the rich possibilities such courses and programs bring, and some potential problems they can introduce into our department and college ecologies. By highlighting both innovative pedagogies and hybrid methods, the authors in our collection demonstrate how we might engage these changes more productively. Divided into three interrelated conversations — practices, programs, and possibilities — the essays in this collection demonstrate some of the innovative pedagogical work going on in English departments around the United States in order to highlight how both hybrid and fully online programs in English Studies can help us to more meaningfully and purposefully enact the values of a liberal arts education. This collection serves as both a cautionary history of teaching practices and programs that have developed in English Studies and a space to support faculty and administrators in making the case for why and how humanities disciplines can be important contributors to digital teaching and learning. Contributors include Joanne Addison, William P. Banks, Lisa Beckelhimer, Dev K. Bose, Elizabeth Burrows, Amy Cicchino, Erin A. Frost, Heidi Skurat Harris, John Havard, Marcela Hebbard, Stephanie Hedge, Ashley J. Holmes, George Jensen, Karen Kuralt, Michele Griegel-McCord, Samantha McNeilly, Lilian Mina, Catrina Mitchum, Janine Morris, Michael Neal, Cynthia Nitz Ris, Rochelle Rodrigo, Cecilia Shelton, Susan Spangler, Katelyn Stark, Eric Sterling, and Richard C. Taylor.

This timely book focuses on different social justice pedagogies and how they can work within standards and district mandates in a variety of English language arts classrooms. With detailed analysis and authentic classroom vignettes, the author explores how teachers cultivate relationships for equity, utilize transformative language practices, demonstrate critical caring, and develop students’ critical literacies with traditional and critical content. Boyd offers a comprehensive model for taking social action with youth that also considers the obstacles teachers are likely to encounter. Presenting the case for more equity-oriented teaching, this rich resource examines the benefits of engaging students with critical pedagogies and provides concrete methods for doing so. Written for both pre- and inservice teachers, the text includes adaptable teaching models and tested ideas for preparing to teach for social justice. “This is an appealing vision for the future, for it bears much promise—for our classrooms, and also for the future our students will both shape and inhabit.” —From the Foreword by Deborah Appleman, Carleton College “Through the careful observation and analysis of three teachers with different approaches to teaching critical literacy, Ashley Boyd provides a repertoire of practices rich with detail.” —Hilary Janks, Wits University, South Africa “This important book counters the belief of so many teacher educators who think that social justice asks too much of teachers.” —George W. Noblit, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We Do Language builds on the authors’ highly acclaimed first collaboration, Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools, and examines the need to integrate linguistically informed teaching into the secondary English classroom. The book meets three critical goals for preparing English educators to ensure the academic success of their students. First, the book helps educators acquire a greater knowledge of language variation so they may teach their students to analyze the social, cultural, and linguistic dimensions of the texts they read in class. Second, the chapters provide specific information about language varieties that students bring with them to school so that educators can better assist students in developing the literacy skills necessary for the Common Core State Standards. Third, the text empowers educators to build their linguistic awareness so they may more fully understand, respect, and meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. We Do Language features concrete strategies, models, and vignettes, as well as classroom materials developed by English educators for English educators. It is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about the role that language plays in the experiences of students, both in secondary and postsecondary environments. “Full of advice and support for walking hand-in-hand with students into imaginative ways of understanding the realities of language variation, this book is pure joy for teachers and college counselors. Even more important is the guarantee that when these educators embrace the humanity and philosophy so touchingly illustrated by the authors, the intrigue of thinking deeply about speaking, writing, and reading is sure to follow for students.” —Shirley Brice Heath, Margery Bailey Professor of English & Dramatic Literature and Professor of Linguistics, Emerita, Stanford University “We Do Language is an enabling tool for helping teachers and those who prepare them to face—perhaps better than we ever have—the challenge of schooling in the English/language arts for the 21st century.” —From the Foreword by Jacqueline Jones Royster, Ivan Allen Chair in Liberal Arts and Technology and Dean, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Institute of Technology “Long overdue and much needed. African American English is here to stay, and this book affirms and supports educators and African American students, their language, and their culture. I can't thank the authors enough for writing this powerful, thought provoking, and critical analysis of language variation.” —Donna Ford, Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor of Special Education and Teaching and Learning, Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University Anne H. Charity Hudley is associate professor of education, English, linguistics, and Africana studies at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Christine Mallinson is associate professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program and affiliate associate professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC).