Commission Co-Chairs

Danielle Lillge, Naitnaphit Limlamai, Cynthia S. Nicholson
Email: cee.socialjustice@gmail.com

Commission Liaison

Nadia Behizadeh, Georgia State University

Other Leaders

Student Dialogue: Nadia Behizadeh
Website: Noah Golden
Defining Justice Working Group: Naitnaphit Limlamai
NCTE Annual Convention Roundtables: Danielle Lillge, Naitnaphit Limlamai, Cynthia S. Nicholson
Social Media: Haidy Diaz

Mission

The work of the commission is grounded in the belief that it is impossible to make sense of the field of English language arts without using gender, race, and class as central categories of description and analysis. The challenge before the Commission is to develop and uncover models of teaching that are flexible enough to capture and reflect the ways these elements function together; to determine how teachers in English language arts see themselves and others; and to delineate the opportunities for transformation, constructive growth, and change in their profession.

Get Involved!

• Visit the Commission on Social Justice in Teacher Education Programs website.
• Email for more information.

Commission Co-Chairs:

Merideth Garcia, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Brady Nash, Miami University, OH

Commission Liaison

Luke Rodesiler, Purdue University Fort Wayne

Mission

To examine the current issues of technology infusion in existing ELA teacher preparation programs, locate relevant research that points to best practices in preservice programs, and make recommendations about preparing ELA preservice as a tool for teaching and learning.

Charges

• Nominating sessions/presenters for the ELATE/SITE National Technology Leadership Fellowship.
• Supporting the work of the ELATE web editor team.
• Developing (and implementing) a research agenda related to the work in SITE and the NTLI.

Current Projects

• Developing a resource that details ways teachers can integrate technology into English classrooms while ensuring alignment with NCTE standards.
• Selecting the 2023 NTLI Award Recipient.
• Collaborating on Google Docs to develop new ideas for collaborative research and teaching.
• Working to share and develop articulated positions regarding AI in English education.

Get Involved!

Nominate yourself or someone else for the National Technology Leadership Award! Deadline: November 10, 2023, by 11:59 p.m. PT

This award provides an opportunity to present at the annual Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE) international conference. All NCTE members, especially ELATE members, are encouraged to nominate themselves or a colleague whose accepted NCTE Annual Convention proposal demonstrates cutting-edge and generative methods of integrating newer technologies into teacher education courses or workshops. In addition to teacher education faculty and graduate students, Pre-K–12 teachers may also be nominated.

Commission Co-Chairs

Alice Hays, California State University, Bakersfield
Steffany Comfort Maher, Indiana University Southeast

Commission Liaison

Jung Kim, Lewis University

Mission

The purpose of this commission is to bring together leaders in the academic field of adolescent literature for the purpose of planning and sharing research and teaching experiences and to plan, advocate and promote scholarship in the field of adolescent literature.

Charges

1. To bring together leaders in the academic field of adolescent literature for the purpose of planning and sharing research and teaching experiences.
2. To plan, advocate, and promote scholarship in the field of adolescent literature.

Current and Proposed Projects

• Members of our ELATE Commission are writing book chapters to be considered for publication in the text entitled Implementing Common Core Literacy Standards through Young Adult Literature (currently under consideration by Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group). This project is a joint effort by the Commission on the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature and SIGNAL, special Interest Group – Network on Adolescent Literature.
• Numerous members of our ELATE Commission are promoting scholarship in the field of YAL, as they will be serving as Guest Editors for upcoming themed issues of English Journal. These include:
  • Alan Brown (with Chris Crowe), Publication Date: September 2014: A Whole New Ballgame: Sports and Culture in the English Classroom
  • Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Mark A. Lewis, and Robert Petrone, Publication Date: January 2015: Re-thinking “Adolescence” to Re-imagine English

Our current and proposed projects aim to:

• Increase communication to keep members informed of the work of the commission as well as opportunities for research and practice.
• Prepare sessions for national and state ELA conferences to promote the use of young adult literature in secondary classrooms.
• Address how young adult literature meets the Common Core Standards.
• Continue research and scholarship that contribute to the knowledge base in English and literacy education.

Commission Co-Chairs

Vicki Sherbert, Kansas State University, Manhattan
Danny Wade, Washburn University, Topeka, KS

Commission Liaison

Tamara T. Butler, College of Charleston

Mission

1. To promote the teaching of poetry across all curriculum.
2. To examine, suggest, and promote innovative ways of teaching and responding to poetry.
3. To establish a culture and community for the reading, writing, performing, and teaching of poetry.

Current Projects

1. The Poetry Commission is proposing a roundtable session for the 2019 NCTE Annual Convention in Baltimore.
2. The Poetry Commission is collaborating on a position/belief statement about the teaching of poetry. During the 2019 NCTE commission meeting, the Poetry Commission will workshop a draft of the proposal with plans to submit a resolution to NCTE by October of 2020.
3. Members of the Poetry Commission are collaborating on a research project examining how English Educators use poetry to enhance instruction in ELA teacher preparation courses.
4. The Commission continues to compile poetry lessons designed for teachers who are fearful of poetry. These lessons are disseminated at conferences and upon request. Interested persons, regardless of membership in the Poetry Commission, should email lessons to Danny Wade. Please send as a Word document. There is no required format.

Commission Co-Chairs

Katy Covino-Poutasse, Fitchburg State University, MA
Todd Reynolds, University of Wyoming, Laramie

Commission Liaison

Keisha McIntosh Allen, University of Maryland, College Park

Mission

To inform membership regarding trends and issues in the design of English methods courses and their effect on teacher learning.

Current Projects

The Commission on English Methods Teaching and Learning is currently working on two edited books, both focused on tensions that emerge in the English language arts methods course and field experiences within teacher education programs. These two books feature chapters that grapple with the historical legacies of influence on methods/pedagogy as well as contemporary challenges in teaching methods courses within teacher education programs. The aim of the books is to provide multiple perspectives from those involved in teaching methods courses within English language arts programs in an effort to dialogue about current and future challenges. The books will also explore new possibilities for conceptualizing/approaching the teaching of methods through examining these courses across local and national contexts.

Look for Methods into Practice: New Visions in Teaching the English language arts Methods Class and Navigating Tensions While Teaching the English Language Arts Methods Class: Struggles with Identity and Professionalization, published by Rowman & Littlefield, in early 2019! Together, the books feature the voices of 36 CEE members who are interested in the teaching of the English language arts methods class.

A Note of Thanks

Thank you to the many members of ELATE and NCTE who responded to the survey about methods classes and contributed syllabi as part of the data collection process for the nationwide study of the English language arts methods classes. The book, Secondary English Teacher Education in the United States (2018, Bloomsbury), has been published and was awarded the 2018 Richard A. Meade Award. The ELATE Commission on English Methods Teaching and Learning helped make this book possible!

-Donna Pasternak, Samantha Caughlan, Heidi Hallman, Laura Renzi, and Leslie Rush

Commission Co-Chairs

Amanda Brewer, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg
Elsie Lindy Olan, University of Central Florida, Orlando

Commission Liaison

Lindy Johnson, William and Mary

Mission

We seek to bring attention to the education and professional development of writing teachers at elementary, middle, secondary, and college levels, while bringing together writing teacher educators from the English education and college composition communities. Specifically, we will

• advocate for exemplary practices in teaching writing, including concepts, assessments, theories, methods, and resources.
• work towards establishing stronger connections between ELATE and CCCC in terms of the common work of writing teacher development.
• raise the profile of P-20 writing teacher education throughout NCTE and other teacher education professional organizations.

Current Projects

1. Sponsoring the Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care blog. We encourage all NCTE members to read and share the blog via social media and email to colleagues. Many readers use selected blog entries in their classes. The Writers Who Care blog is now peer-reviewed and readership is strong. We continue to solicit writers for the blog. Information on submissions can be found at Write for the Blog.
2. Although the blog requires continued attention (soliciting writers, securing peer reviewers, and distributing the blog via social media), the ELATE WTE commission seeks to generate further ideas to promote authentic (real-world) writing and effective teaching-of-writing practices. We are looking for ways to work more closely with NCTE’s Advocacy Month, and we are considering creating short videos.

Commission Co-Chairs

Pamela Hartman, Ball State University, Munie, IN
Hung Pham, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Commission Liaison

Keisha McIntyre-McCullough, Florida International University

Purpose

With the goal of furthering the professional conversation on where and how the arts, multimodality, and new literacies intersect with traditional, print-based literacies, the Commission On Arts and Literacies (COAL) was established in 2004 under English Language Arts Teacher Educators (formerly Conference on English Education). COAL members recognize that messages and meanings in the world today are communicated and expressed through a wide variety of art forms, modalities, and media and work to reconceptualize the meaning of literacy to include the full spectrum of meaning making systems.

Traditional literacy education has focused on the rule-governed syntactical forms of representation while the kinds of imaginative and productive idiosyncracies fostered by the arts have been generally left behind (Eisner, 2002). We live in an arts inspired world, a world that demands our immediate reading, interpretation, and production of visual signs, images, movement, verbal and nonverbal messages, and video (Kress, 2003). We live in a multimodal world, one in which we are both readers and creators of texts that are comprised of a range of modes including visual, spatial, audio, and digital (Jewitt & Kress, 2003). We are also in a highly technology-driven world, one in which information is accessed, produced, and shaped by the world-wide web. We are developing new literacies by using technology in sophisticated ways, creating multimodal and multigenre compositions (Kist, 2005).

Communicative, expressive, and interpretive acts often evolve from or combine visual, verbal, musical, digital, and physical modes of meaning making. Today, more than ever before, the arts, multimodality, and the new literacies play important roles in the teaching and research of the English language arts. This attention is significant and timely as it reflects a growing shift in how literacy is being defined and what it means to be literate in the 21st century.

Mission

COAL aims to effect change in English language arts classrooms by advancing teaching, research, and theory in the three areas of the arts, multimodalities, and new literacies in ways that situate this knowledge as essential components of literacy learning. We work to identify pedagogically-sound strategies that substantively integrate the arts, multimodalities, and new literacies with literacy education to promote powerful learning.

Charges

1. To explore and promote theoretical and practical applications of expanded views of literacy;
2. To engage in continual dialogue about what it means to be literate, and how the arts, multimodality and digital technologies offer insight into today’s perspectives on literacy; and
3. To initiate projects that support member’s research and teaching (publication/presentation) in all areas of the arts.

Commission Co-Chairs

Tracey T. Flores, University of Texas at Austin
Laura Gonzales, University of Texas at El Paso

Commission Liaison

Keisha L. Green, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Mission

The focus of this commission will be to make intentional connections between English Education courses, students, families and teachers, and their surrounding local communities. Specifically, the commission will consist of ELATE members who want to develop, implement, test, and revise strategies for connecting with the local communities and families of their students. Drawing on research that argues for the inclusion community and family literacies are critical to classroom success in English Education (e.g., Alvarez & Alvarez, 2016; Delgado Gaitan, 2001, Moll, Amanti, Gonzalez, & Neff, 1992), this commission is intended to develop and support infrastructures for including family and community voices in classroom spaces.

Objectives

• To cultivate a network of teachers, teacher educators and researchers, within ELATE, committed to working collaboratively with families and communities
• To provide a space for educators and researchers to discuss and develop initiatives for connecting schools and pedagogical programs within local communities and families
• To develop and share strategies for building and sustaining events that connect classrooms to families and local communities
• To establish a digital network, hosted by the commission, where interested teachers, researchers, family and community members can share information about their collaborative projects and events
• To create a pipeline and support network for teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and community members who want to publish about and share their community-based efforts through ELATE outlets
• To collaborate on annual panel presentations for NCTE and publications to further expand applied research based in family and community literacies

Commission Co-Chairs

Sheridan Blau, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York
Ashlynn Wittchow

Commission Liaison

Melanie Shoffner, James Madison University

Commission Co-Chairs

Fawn Canady, Sonoma State University
Catherine Lammert, Texas Tech University

Commission Liaison

Joanne E. Marciano, Michigan State University

Mission

Global climate change is perhaps the most serious problem human beings have ever faced. Climate change is not simply a scientific or technological issue, but one with enormous ethical, social, political, and cultural dimensions. A lack of substantive, interdisciplinary education about sustainability and the environment contributes this growing climate crisis. Understanding climate change challenges the imagination and draws on our sense of justice. Addressing climate change demands all the tools of language and communication. English Language Arts is thus deeply relevant to climate change, and climate change is profoundly germane to English Language Arts. The purpose of c3e3 is to organize and collaborate with English Language Arts teachers and teacher educators concerned about climate change and dedicated to advancing environmental education, PK-12 and college, in and out of schools.

Aims of the Commission

In particular, the aims of C3E3 are to support and encourage teachers and teacher educators to:

• address climate change in their classrooms, while helping students understand climate change and its implications for life on earth;
• view teaching for sustainability as central to, rather than separate from, the mission of English language arts and humanities education;
• consider the unequal causes and effects of climate change, and examine the ethical questions climate change raises for Americans and all humans;
• engage thoughtfully with the social and political debates surrounding climate change by helping students find ways to take stands, address climate change issues locally and globally, and use multiple media to share ideas about climate change;
• draw on ecoliteracy, ecojustice, environmental education, holistic, outdoor, and experiential learning, place-based education, and teaching for sustainability;
• oppose cultural assumptions and behaviors undermining local and global ecosystems essential to all forms of life; and,
• work with teachers in other fields, SIGs, commissions, and conferences to implement interdisciplinary instruction on climate change and sustainability with youth and adults, in and out of schools.

How you can get involved

• Join the newly-formed c3e3 Facebook group and share your experiences and resources. Use the commission hashtag (#c3e3) with relevant posts on social media. Look for “Calls for Proposals” for commission-sponsored sessions at upcoming conferences to be shared there.
• Check out these c3e3 recommended resources for teacher educators created by the commission and look for ways to incorporate such texts into your work with pre-service and in-service teachers.
• Check out this Environmental Literature Book List created by co-chair Rich Novack and share this list with pre-service and in-service teachers.
• Follow Dr. Allen Webb’s English Teachers Concerned about Climate Change blog and consider writing posts for the blog related to your work as a citizen/teacher/scholar.