The Elementary Section Steering Committee of NCTE is committed to the pursuit of justice and equity. We believe that in an open democratic society we cannot argue for democracy and humanity unless we create for our children a more just and caring world. To this end we are dedicated to the support and development of emancipatory pedagogies that counter official policies and mandates that narrow the possibilities for the teaching of the language arts in public schools. We believe that it is essential that we resist any attempt that is made to separate school based language arts programs from the socio-cultural realities of children’s everyday lives. Our task is to support the work of teachers as they work closely with their students and their families to build classrooms where everyone has an opportunity to participate in the conversation with a renewed consciousness of worth and possibility of their own language use and the literacies that they share.
---ESSC, January 2017
St. Louis, Missouri • November 16-19, 2017
Teaching Our Students Today, Tomorrow, Forever:
Recapturing Our Voices, Our Agency, Our Mission
Join thousands of educators, experts, authors, administrators, publishers, and others in St. Louis, Missouri, for the 2017 NCTE Annual Convention!
The NCTE Village is a community, not a location. At the center of this community is a celebration of your work through your stories. As we all know, it takes a village, and your stories speak volumes. Imagine what’s possible when we turn up the volume on tens of thousands of teachers speaking out about what we need to thrive in this profession.
Ways You Can Get Involved
- Tag your social posts about teaching and learning with #NCTEVillage to start building momentum around this concept.
- Share a story via our online form so we can share your words with the community.
- Not ready for a full story? If you share something shorter, it may end up on our Wise Words page.
- Engage with a lead ambassador to help carry the NCTE Village forward.
The NCTE Language Arts Distinguished Article Award recognizes outstanding Language Arts articles that move forward the Elementary Section Steering Committee's mission of the pursuit for justice and equity, brings the sociocultural realities of children’s everyday lives into language arts instruction, and facilitates conversations of rich and authentic literacies.
The Charlotte Huck Award was established in 2014 to promote and recognize fiction that has the potential to transform children’s lives by inviting compassion, imagination, and wonder.
2017 Winner: Ghost by Jason Reynolds
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
The Orbis Pictus Award, established in 1989, is the oldest children’s book award for nonfiction. The name Orbis Pictus commemorates the work of Johannes Amos Comenius, Orbis Pictus—The World in Pictures (1657), considered to be the first book actually planned for children.
2017 Winner: Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers)
The Elementary journal Language Arts is still available in PDF form, in addition to the podcasts and lesson plan connections from ReadWriteThink. Check out LA!
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Add it to your NCTE membership today! NCTE members enjoy online access to ALL journals published more than two years ago.
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The Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) supports teachers of young children with a strong emphasis on promoting thoughtful practices that enhance the teaching and learning of young children within and across diverse communities.
The Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) provides a forum, undertakes programs and projects of special concern to people interested in children's literature, promotes the field of children's literature, and serves as a clearinghouse for information on children's literature.
Read about the CLA in "The Joy of Reading"