Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 43, No. 3, February 2009

Table of Contents

• Editors’ Introduction: Rethinking Teacher Quality and Classroom Instruction

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  Abstract: The RTE editors introduce the articles in Volume 43, Number 3.

  Keywords: College

• Standpoints: Perspectives on Highly Qualified English Teachers

  Anne Ruggles Gere and Daniel Berebitsky

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  Abstract: Anne Ruggles Gere and Daniel Berebitsky take the No Child Left Behind legislation as their starting point to review relevant literature on teacher quality. They document what is becoming an increasingly disturbing pattern: discrepancies in the distribution of highly qualified teachers with the most experienced teachers being the least likely to work with students from diverse social and economic backgrounds.

  Keywords: College

• El Libro de Recuerdos (Book of Memories): A Latina Student’s Exploration of Self and Religion in Public School

  Cynthia C. Reyes

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  Abstract: This article is an exploration of how an alternative text reflects the multiple identities of one high school Latina, focusing in particular on her religious identity. In this ethnographic case study, the author addresses three questions: 1) In what ways does literacy activity inside the school, in the form of the science scrapbook, allow for this student to construct her religious self inside as well as outside of school? 2) How is one student’s science club scrapbook a symbolic representation of the struggle between the spiritual and material worlds that she negotiates? and 3) How does this scrapbook challenge traditional notions of identity and highlight the complexity of presenting a religious self in the public domain? In describing one student’s engagement with religion via her scrapbook, the article argues for a more complex and nuanced view of religion, literacy, and identity.

  Keywords: College

• Struggling Reader, Struggling Teacher: An Examination of Student-Teacher Transactions with Reading Instruction and Text in Social Studies

  Leigh A. Hall

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  Abstract: The year-long case study described in this article examined the transactions between a sixth grade social studies teacher, Mrs. O’Reilly, and a struggling reader within her classroom, Sarah, in relation to the reading-task demands of their classroom. Findings indicated that Mrs. O’Reilly’s transactions with Sarah were influenced by a cognitive, print-centric view of reading and the identity she created for Sarah based on that view of reading. Sarah’s transactions with the reading task demands were influenced by how she identified herself as a reader and her goal to prevent her peers from seeing her as a poor reader. The findings from this study suggest that teachers and researchers need to find ways to identify and be responsive to the role of identity in the classroom.

  Keywords: College

• Announcing the Alan C. Purves Award Winner (Volume 42)

  Ralph A. Córdova, Jr., Jeffrey Hudson, Susan Breck, and Paula Parson (2008 Alan C. Purves Award Committee)

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  Abstract: The 2008 Alan C. Purves Award Committee is pleased to announce this year’s recipient, Beth Maloch, for “Beyond Exposure: The Uses of Information Texts in a Second Grade Classroom,” which appeared in the February 2008 issue of Research in the Teaching of English (pp. 315-362). Here the committee discusses the importance of Maloch’s work and its implications for teaching and future research.

  Keywords: College

• Growing Research Practices: Expanding Our Communities and Our Conversations

  Beth Maloch

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  Abstract: Beth Maloch reflects on her Alan Purves Award-winning article, which was chosen because of its demonstration of the ability of one teacher to make a difference in young students' use of informational texts to develop complex, literate lives.

  Keywords: College

• 2008 NCTE Presidential Address: The Impulse to Compose and the Age of Composition

  Kathleen Blake Yancey

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  Abstract: Kathleen Blake Yancey’s presidential address was delivered at the NCTE Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas, on November 23, 2008.

  Keywords: College

• Announcements

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  Abstract: Abstract for this article is currently not available.

  Keywords: College

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