Barbara G. Pace

Teaching With Challenging Texts in the Disciplines

The Common Core State Standards highlight the need to read–independently, closely, and proficiently–increasingly complex texts. However, they do not specify how such reading is to be done. This column provides a brief critique of text complexity and close reading and offers some concrete ideas for operationalizing these two concepts in secondary subject area classrooms.

Not Either/Or: Standards and Student Voice in an IB Literature Class.

the care they take with Kingstons text. One of us, Denise, is the teacher in this class; the other, Barbara, is a teacher educator. In a few weeks part of this video will be used in an English teacher preparation class to demonstrate how talking can support reading and the growth and development of literary understanding. However, at this moment we are focused on the details of teaching literature and of talking about literature with high school students. Over the last decade we have shared many such conversations about Denises work in the International

Characterizing Johnnieruth: High-school students, “tomboy” characters, and ideological becoming

This research was focused on how minority characters are constructed in school-based readings of literature. Using microethnographic discourse analyses of a post-reading discussion, we examined how a small group of high-school students characterized a minority protagonist in a short story. We focused on the intercontextual processes for reading literature, the recognition work done in the group, and the themes that emerged as students described the character. We found that students drew on patterns and processes established in the class, but that these practices were disrupted when students began to describe a protagonist that challenged gender-role expectations. These insights can inform efforts to develop critical literacy in literature classes.

Mercury in a Sieve: a Search for Meaning in the Responses of Prospective Teachers

Investigative, inquiry projects are frequently used in teacher education programs to help prospective teachers develop as critically responsive practitioners who respond to diversity. In this article we examine our effort to explore the influence of these projects. As we trace our exploration of data gathered from respondents, 90% of whom were white women, we disclose how relational priorities surfaced in the data, how these priorities complicated our readings, and how they led us to consider gender and relationship in the lives of the participants. We raise questions about the process that might be used to understand what preservice teachers are learning as they engage in inquiry projects and how we might determine the effectiveness of these projects in teacher education classes.