Beth Murray

Three decade drama/theatre and (for/with/by/about) youth crowd-sourced timeline

What events, patterns, or people have shaped the field or marked its milestones since Youth Theatre Journal’s (YTJ’s) first issue in 1986? We put the call out to YTJ readers, this rich array of ent...

Humanizing the Core: English Language Learners and Culturally Sustaining Young Adult Literature

Contemporary “humanizing” English Language Arts (ELA) classroom pedagogies emphasize teacher mindfulness of the lived experiences of diverse learners and how those experiences are represented in culturally and linguistically complex ELA instruction (de la Piedra, J Adolesc Adult Lit 53(7):575–584, 2010; del Carmen Salazar, Rev Res Educ 37(1):121–148, 2013; Lucas et al., J Teach Educ 59(4):361–373, 2008; Paris, Language across difference: Ethnicity, communication, and youth identities in changing urban schools. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011; Souto-Manning, Engl Educ 42(3):248–262, 2010). This chapter describes the potential of young adult literature (YAL) for engaging English language learners (ELLs) and their peers in issues of class, culture, language, and race/ethnicity. Through a series of additive instructional frames this chapter explores generative possibilities of consciously leveraging the lived experiences of diverse learners in humanizing ways.

Finding Strength: Multimodal Assessment and Adaptation of Children’s Writing Into Theatre

This article examines the assessment terrains and processes employed formally and informally by a theatre-focused group of adults adapting and performing children’s original writing as plays for young audiences through a project called YOUR Stories on Stage. The journey of three anchor child-written exemplars from original form through screening into script then onto rehearsal and performance is chronicled and questioned to help articulate specific ways a theatre lens on children’s writing finds strengths and assets in the work, with particular attention to elements of multimodal literacy (Cope and Kalantzis 2009; Jewitt and Kress 2003). The same three pieces of writing are also analyzed with the well-established criteria of six-traits writing analysis (Spandel 2012) used widely in various forms by classroom teachers, school systems, and testing organizations. Complementary and contrasting patterns are identified and discussed with findings pointing to echoed connections between the two approaches, particularly in the areas of voice and word choice. A need for a wider range of assessments used in writing and literacy instruction is highlighted, including those assessments of artistic elements alone and in relation to narrow views of literacy as reading and writing.

You say, “cariño”; I say, “caring”: Latino newcomer immigrant families in the middle

Abstract One of the 16 core beliefs of middle level thinking is that schools and families must work together on behalf of every young adolescent (National Middle School Association, 2010). However, in classrooms and on curriculum nights, communication emerges as a critical issue. This is especially true when it comes to teachers’ interacting with Latino immigrant newcomer families. That is to say, in our regional context, the vast majority of middle level educators and administrators are monolingual English speakers; they themselves often see their monolingualism/culturalism as a stumbling block for communicating caring to Latino parents and the trust such caring generates. A recurring question we encounter in our various teacher education courses and on-site with our partners is: “How can teachers and institutions demonstrate a language and practice of caring in situations when they do not necessarily speak the same language?” Drawing from intercultural communication theory, we outline two over-arching intercultural communication principles that can be leveraged for communicating our interconnectedness and interdependence within and beyond increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse schooling contexts. Our intent here is more than to argue that we should care. Rather, we hope to provide practitioners with concrete intercultural “moves” for initiating the safe, productive learning spaces where Latino newcomer families can engage in the collaborative work of schools