Ann Berlak
Temple University Press, 2001
Norbert Elliot
Utah State University Press, 2020
In Talking Back, a veritable Who’s Who of writing studies scholars deliberate on intellectual traditions, current practices, and important directions for the future. In response, junior and mid-career scholars reflect on each chapter with thoughtful and measured moves forward into the contemporary environment of research, teaching, and service. Each of the prestigious chapter authors in the volume has three common traits: a sense of responsibility for advancing the profession, a passion for programs of research dedicated to advancing opportunities for others, and a reflective sense of their work accompanied by humility for their contributions. As a documentary, Talking Back is the first history of writing studies in autobiography.
Contributors: Jo Allen, Ann N. Amicucci, Akua Duku Anokye, Paige Davis Arrington, Doug Baldwin, John C. Brereton, Judy Buchanan, Hugh Burns, Leasa Burton, Ellen C. Carillo, William Condon, Dylan B. Dryer, Michelle F. Eble, Jennifer Enoch, Joan Feinberg, Patricia Friedrich, Cinthia Gannett, Eli Goldblatt, Shenika Hankerson, Janis Haswell, Richard Haswell, Eric Heltzel, Douglas Hesse, Bruce Horner, Alice S. Horning, Asao B. Inoue, Ruth Ray Karpen, Suzanne Lane, Min-Zhan Lu, Donald McQuade, Elisabeth L. Miller, Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk, Sean Molloy, Les Perelman, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Stacey Pigg, Sherry Rankins-Robertson, Jessica Restaino, J. Michael Rifenburg, Eliana Schonberg, Geneva Smitherman, Richard Sterling, Katherine E. Tirabassi, Devon Tomasulo, Martha A. Townsend, Mike Truong, Victor Villanueva, Edward M. White, Anne Elrod Whitney, Kathleen Blake Yancey
Brigitte Hipfl
Central European University Press, 2012
Laird Christensen
University of Nevada Press, 2008
Laura Hetrick
University of Illinois Press, 2018
Nick Jaffe, Becca Barniskis, and Barbara Hackett Cox
University of Chicago Press, 2015
Genifer Snipes
American Library Association, 2022
Sally Gregory Kohlstedt
University of Chicago Press, 2010
In the early twentieth century, a curriculum known as nature study flourished in major city school systems, streetcar suburbs, small towns, and even rural one-room schools. This object-based approach to learning about the natural world marked the first systematic attempt to introduce science into elementary education, and it came at a time when institutions such as zoos, botanical gardens, natural history museums, and national parks were promoting the idea that direct knowledge of nature would benefit an increasingly urban and industrial nation.
The definitive history of this once pervasive nature study movement, TeachingChildren Science emphasizes the scientific, pedagogical, and social incentives that encouraged primarily women teachers to explore nature in and beyond their classrooms. Sally Gregory Kohlstedt brings to vivid life the instructors and reformers who advanced nature study through on-campus schools, summer programs, textbooks, and public speaking. Within a generation, this highly successful hands-on approach migrated beyond public schools into summer camps, afterschool activities, and the scouting movement. Although the rich diversity of nature study classes eventually lost ground to increasingly standardized curricula, Kohlstedt locates its legacy in the living plants and animals in classrooms and environmental field trips that remain central parts of science education today.
Dana R. Ferris
University of Michigan Press, 2013
Statistical and anecdotal evidence documents that even states with relatively little ethnic or cultural diversity are beginning to notice and ask questions about long-term resident immigrants in their classes. As shifts in student population become more widespread, there is an even greater need for second language specialists, composition specialists, program administrators, and developers in colleges and universities to understand and adapt to the needs of the changing student audience(s).
Bruce McComiskey
Utah State University Press, 2000
Bruce McComiskey is a strong advocate of social approaches to teaching writing. However, he opposes composition teaching that relies on cultural theory for content, because it too often prejudges the ethical character of institutions and reverts unnecessarily to product-centered practices in the classroom. He opposes what he calls the "read-this-essay-and-do-what-the-author-did method of writing instruction: read Roland Barthes's essay 'Toys' and write a similar essay; read John Fiske's essay on TV and critique a show."
McComiskey argues for teaching writing as situated in discourse itself, in the constant flow of texts produced within social relationships and institutions. He urges writing teachers not to neglect the linguistic and rhetorical levels of composing, but rather to strengthen them with attention to the social contexts and ideological investments that pervade both the processes and products of writing.
A work with a sophisticated theory base, and full of examples from McComiskey's own classrooms, Teaching Composition as a Social Process will be valued by experienced and beginning composition teachers alike.
Drid Williams
University of Illinois Press, 2011
Jerry G. Gebhard
University of Michigan Press, 2006
Jerry G. Gebhard
University of Michigan Press, 2017
Adam Laats and Harvey Siegel
University of Chicago Press, 2016
Wilga M. Rivers
University of Chicago Press, 1981
Edited by Margaret Cantú-Sánchez, Candace de León-Zepeda, Norma E. Cantú
University of Arizona Press, 2020
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa—theorist, Chicana, feminist—famously called on scholars to do work that matters. This pronouncement was a rallying call, inspiring scholars across disciplines to become scholar-activists and to channel their intellectual energy and labor toward the betterment of society. Scholars and activists alike have encountered and expanded on these pathbreaking theories and concepts first introduced by Anzaldúa in Borderlands/La frontera and other texts.
Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa is a pragmatic and inspiring offering of how to apply Anzaldúa’s ideas to the classroom and in the community rather than simply discussing them as theory. The book gathers nineteen essays by scholars, activists, teachers, and professors who share how their first-hand use of Anzaldúa’s theories in their classrooms and community environments.
The collection is divided into three main parts, according to the ways the text has been used: “Curriculum Design,” “Pedagogy and Praxis,” and “Decolonizing Pedagogies.” As a pedagogical text, Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa also offers practical advice in the form of lesson plans, activities, and other suggested resources for the classroom. This volume offers practical and inspiring ways to deploy Anzaldúa’s transformative theories with real and meaningful action.
Contributors
Carolina E. Alonso
Cordelia Barrera
Christina Bleyer
Altheria Caldera
Norma E. Cantú
Margaret Cantú-Sánchez
Freyca Calderon-Berumen
Stephanie Cariaga
Dylan Marie Colvin
Candace de León-Zepeda
Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto
Alma Itzé Flores
Christine Garcia
Patricia M. García
Patricia Pedroza González
María del Socorro Gutiérrez-Magallanes
Leandra H. Hernández
Nina Hoechtl
Rían Lozano
Socorro Morales
Anthony Nuño
Karla O’Donald
Christina Puntasecca
Dagoberto Eli Ramirez
José L. Saldívar
Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano
Verónica Solís
Alexander V. Stehn
Carlos A. Tarin
Sarah De Los Santos Upton
Carla Wilson
Kelli Zaytoun

Trudi E. Jacobson
American Library Association, 2011
Edited by Sivan Zakai and Matt Reingold
Brandeis University Press, 2024
Wendy Bishop
Utah State University Press, 1997
Belinha S. De Abreu
American Library Association, 2019
Foreword by Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, Executive Director, National Association for Media Literacy Education
Preface by Denise E. Agosto
Though media literacy and information literacy are intertwined, there are important differences; and there has never been a more urgent need for an incisive examination of the crucial role librarians and other educators can play in teaching the skills necessary to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Media literate youth and adults are better able to understand the complex messages emanating from television, movies, radio, the internet, news outlets, magazines, books, billboards, video games, music, and all other forms of media. In this book, international expert De Abreu melds advice from a diverse array of practitioners and subject experts with her own research findings to examine how consuming media and technology impacts the learning of K–12 students, tackling such paramount issues as
Brian Jackson
Utah State University Press, 2020
Teaching Mindful Writers introduces new writing teachers to a learning cycle that will help students become self-directed writers through planning, practicing, revising, and reflecting. Focusing on the art and science of instructing self-directed writers through major writing tasks, Brian Jackson helps teachers prepare students to engage purposefully in any writing task by developing the habits of mind and cognitive strategies of the mindful writer.
Relying on the most recent research in writing studies and learning theory, Jackson gives new teachers practical advice about setting up writing tasks, using daily writing, leading class discussions, providing feedback, joining teaching communities, and other essential tools that should be in every writing teacher’s toolbox. Teaching Mindful Writers is a timely, fresh perspective on teaching students to be self-directed writers.
Robert L. Davis and Mark F. Shadle
Southern Illinois University Press, 2007
Joan Gross
Oregon State University Press, 2007
Colman McCarthy
Vanderbilt University Press, 2015
The discussions range from peace and war to a host of other issues of social justice, such as the death penalty, human rights, poverty, the living wage, animal rights, and vegetarianism. The wide-ranging letters suggest how teacher and students co-create a world of more love and less hate.
Edited by Nathan Stucky and Cynthia Wimmer. Foreword by Richard Schechner
Southern Illinois University Press, 2002
Edited by Nathan Stucky and Cynthia Wimmer, Teaching Performance Studies is the first organized treatment of performance studies theory, practice, and pedagogy. This collection of eighteen essays by leading scholars and educators reflects the emergent and contested nature of performance studies, a field that looks at the broad range of human performance from everyday conversation to formal theatre and cultural ritual. The cross-disciplinary freedom enacted by the writers suggests a new vision of performance studies—a deliberate commerce between field and classroom.
Tracy Bridgeford
Utah State University Press, 2018

Ronald E. Salomone
Ohio University Press, 1997
Shakespeare is a central shaping and defining figure in our culture. His plays are being taught, filmed, and performed every day in many places and in most of the world’s languages. At the same time, teachers and students from junior high through the early undergraduate years often struggle with the Bard in discomfort and negativity that can only be counter-productive.
Teaching Shakespeare into the Twenty-First Century is by teachers and for teachers. Specifically, it is a collection of essays in which teachers describe their best ideas and experiences as they confront the challenges of bringing Shakespeare alive for students who often feel intimidated and less than eager to participate.
It is on behalf of these students that this book has been prepared. Written by middle school, high school, and college teachers from around the country, the essays record successful efforts at bringing Shakespeare and the student together in fresh, exciting, and productive ways.
From today’s performance techniques, designed to make students active participants in the learning process, through a host of extra-textual resources such as festivals and films, to a look at applications of the computer and cyberspace, Teaching Shakespeare into the Twenty-First Century is a book of success stories.
Covering the most contemporary issues, critical theory, and classroom approach, it is designed to provide teachers with a useful, friendly, and forward-looking resource as they continue to make Shakespeare available into the future.
Janet G. Casey
University of Iowa Press, 2015
Edited by Brad Austin and Pamela Grundy
University of Wisconsin Press, 2022
Eric S. Rabkin and Macklin Smith
University of Michigan Press, 1990
Alice S. Horning. Foreword by W. Ross Winterowd
Southern Illinois University Press, 1986
Classrooms filled with glassy-eyed students provide an experiential base for Alice S. Horning’s new comprehensive theory about basic writers.
Horning explores the theory of writing acquisition in detail. Her examination of spoken and written language and redundancy give a theoretical base to her argument that academic discourse is a separate linguistic system characterized by particular psycholinguistic features. She proposes that basic writers learn to write as other learners master a second language because for them, academic written English is a whole new language.
She explores the many connections to be found in second language acquisition research to the teaching and learning of writing and gives special attention to the interlanguage hypothesis, pidginization theory, and the Monitor theory. She also addresses the role of affective factors (feelings, attitudes, emotions, and motivation) in the success or failure of writing students.
Edited by Christina Russell McDonald and Robert L. McDonald. Foreword by Gary Tate. Postscript by Steve North
Southern Illinois University Press, 2002
Teaching Writing: Landmarks and Horizons, edited by Christina Russell McDonald and Robert L. McDonald, is designed to present an overview of some of the major developments in the establishment of composition studies as a field during the past thirty-five years. The essays are theoretically grounded but are focused on pedagogy as well. Divided into two parts, the first presents nine landmark essays, selected and introduced by distinguished composition scholars, and the second brings together eight new essays by emerging scholars.
Cyndi Kernahan
West Virginia University Press, 2019
Teaching about race and racism can be a difficult business. Students and instructors alike often struggle with strong emotions, and many people have robust preexisting beliefs about race. At the same time, this is a moment that demands a clear understanding of racism. It is important for students to learn how we got here and how racism is more than just individual acts of meanness. Students also need to understand that colorblindness is not an effective anti-racism strategy.
In this book, Cyndi Kernahan argues that you can be honest and unflinching in your teaching about racism while also providing a compassionate learning environment that allows for mistakes and avoids shaming students. She provides evidence for how learning works with respect to race and racism along with practical teaching strategies rooted in that evidence to help instructors feel more confident. She also differentiates between how white students and students of color are likely to experience the classroom, helping instructors provide a more effective learning experience for all students.
Emile Lester
University of Michigan Press, 2013
"This provocative and timely book challenges Americans to rethink what it means to take democracy and religious freedom seriously in public education. Emile Lester takes the reader beyond culture war conflicts rooted in religious divisions and offers bold, new solutions for addressing our differences with fairness and robust toleration. Instead of battlegrounds, he argues, public schools can and should be places that include all voices in ways that prepare citizens to engage one another with civility and respect. Teaching about Religions is essential reading for all who care about the future of public schools---and the health of American democracy."
--- Charles C. Haynes, Senior Scholar, Freedom Forum First Amendment Center
"More than simply a synthesis of existing scholarship, [this book is] an original contribution to the field. [The] major themes are timely, and this book might well contribute to public discussion of important issues in our culture wars."
---Warren Nord, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
"Arriving in the wake of a bitter battle over the place of Islam in America and in the midst of calls for greater understanding and civility, Emile Lester's new book is a timely contribution to the debate about the best ways to teach about religion in our nation's public schools. A pioneering researcher in this field, Lester offers thoughtful critiques of existing proposals as well as fresh ideas. His recommendations reflect painstaking efforts to understand the concerns of groups (most notably, conservative Christians) to which he does not belong, and a firm grasp of the difference between fostering understanding of other faiths and pressing for acceptance of them. Lester's prescriptions, always informed and fair-minded and sometimes provocative, should drive the debate forward in productive ways."
---Melissa Rogers, Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University School of Divinity and Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Frequent news stories about the debates waged between secularists and religious conservatives have convinced most Americans that public schools must choose between promoting respect for religious minorities and respecting the interests of conservative Christians. As a result, public schools fail to teach students about the meaning and value of protecting religious liberty and consequently perpetuate mistrust across the cultural divide, further empower extremists, and obscure the fact that most Americans of all religious backgrounds share a commitment to basic democratic principles.
In response, the public schools in the religiously diverse and divided community of Modesto, California, have introduced a widely acclaimed required world religions course. Drawing on groundbreaking research on the creation of and response to the Modesto course as well as on political philosophy, Emile Lester advocates a civic approach to teaching about religion in public schools that at once emphasizes respect for all views about religion and provides a special recognition of conservative Christian beliefs.
Inez Testoni
Central European University Press, 2014
Katherine L. Alexander
University of Michigan Press, 2025
Mark Roncace
SBL Press, 2007
Mark Roncace
SBL Press, 2005
Edited by Nancy L. Diekelmann
University of Wisconsin Press, 2003
John Murphy, Editor
University of Michigan Press, 2017
Jennifer Travis, Jessica DeSpain
University of Illinois Press, 2018
Travis and DeSpain curate conversations on the value of project-based, collaborative learning; examples of real-world assignments where students combine close, collaborative, and computational reading; how digital humanities aids in the consideration of marginal texts; the ways in which an ethics of care can help students organize artifacts; and how an activist approach affects debates central to the study of difference in the nineteenth century.
A supplemental companion website with substantial appendixes of syllabi and assignments is now available for readers of Teaching with Digital Humanities.
Edited by Philathia Bolton, Cassander L. Smith, and Lee Bebout
Northwestern University Press, 2019

American Library Association, 2010

Jennifer Nelson
American Library Association, 2012
Steve Daut
Parkhurst Brothers, Inc., 2019
Nathan Snaza
Duke University Press, 2024
Edited by Marc Bousquet, Tony Scott, and Leo Parascondola. Foreword by Randy Martin
Southern Illinois University Press, 2003
Tenured Bosses and Disposable Teachers: Writing Instruction in the Managed University exposes the poor working conditions of contingent composition faculty and explores practical alternatives to the unfair labor practices that are all too common on campuses today.
Editors Marc Bousquet, Tony Scott, and Leo Parascondola bring together diverse perspectives from pragmatism to historical materialism to provide a perceptive and engaging examination of the nature, extent, and economics of the managed labor problem in composition instruction—a field in which as much as ninety-three percent of all classes are taught by graduate students, adjuncts, and other “disposable” teachers. These instructors enjoy few benefits, meager wages, little or no participation in departmental governance, and none of the rewards and protections that encourage innovation and research. And it is from this disenfranchised position that literacy workers are expected to provide some of the core instruction in nearly everyone's higher education experience.
Twenty-six contributors explore a range of real-world solutions to managerial domination of the composition workplace, from traditional academic unionism to ensemble movement activism and the pragmatic rhetoric, accommodations, and resistances practiced by teachers in their daily lives.
Contributors are Leann Bertoncini, Marc Bousquet, Christopher Carter, Christopher Ferry, David Downing, Amanda Godley, Robin Truth Goodman, Bill Hendricks, Walter Jacobsohn, Ruth Kiefson, Paul Lauter, Donald Lazere, Eric Marshall, Randy Martin, Richard Ohmann, Leo Parascondola, Steve Parks, Gary Rhoades, Eileen Schell, Tony Scott, William Thelin, Jennifer Seibel Trainor, Donna Strickland, William Vaughn, Ray Watkins, and Katherine Wills.
Sumathi Ramaswamy
University of Chicago Press, 2017
Susan Miller
Southern Illinois University Press, 1993
This is the first book-length study of the status of composition in English studies and the uneasy relationship between composition and literature. Composition studies and institutional histories of English studies have long needed this kind of clarification of the historical and political contexts of composition teaching, research, and administration.
Susan Miller argues that composition constitutes a major national industry, citing the four million freshman-level students enrolled in such courses each year, the $40 million annual expenditure for textbooks, and the more than $50 million in teacher salaries. But this concrete magnitude is not expressed in political power within departments. Miller calls on her associates in composition to engage in a persistent critique of the social practices and political agenda of the discipline that have been responsible for its institutional marginalization. Drawing on her own long experience as a composition administrator, teacher, and scholar, as well as on a national survey of composition professionals, Miller argues that composition teachers inadvertently continue to foster the negative myth about composition’s place in the English studies hierarchy by assuming an assigned, self-sacrificial cultural identity. Composition has been regarded as subcollegiate, practical, a "how-to," and has been denied intellectual rigor in order to preserve literature’s presentations of quasi-religious textual ideals.
Winner of three major book awards:
The Modern Language Association’s Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize
The Conference on College Composition and Communication’s Outstanding Book Award
The Teachers of Advanced Composition’s W. Ross Winterowd Award
Cynthia B. Roy
Gallaudet University Press, 2018