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The study focused on the use of video clips as instructional material and its impact on learning Creative Non-Fiction among Humanities and Social Sciences students in Subic National High School. The researchers used an experimental research design that involved a control group and an experimental group with a total of 60 participants. The researchers utilized a researcher-made pre-test and post-test and a survey questionnaire. The pre-test and post-test results of the control group and experimental group both showed a significant increase. Results show that the experimental group achieved a very satisfactory remark after receiving treatment which is the use of video clips presentation in learning Creative Nonfiction. Moreover, students perceived that video clips with subtitles will serve as better instructional material because they help them in learning Creative Nonfiction, understand difficult concepts, keep them engaged, and motivate them to suit their learning style. The study concluded that there is a significant difference in learning Creative Nonfiction according to the students' gender and age profile. The researchers strongly recommend that teachers should be encouraged to use video clip presentations as a supplementary tool for better academic achievement and teachers can also integrate the use of video clips in other subjects if it is applicable and suitable.

We examined how using five different simplified texts on the same subject would affect reading comprehension. 335 students in grades four through eight read one of five texts retrieved from Newsela.com and then completed a comprehension test. Results from a 3-way ANOVA showed no significant interaction among grade, reading level and text condition. Pairwise comparisons showed that below-level readers' scores improved only with extremely lower levels of text and on-level and above-level readers' scores did not significantly change regardless of text level. Regression analysis showed no statistically significant contribution of text level to overall comprehension scores. The findings of this study have implications for choosing leveled texts for reading instruction.

Rural students pursue post-secondary education at a lower rate than their urban and suburban counterparts. While the college choice process is complex for all students, it is important to further examine this process for rural students because they are an underserved population. This study utilized Perna's (2006) college choice model to examine the unique experiences of rural students in Kansas through narrative inquiry. This research sought to answer how rural students described their college choice process as well as the lived experiences that they believed affected their choice in college majors. This research found that the college choice process for rural students is incredibly complex and interrelated. This report utilizes creative nonfiction to showcase that while there are many important factors in the rural student college choice process, previous experiences as well as high school supports/people were two of the most influential factors for the participants.

University libraries globally launch coronavirus memory archival projects inviting the documentation of personal experience. Elicitations such as journal entries and oral history interviews fall under the category of life-writing. This Narrative Inquiry focuses on creative nonfiction stories produced by an online high school community and edited by the EFL teacher during the first full lockdown in Greece. The shift to distance education caused students to use ELF as a means of contrasting their local archival endeavors with global ones. The EFL teacher as researcher used mentor texts, collected the coronavirus stories on e-me online platform, engaged the online members in a peer-reviewing process and reauthored a collective narrative. Narrative writing analysis was employed to reflect the teacher's initiative to commemorate a student community's physical disconnectedness from onsite learning. The use of e-me for this collaborative venture offers practical implications for EFL practitioners such as going beyond the bounds of the traditional curriculum whilst identifying self-regulation as indication of resilience among students experiencing unprecedented circumstances.

Minimum Competence Assessment resembling PISA and Characters Survey replace National Examination in 2021. However, the Indonesian students' score in PISA is still left behind the international average scores. This study aims to find out the extent of the relationship between science informative text and science fiction text skills in secondary school. This research is a quantitative correlational study carried out by distributing online tests of science informative texts and science fiction texts. The participants of this study were 133 students of grade ten at 4th Pematangsiantar Senior High School and they were selected using simple random sampling technique. A bivariate correlation test with the Pearson Product Moment method was implemented to analyze the data. The result found that the value of the correlation coefficient was 0.96 (r = 0.96) meaning that the alternative hypothesis is accepted. In other words, there is a very strong positive correlation between the students' reading skills in fiction text with the students' reading skills in informative text. In short, the result indicates that when the students' ability to read science fiction text increases, their ability to read science informative text will also increase.

This research conducted with third graders examined a teacher and her students as they transformed their traditional writing workshop to a designing workshop. Using the New London Group's (1996) pedagogy of multiliteracies and Katie Wood Ray's (2006) units of study as frameworks, students participated in a unit of study on informational texts. After immersing themselves in a study of both traditional print-bound informational books and interactive electronic informational books, the students designed multimodal digital compositions using iBooks Author. The study focused on the teacher's transformation, the students' design process, and students' final compositions. Preliminary results demonstrated that students designed using a cyclical process, transforming to seeing themselves as designers employing a variety of modes. The study has many implications specifically in the areas of students' design process, students' multimodal compositions, and teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge.

Twenty adult ESL students at a community college participated in a semester reading intervention. Participants received a modified extensive reading treatment, and some participants received an additional repeated reading direct instruction reading intervention. The author examined the impact of the reading interventions on ESL students' reading fluency and reading comprehension. Within the two reading groups, students were selected randomly and placed into either the modified extensive reading group or the repeated reading intervention and modified extensive reading group. ESL students in the modified extensive reading group read graded readers; ESL students in the repeated reading and modified extensive reading group read graded readers and 12 nonfiction "Read Naturally" passages. Results of the quasi-experimental quantitative study indicated no significant difference between the intervention and comparison groups regarding reading fluency and reading comprehension; however, within group results were statistically significant regarding student reading rate and accuracy.

Children's nonfiction once had a reputation as a lackluster genre. However, the nonfiction books published today are noteworthy for their appeal and quality. This study's purpose was to examine contemporary teachers' perceptions of recent children's nonfiction. Fourteen elementary teachers shared their opinions of contemporary nonfiction for children in written reflections, which were inductively analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The teachers addressed the following themes in their reflections: (1) presentation of the books, (2) the potential of books to support elementary readers, and (3) ways books could support learning opportunities. The findings indicate these teachers had a positive response to contemporary nonfiction, but they suggest there is still work to be done to ensure elementary students? access to a diverse array of nonfiction books.

The use of authentic materials for language teaching is common. Yet, there is not much information about what type of instructional materials benefits learners. The purpose of the study is to find empirical evidence of whether non-fiction authentic materials are more superior that fiction authentic material. The researchers used an experimental design to answer the research question. The population of the study was all students who took an essay writing course at University PGRI Wiranegara in the academic year 2019-2020. The sample was taken by using a systematic random sampling method which results in two equal numbers of students in two experimental groups. Group A was taught with non-fiction authentic material, while group B was taught with the fiction authentic material. The researchers used ANOVA to analyze the data in SPSS 22. The process of teaching and learning followed the writing as a process approach and was done in a blended-learning setting because of the pandemic of COVID 19. The result shows that there is no significant interaction between content type and proficiency level (F(2,30) = 1.347, p = 0.275). The main effect of content type on writing performance was not significant (F(1,30)=0.001, p 0.973), but the main effect of proficiency level on writing performance is significant such that the students who have a higher level of writing proficiency have better performance than the students who have a lower level of writing proficiency (F (2,30) = 5.653, p 0.008). The researchers conclude that both types of authentic materials are equally effective to improve the students' essay writing performance.

Facts about climate change are often ineffective in impacting people's climate change beliefs or environmentally related behaviors. Multiple theories of environmental behavior use norms to foster behavior change. Science fiction writers may also attempt to sway individuals' perceptions of climate change through imaginings of a future affected by climate change. The impact of these fictional narratives on individuals' climate change perceptions and related behaviors has not been widely studied. We examined the impact of (i) personal versus social norms and (ii) fiction versus nonfiction climate change readings on undergraduate students' climate change perceptions and behaviors. On average, students' climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions increased across all intervention groups. Comparing fiction with nonfiction, personal with social norms, and interaction effects revealed no significant difference between changes in students' behavioral intentions. However, trends in this exploratory research suggest that social norms and fiction writings are worth exploring as particularly effective ways to engage students in climate change discussions. These results reveal the potential for fictional narratives and social norms to encourage impactful discussion around climate change.

This article uses a critical discourse analysis approach to observe themes and patterns in eight non-fiction books about Polish patriotism for children. The books are commercially available in mainstream bookshops, and may be used in a range of home or educational settings. In a social and political context where the concept of patriotism has a long history of use by various powerful elites to legitimize their positions and political actions, and where approaches to teaching patriotism in schools have been widely discussed, the article compares themes emerging from the books with patterns in wider social and political discourse, as well as considering what messages and assumptions are revealed in the texts themselves. The analysis finds that, while most of the authors try to associate themselves with a modern and inclusive type of patriotism, they also tend to reproduce certain assumptions that favour exclusionary or hierarchical understandings as to who has the right to be recognized as a member of the national community.

Reading comprehension of informational texts has been largely debated and introduced at all levels of education across western countries. However, it has not received enough attention in developing countries including Vietnam. This paper aims to investigate the procedure of reading and comprehension of informational texts in high schools in Vietnam. The study surveyed 588 teachers and 2744 high school students across all regions of Vietnam. The survey questionnaires asked teachers and students' opinions on the teaching and learning of informational texts. Through statistical analysis with Excel sheets, the results show that the part of informational texts in the curriculum was small when compared with literary texts. This shows that there is very little requirement of teaching and learning informational text in high schools which results in students' limited ability in reading informational text. The findings also suggest that understanding and reading informational texts have been contended as essential to the educational performance of students. The research also revealed that both teachers and students need to be more prepared in the classrooms to teach and learn informational texts. It is recommended that Vietnamese general education curricula should include a greater amount of informational texts in textbooks and instruction on informational texts should be given more attention to improve students' understanding.

This study discusses the role of stylistic analysis in the development of critical language awareness (CLA) which is crucial for assessing ideologies transmitted in discourse. The Critical Stylistic approach is used to compare narrative strategies in fiction and non-fiction: in Ishiguro's novel "The Buried Giant" (2015) and in Wolff's book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" (2018) by using analytical tools such as transitivity, participants, actions and processes, vocabulary, syntax, modality, generics, personal pronouns, speech acts. Considering ambiguous approaches to the issue of truth in mass media when hundreds of fact-checking sites are telling people how to separate 'true meaning' from 'fake meaning', this study argues that the linguistic approach to narratives can foster critical thinking by helping readers understand the interpretative nature of the meaning of the text. In the light of contemporary literary strategies, literature is affirmed as mode of 'truth' in the sense of an increased self-knowledge and insight on the part of the reader who carries out interpretation as opening up to the text in relation to multiple meanings. The stylistic approach towards narrative strategies is pointed out as prevention of prescriptive and dogmatic readings and as encouragement for critical literacy.

Reading rate, usually measured in words per minute, is a common operationalization of reading fluency in second language (L2) research and pedagogy. However, the impact of word length is often not addressed. This paper presents two studies showing how the number of characters in a text influences L2 reading time, independent of word counts, within classroom-based activities for Japanese university English as a Foreign Language students. In Study 1, students (N = 160) read two sets of graded texts manipulated to differ only in the total number of characters. The texts with more characters required significantly more time to read, with a small effect size. In Study 2, the average reading times for students (N = 27) throughout a semester-long timed reading course were strongly associated with text length as measured in characters, controlling for differences in word counts. Together these studies support the inclusion of character-based counting units when measuring L2 reading rate or reading amount.

This research investigates the efficiency of applying creative writing multi-tasks in developing level 4 female English major students' creative writing competence. The study conducted for 12 weeks in 2018-2019 academic year, in Zulfi College of Education, Majmaah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The sample consists of 64 female students divided equally into two groups: experimental and control groups. The experimental group studied an advanced college writing course supported by the creative writing multitasks designed by the researcher. A group of pre- and posttest design was applied in the study. When the pre and posttest's scores of the experimental group were analyzed and compared, it was detected that there was a statistically considerable difference in the pre- and posttest scores, in favor of posttest's score. Also, it shows that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of the experimental and control group posttest's scores, favoring the experimental group posttest's score. These results prove the main research hypothesis: Creative writing multi-tasks have a significant impact on developing the experimental group's creative writing competence, compared to the control group. The findings indicate that using creative writing multitasks has a positive effect on developing the students' creative writing competence in both fiction and nonfiction essays. It is recommended for English language teachers to adopt similar creative writing multitasks when teaching writing skill.

The study was a linguistic examination of the use of lexical cohesive devices in Ngugi Wa Thiong 'O's "Decolonising the Mind"- an autobiography. The study was aimed at revealing how Ngugi - an African L2 writer, deployed lexical cohesive devices to achieve cohesion and coherence and how this has contributed to the meaning of his non-fictional essay. The study was guided by the theoretical framework of Halliday's tripartite metafunctions of language: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual, with closer inclination to the textual metafunction that deals with text creation. Cohesion is understood in this study as a textual strategy deployed in language use to unify sentences into a text (a unified whole), that renders the speech or writing both readable and meaningful. A total of 29 excerpts, selected from relevant sections of the essay were descriptively analysed. Our analysis revealed that Ngugi made effective use of lexical cohesive devices to tie his text together, thereby succeeded in passing his message clearly to his readers. Our findings also showed a preponderant use of reiteration (near synonym) - 13 times, and repetition - 8 times, by the writer, probably to achieve emphasis. Other lexical devices deployed by the writer to achieve various textual and communicative functions include: antonyms 4 times; superordinate/hyponym, 2 times; and complementaries and cohyponym, 1 each, in crafting his essay, in which he tells a real-life story of his people, his culture and his heritage. Ngugi, by his effective use of cohesive devices along paradigmatic and syntagmatic axis, has demonstrated that an African writer can also, through the medium of biographical writing, project, not only his ideology, but also the exultation of his people, his culture and his inheritance by a skillful and near-native use of the English language. The study made a case for a systematic teaching of cohesive devices at all levels of education as that will improve reading and comprehension and the aver all communicative competence of L2 learners of English.

"Relief: Observations on Creative Nonfiction as Pedagogy" offers a case study in the possibilities of using creative writing as a pedagogical tool with ESL students. Analyzing the experience, comments, and creative work of a Chinese nursing student named Wei Wan at Ryerson University, the essay explores the benefits of personal writing and peer workshops as tools for self-exploration, aesthetic appreciation, and confidence building. While urging teachers to see the advantages of this methodology, the paper also reflects on the literary values of creative work in hybrid, non-standard English forms.

When school librarians justify the purchase of electronic books (e-books) for their collections, they need to understand e-book usage patterns and whether or not e-books are meeting the recreational and informational needs of their students and teachers. Although a sizeable body of research is available examining the circulation and usage of e-books in academic and public libraries, there has yet to be a scientific study examining these variables in high school libraries. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of high school e-book collections through the analysis of circulation data and interviews with school librarians. A Relative Use Factor analysis was conducted. Quantitative results revealed that e-book circulation represented a significantly low total circulation for most of the high school libraries examined. Analysis of the interviews revealed commonalities and differences between e-book collections. Findings suggested that purchasing practices and marketing strategies can have a considerable impact on the circulation and use of e-books in high school libraries.

Literacy across the content areas has often signified a focus on helping future teachers navigate nonfiction texts and promote command of textual features and literary terms, yet these teachers also need to model critical insight that invites students to question information and purported facts that define their realities. Following a brief review of literature, we situate ourselves and our students. This article documents the pedagogical moves to introduce a graphic novel in a university Content Area Literacy course while also showcasing insightful responses from teacher candidates along the way. We argue that using a graphic novel and introducing it strategically to teacher candidates complicated their ideas about literacy engagement. Further, our work challenged teacher candidates to consider literacy practices, especially involving nonfiction texts, that are multidimensional and critical.

Basing on the analysis of the general system of exercises and tasks for translator/interpreter training, the authors offer a three-component system of exercises and tasks for teaching non-fiction translation. The components discrimination is based upon their aims, which fall into one of the three categories. The first one is related to the acquisition of skills and subskills, which are required for the translation process, but do not involve translation proper. The second category includes the translation actions and operations that can be automatised, while the third one incorporates translation skills, which are based on the actions and operations of the first two categories. Taking into account the said discrimination, the authors suggest a system composed of three subsystems: (1) preparatory exercises, (2) those intended for the translation automatic components formation, and (3) for the development of translation skills. The authors offer a list of skills and subskills required at each stage of the translation process (the source text analysis, the translation proper and the target text editing), as well as describe the content of groups, types and subtypes of exercises within each subsystem. The prospects of further research are outlined.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explain how the Common Core State Standards may have influenced teachers' practices and philosophies regarding literacy instruction. Conducted in five kindergarten through second-grade classrooms within one elementary school, this research study collected semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and teacher-reported lesson plans over fourteen weeks. We observed that one of the largest instructional shifts due to the implementation of new standards was in the area of informational text use. This change came about not due to the volume of empirical research stating the benefits of such texts, but rather because of an educational policy change. These findings hold implications for K-12 schools and for teacher education programs which are, in many instances, caught between the research, policies, and practice.

The National Writing Project's (NWP) College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) aims to improve young people's ability to write thoughtful, evidence-based arguments. In an era where public discourse has become increasingly polarized, and "echo chambers" of narrow views populate people's social media feeds, teaching students to ground their arguments in evidence is more important than ever. To equip students to thrive in this challenging environment, the NWP's approach to argument writing starts with having students understand multiple points of view that go beyond pros and cons and are based on multiple pieces of evidence, which ultimately enables students to take responsible civic action. At its core, C3WP supports students in navigating an increasingly dense informational world so they can become informed citizens who are prepared to participate in and ultimately strengthen a healthy and vibrant democracy.

The purpose of this study was to compare the reading skills of the fourth graders who were poor readers in different text genres (story and informative text). Fifty-six fourth-grade students who were poor readers participated in this study. Reading rates, reading errors and reading prosody characteristics of the students were examined in the study. It was concluded that although reading rates of students were higher when reading the informative text, they had also produced a higher number of errors for this text genre. This finding revealed that the informative text was completed in a shorter amount of time, but more errors occurred than when reading the story text. The findings of this study make it abundantly clear that all stakeholders should continue to work diligently in organising reading instruction and reading interventions that support reading fluency among all readers and for all text genres.

Critical literacy works to make readers aware of the explicit and implicit ideologies present in texts. Engaging in critical reading helps readers recognize and interrogate ideologies in texts in order to be more informed readers. This action research study examined the development of critical literacy skills in 19 prospective elementary teachers across three weeks of a semester-long undergraduate children's literature course. Researchers, who were also course instructors, intentionally paired texts to help students enter a Third Space in which they could practice intertextuality (Tracey & Morrow, 2012). The Third Space afforded ideological distance from both the students' personal ideologies and those inherent (and often unrecognized) in texts, thus allowing students to better connect and critique messages within and across texts. Researchers engaged in first- and second-cycle coding and collaborative discussion of students' written responses to texts and discussion transcripts. Findings suggest that pairing texts with similar themes allows students to begin to uncover implicit ideologies and reevaluate their stances both toward the literature and to their own ideological beliefs. However, quality of discussion, background knowledge, and emotional connection to the literature and/or the topic may also affect the ways in which students critically engage with texts in the Third Space.

Relatively little is known about preschool teachers' read-aloud techniques with informational picture books. The purpose of this investigation was to identify similarities and differences between preschool teachers' read-aloud techniques with fictional stories, which are commonly read in preschool, and informational texts. Instrumental case study and purposive sampling were employed to investigate the reading techniques of two White female teachers in one preschool classroom as they read in small groups with children two-and-a-half to five years old. In terms of similarities across genres, teachers made personal connections, prompted children to interpret pictures, used multimodal instruction, and differentiated instruction. In terms of key differences, when reading fictional stories, teachers scaffolded children's inferences and predictions, whereas for informational texts, teachers described academic vocabulary and content and focused on informational text features. Preschool teachers might expect to use a core set of reading techniques across texts and also differentiate according to the type of picture book.

By providing a wide selection of high-quality materials that will grab the attention of individual readers, school libraries can play an integral part in initiating and supporting student agency and a student-centered approach to learning. Such materials should not only address and expand upon what kids are learning in the classroom, but also allow them to explore an array of personal interests, tastes, and passions. Every student has his or her own way of acquiring and processing factual content, and books presented in different formats nurture a variety of learning styles and specific preferences. This article highlights books with a focus on science and can be used to supplement classroom materials and traditional narrative nonfiction. Ranging from profusely illustrated graphic novels to captivating fiction series, these titles will appeal to a spectrum of tastes, learning styles, and interests. The titles featured here are a small sampling of the wide range of offerings that can be used to explore and expand upon science curriculums, and a similar spectrum of selections for other subject areas should also be made available. These materials can be identified by consulting professional review sources, library catalogs, and readers' advisory resources such as CLCD (Children's Literature Comprehensive Database) or EBSCO's NoveList.

Recent contentions about "fake news" and misinformation online has shed light on the critical need for media literacy at a global scale. Indeed, digital stories are one of the main forms of communication in the 21st century through blogs, videos-sharing websites, forums, or social networks. However, the line between facts and fiction can often become blurry in these online spaces, and being able to distinguish between reality and fantasy can have important consequences in the lives of young Internet users. Using contemporary examples from news stories, fanfiction, advertising, and radicalization, this article outlines the features, affordances, and real-life implications of digital stories. As a result, we provide recommendations for educators to create awareness and empower students about digital storytelling practices.

This article describes an instructional model for integrating children's literature and language arts into the elementary school science curriculum. This science-literacy instructional model is an adaptation from the original 5E model of scientific inquiry. The model demonstrates how reading, writing, listening, and speaking can be incorporated into science instruction and how the use of fictional children's literature, in addition to nonfiction, can engage the learner and facilitate mastery of content and opportunities for problem solving and critical thinking.

More than a decade has passed since "American Educator" featured the work of Joy Hakim, a writer whose nonfictional accounts of history and science have long fascinated students and teachers alike. With the advent of the Common Core State Standards, and their strong emphasis on nonfiction, Hakim's accounts may prove useful to educators seeking worthwhile content that both expands students' background knowledge and sparks their imagination. The following article introduces Hakim to those unfamiliar with her work (and also reacquaints those who are fans). She recounts her journey from newspaper reporter to children's book author, while sharing her thoughts on the importance of narrative nonfiction in student learning. Throughout her career, Hakim has written stories rich in detail about figures such as Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Nicolaus Copernicus, Sir Isaac Newton, and many others. In the sidebar "Field Days for Farady and Maxwell," we give a glimpse of how she takes readers on a journey back in time by excerpting a chapter from her latest publication, "Reading Science Stories," an e-book available on Amazon.com. This particular chapter tells the story of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, whose efforts laid the foundation for "an electromagnetic revolution," as Hakim eloquently writes.

An after-school book club, led by the school librarian, was held to test the efficacy of the peritextual literacy framework (PLF) in teaching skills related to critical thinking, problem solving, information literacy, and media literacy. The PLF is an extension of paratext theory developed by Gérard Genette, which provides a typology of the functions of peritext; this extension results in a framework that can be used for research or as a scaffold for teaching. Twelve middle school students met once a month for five months to apply the PLF to an analysis of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) texts. The participants enjoyed the club and were able to demonstrate their ability to use peritextual elements to think critically about STEAM-related nonfiction books. Students were able to discuss how the functions of peritext affected their motivation to read a text and their ability to retrieve information from a text, and how peritext functions might affect their opinion of the credibility of information presented in a book.

This study was conducted to explore teacher candidates' reactions and perceptions regarding their participation in inquiry circles and to discover how the experience influenced their comprehension of an informational text. The 98 teacher candidates involved in this study were enrolled in a children's literature course at a four-year university. The three instructors routinely employ literature circles using fictional texts to expose their students to reading response techniques, but were interested in finding out how teacher candidates would transfer this learning to an informational text. The results of the study indicated that many of the teacher candidates were unaware of their own strategy use in regard to reading comprehension in general, but found inquiry circles to be a beneficial vehicle to increase their own understanding of informational texts, as well as a positive teaching method to utilize in their future classrooms.

This article describes a group of second and third graders who began the school year 83% below reading proficiency. On surveys given at the beginning of the year, parents/guardians stated reading was the biggest concern for their child, and students stated they enjoyed hands-on activities, especially during science. To increase comprehension and fluency, a combination of reading and engagement was the key. To capture the same passion and excitement students showed while engaging in science investigations and experiments in the classroom, the Reading Adventures program was created. Each take-home bag contains a nonfiction book along with a simple scientific investigation and math problem related to the book's topic (see NSTA Connection for an overview of the activities). The goal for the program was to increase student reading scores by including families in the learning process. After all, research on the best practices in education "suggests that parental involvement, not income or social status, is the most accurate predictor of scholastic achievement." Response to this program was overwhelming.

Dr. William Alexander, a noted curriculum authority and a central founder of the middle school movement, shared in a presentation in 1963 that teachers must have a goal of stimulating a "love for learning, an attitude of inquiry, a passion for truth and beauty, a questioning of mind." He asserted, "Learning the right answers is not enough, beyond answers alone, we must help children ask the right questions, and discover their answers through creative thinking, reasoning, judging, and understanding." Alexander's ideals have been influential in the development of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) position paper, "This We Believe." This article responds to "This We Believe" by describing one attempt to develop a challenging and integrated curriculum. It also responds to the Common Core State Standards by describing how authentic literature can be used with instructional strategies to support learning across the curriculum. A brief review of related literature is shared. Next, instructional strategies to use with authentic literature are presented. The article concludes with final thoughts about using authentic literature to develop challenging and integrated curriculum. The hope is that this article will help teachers and students create new passions for authentic literature because when students have passion to read, they have passion to learn. Figure 1 provides examplars of authentic literature.

"Impressing Heaven" is the title of my collection of short stories about career decisions and experience interacting in English on the part of actual young adult learners of English as a foreign language in South Korea. (See "Impressing Heaven" by Barbara Waldern, July 2012 Smashwords ISBN: 9781476467023). While I was first settling in Korea, I got acquainted with a few students and other young adults who liked to talk with and assist English speaking foreigners. They made such a strong impression that I remembered them and thought about our conversations over the years. I ended up writing about them, imagining their real life situations as they had confided in me, or envisioned how their lives would proceed thereafter. I interwove their narrations with my narration of my experience with them to put myself in the shoes of others. This collection thereby serves as a journalistic reflection of some of my first encounters with such students of English as well as a preservation of memories. Given the artistic approach to this work, it is not standard social science although it is a useful exploratory activity, and can be used as one tool of reflective practice in educating, understanding, or relating to a particular cultural group as an outsider. I conclude that this form of creatively written journal keeping serves reflective practice and could contribute to sound methodological and anthropological study as an additional tool of ethnographic research and pedagogical research.

One focus of "Invitational Theory and Practice" is creating positive environments that summon each individual to "develop intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally, and morally" (Purkey & Novak, 2008). Children's literature is a rich resource for teachers and parents to focus on emotional and moral development. This article provides background information on the nature of literary response and the characteristics of literature that engender responses related to character and moral development. Examples and related activities teachers can use to help children process the stories are provided.

Educational policies and initiatives significantly influence instruction in classrooms across the nation. This article presents data from a larger critical ethnographic study in an urban school in the United States during the school's first year implementing the Common Core State Standards. In this article, the author shares data from three teachers. The findings indicate a significant reliance of teachers on outside factors--in this case, the Common Core Standards and related Publishers' Criteria--for planning and instruction in literacy. The teachers' own professional knowledge base became eroded in the process of "policy cascades," and as a result, the teachers developed a learned dependency on outside influences for instructional decision making in the classroom.