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In this article, the researchers employ a linguistically informed approach to close reading that teaches a moral dilemma through an autobiographical short story. The approach, based on systemic functional linguistics, uses genre analysis that can draw students' attention to the structure, vocabulary, and grammar within literary texts, helping them better understand how meaning is constructed in the text. The authors exemplify this approach through the close reading of "Little Things Are Big" by Jesús Colón (1961) and provide implications for teaching literature about moral dilemmas and close reading to multilingual learners in a middle school ELA classroom. Through this analysis of the story, the authors demonstrate the power of close reading in a multilingual educational setting, showing how genre analysis enables a functional focus on language and meaning in literary reading.

Viewing teacher vulnerability as a pedagogical tool, this comparative case study examined two secondary literacy teachers' use of vulnerability in relation to various instructional goals. Through the analysis of eight video-recorded lessons, we found that teachers demonstrated vulnerability through multiple ways within their literacy instruction through modeling ways of connecting personal experiences to texts, and establishing classroom norms that welcome difficult emotions and experiences. However, we also found that teacher vulnerability can sometimes lead to uncertainty, and even constrain student participation. We argue that teacher vulnerability helps establish a "humanizing pedagogy," and offer possible strategies for teachers who are vulnerable within literacy instruction. We conclude with a discussion of different levels of appropriating vulnerability as a pedagogical tool.

"How Young Adult Literature Gets Taught: Perspectives, Ideologies, and Pedagogical Approaches for Instruction and Assessment" (Bickmore et al., 2022) seeks to provide guidelines for teacher educators and secondary English teachers on how to teach young adult literature (YAL). This 15-chapter manual includes chapters written by experts in YAL (including higher ed professionals, a high school English teacher, and a librarian), which offer resources for teaching YAL based around various theoretical frameworks and include detailed reading lists, guided discussion questions, and more.