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Despite elementary teacher education programs preparing preservice teachers in the main content areas of literacy, math, science, and social studies, few elementary school classrooms teach all four content areas on a regular and thorough basis. Therefore, elementary education teacher preparation programs should be redesigned to support an integrated teaching model of all four content areas in order to better prepare preservice teachers (PST) to serve elementary students. The main research question for this study was "How does a collaborative and integrated elementary education program impact PSTs' knowledge and understanding of an integrated K-6 elementary classroom?" The sample included 12 preservice education students at a Midwest, private liberal arts university. The study occurred over three semesters in a newly developed integrated elementary education program. Data tools collected included: field experience lesson plans, preservice classroom observations, a survey of experiences, video-recorded lessons, and the edTPA. When looking at the different types of integration, the most common was interdisciplinary teaching where one content area supported the work of another. The lack of integration may be due to limited or no tools available to support preservice teachers to teach in this fashion. To answer the research question, it was found that the PSTs graduated from the preservice program and entered their own classrooms with a vague understanding of integrated teaching. Although our program was integrated in the delivery of content and field experience, the transparency was not revealed to the PSTs during their methods classes and field work.

With conceptions of literacy growing beyond the traditional print medium, new understandings of multiliteracy practices and pedagogies are needed to better inform the preparation of secondary English teachers. This article presents the findings of a study examining five first year teachers' understandings of and experiences with multiliteracies. Using a narrative inquiry approach, each teacher's experiences are presented in depth including successes and struggles with integrating multiliteracies into the classroom. The article then concludes with how the teachers' understandings and experiences can better inform English teacher education.

This article examines the topic of multimodal scaffolding in the secondary English classroom curriculum through the viewpoint of one teacher's experiences. With technology becoming more commonplace and readily available in the English classroom, we must pinpoint specific and tangible ways to help teachers use and teach multimodalities in their classrooms that promote student learning across a broad variety of text types and tap into higher levels of thinking. Teachers can then help students apply what they learn from multimodal scaffolding to address increasingly complex texts as outlined in the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This article identifies and demonstrates ways to help students develop as readers as well as helping teachers use specific multimodal instructional strategies to target text complexity.

The purpose of this study was to investigate three middle school English teachers' understandings of literacy and technology. In particular, how do they view literacy and technology learning and teaching, and how do they use (or not use) technology to enact their views of literacy in their classrooms. This narrative inquiry qualitative study consisted of three open-ended interviews, written literacy narratives, and multiple classroom observations with each participant as well as the collection of various teacher documents, such as lesson plans, presentation notes, rubrics, and student handouts. Narrative methods were used in the data analysis. Findings were organized across a continuum of literacy understandings from traditional understandings to new conceptions of literacy. Discussion and implications point to the need for an expanded definition of literacy with teachers that addresses the complexity of multiliteracies. There is also a need for extending pedagogical repertoires of teachers to recognize TPACK as a beginning to multiliteracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses use of paired texts in the classroom that analyses two or more texts for various purposes, related to themes, topics, events, and characters, to craft curriculum. Topics discussed includes role of background knowledge; ways to examine similarities and differences to build connections across multiple texts that is supported by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and role of creating teacher's quality instructional practices to compare and contrast in units.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including literacy achievement is getting within our nation and state, yet we question whether it is a view that considers all voices and perspectives.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including steps in making change in the literacy classroom, use of book clubs as a safe space for literature about lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) and other sensitive topics.