Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Podcast

Connecting Disciplinary and Digital Tools with Ms. Johanna Keene and Dr. Mellinee Lesley 

In today's digital age, the classroom is undergoing a transformation. Teachers and students are navigating a world filled with digital tools and platforms. But how do we go about using these tools effectively? How do we leverage digital tools to support discipline specific ways of thinking, reading, and writing? In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Ms Johanna Keene and Dr. Mellinee Lesley about their article “Exploring the connections between disciplinary and digital literacies in history”. We discuss how teachers combine disciplinary literacy with digital tools and all the challenges and opportunities that this presents in the classroom. 

Johanna Keene is a doctoral student at Texas Tech University. She previously taught and was a literacy coach. Her research interests lie at the intersection of literacy, teacher development, and play. Currently she is a lecturer in the Teacher Education Department at Texas Tech University. 

Dr. Mellinee Lesley is a Professor in the Language, Diversity & Literacy Studies program in the College of Education at Texas Tech University. She has previously worked as a high school English teacher and served as the director for a developmental reading program. Dr. Lesley has earned several teaching awards at the secondary and university level, is a fellow of the National Writing Project, and recently received the Community Engagement Scholarship Award for Exemplary Projects from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. 

Throughout her scholarship and teaching, Dr. Lesley has been committed to fostering agentic identities and literacy skills for historically marginalized adolescent and adult learners. A significant part of this work has focused on disciplinary literacies and its role in advancing academic opportunities for underrepresented populations of students. Dr. Lesley is also pursuing a line of inquiry around pairing engaged scholarship with literacy reform in K-12 settings.

Related Article:

“Exploring the connections between disciplinary and digital literacies in history”

Check out a new resource from JAAL: Literacy Insights 

In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Dr. Richard Beach as we explore critical inquiry and literacy as it relates to climate change. Join us as we discuss what we as teachers can do to adopt roles and employ tools to help our students meaningful engage with this issue. This conversation stems from Dr. Richard Beach’s article Teachers and students use of systems thinking about their participation in school environmental clubs

Richard Beach is Professor Emeritus of Literacy Education, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He has conducted research and published books in response to literature, composition instruction, use of digital media, and teaching about climate change for supporting English language arts instruction.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

Round-table sessions at the NCTE conference 

Interdisciplinary chapter Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents

Mary Robinson Foundation Climate Justice

Teaching Climate Justice Curriculum 

InTeGrate Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future

Lists of YA Cli-Fi texts

Resources on Teaching Cli-Fi

Youth Created Media for Addressing the Climate Crisis: Hear Our Voices 

Teaching Adolescents about Climate Change

Addressing the Challenges of Preparing Teachers to Teach about the Climate Crisis

Richard Beach’s  Publications

Resources on Teaching Climate Change in ELA/Literacy Classrooms

Beach, R. (2015). Imagining a future for the planet through literature, writing, images, and drama. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 59(1), 7-13. DOI:10.1002/jaal.412

Beach, R., Share, J., & Webb, A. (2017). Teaching climate change to adolescents: Reading, writing, and making a difference. Routledge. http://climatechangeela.pbworks.com

Polk, E., Beach, R., & Webb, A. (2023). Fostering climate crisis global literacies in the classroom. In S. N. Kerkhoff & H. A. Spires (Eds.). Critical perspectives on global literacies: bridging research and practice (pp. 230-246). Routledge. http://t.ly/3wlGG

Beach, R. (2023). Addressing the challenges of preparing teachers to teach about the climate crisis. The Teacher Educator, 58, 507-522. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08878730.2023.2175401

Beach, R. (2023). Literacy research, systems thinking, and climate change. Research in the Teaching of English, 58(1), 105-122. https://t.ly/xCAVt

Using Digital Tools/Media for Teaching Climate Change in ELA/Literacy Classrooms

Castek, J., & Beach, R. (2013). Using apps to support disciplinary literacy and science learning. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 56(7), 554-564. https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.180

Beach, R., Boggs, G., Castek, J., Damico, J., Pano, A., Spellman, R., & Wilson, N. (2020) Fostering preservice and in-service ELA teachers’ digital practices for addressing climate change. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(1). http://t.ly/eFhJw

Share, J., & Beach, R. (2022). Critical media literacy analysis and production for systems thinking about climate change. The Journal of Media Literacy—Research Symposium Issue. http://t.ly/ueE6Z

Beach, R., & Smith, B. (2022). Using digital tools for studying about and addressing climate 

      change. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Research anthology on environmental and societal 

      impacts of climate change (pp. 724-747). IGI Global.

Share, J., & Beach, R. (2022). Critical media literacy analysis and production for  

      systems thinking about climate change. Journal of Media Literacy. http://t.ly/je0HZ

Beach, R., & Smith, B. (Eds.) (2023). Youth created media on the climate crisis: Hear our 

      voices. Routledge. http://youthclimatecrisismedia.pbworks.com

Beach, R., & Smith, B. (2023). Youth production of digital media to address the climate  crisis. Journal of Climate Literacy, 1(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5349

In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Doug Friesen and Dr. Rob Simon as we explore the role of sound in the classroom and in the world around us. Join us as we explore how we can help our students be more attune with these sounds and the bodies that produce them. This conversation stems from Doug Friesen and Dr. Rob Simon’s article, “Making Fahrenheit 451 ‘Come to Life’: Sound Inquiries with Youth and Teachers”. 

Rob Simon is associate professor and Associate Chair of Student Experience in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and has been a teacher educator since 2003.  At OISE, Rob teaches courses in critical literacy and practitioner research. He is also academic director of the Centre for Urban Schooling (https://cus.oise.utoronto.ca) and director of the Toronto Writing Project (https://www.torontowritingproject.com). Rob began his career in education in 1998 as a founding teacher of Life Learning Academy (http://www.lifelearningacademysf.org), a high school for youth who experienced struggles in traditional school settings. Rob’s current research explores how teachers and students inquire into and co-research issues of social justice, and how they use the arts, film, writing, and other creative mediums to share their findings with the world.

Doug Friesen is a teacher and musician based in Toronto and has worked as a classroom teacher and consultant in public schools since 2002. During this time, he has also taught a number of post-secondary and additional qualification courses for teachers. He is currently an adjunct professor at Queen's University and is finishing a PhD on sound and listening pedagogies with a focus on critical practitioner research and collaborative inquiry. 

In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Dr. Heather Pule ([email protected]) about young adult literature and the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework. Join us as we discuss the role of young adult literature in the classroom and how to use the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework to approach our teaching of young adult literature effectively. This conversation centers on Dr. Heather Pule’s article, “Exploring young adult texts within the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework with preservice teachers.” 

During her 15 years in education, Heather Pule has taught middle and high school English Language Arts, worked as a secondary ELA district coordinator and is now an Assistant Professor in the Literacy, Language Arts, and Literature Program in the College of Education at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She specializes in English Language Arts Education and Secondary Literacy. Her research centers on exploring preservice teacher’s identities through authentic literacy and antiracist teaching practices.

Related Article:

“Exploring young adult texts within the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework with preservice teachers”

In this episode, Matt Sroka chats with Natalie Martinez ([email protected]) about Indigenous literacies. Join us as we delve into the critical aspects of Indigenous literacies, current policies surrounding them, and their implications for educators, students, and policy-makers. This conversation centers on Natalie Martinez's article Indigenous literacies: A look at pedagogies and policy in the Southwest United States.

Natalie Martinez, Ph.D. (K’awaika-meh, Laguna Pueblo) is a professional educator. She was a principal and teacher at her Pueblo Nation, and taught middle schoolers and high schoolers at other schools in New Mexico. Dr. Martinez’s collaborations on Indigenous-centered curriculum projects include: Indigenous Wisdom; Indigenous New Mexico; the curriculum guide for An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People; and the teacher guide for Indigenous Ingenuity. Her chapters appear in Luminous Literacies and The Yazzie Case: Interrogating the Yazzie/Martinez Lawsuit. Dr. Martinez most recently completed a Visiting Lecturer appointment at the University of New Mexico and is starting a full-time faculty position at Central NM Community College in teacher preparation this fall. Her research focus is education for Indigenous youth, professional curriculum development, and education policy.

Related Article:

Indigenous literacies: A look at pedagogies and policy in the Southwest United States.

Other Resources:

Debbie Reese: American Indians in Childrens' Literature blog, 

American Indian Library Association

In today's episode, we plunge into the ever-evolving world of social media and its personalized content. Do you know how social media algorithms shape your online experience? Many of us scroll through our feeds without realizing the powerful role algorithms play in tailoring what we see. In an article titled, Exploring the role of social media literacy in adolescents' experiences with personalization: A Norwegian qualitative study researchers Ashley Rebecca Bell, Merete Kolberg Tennfjord, Miroslava Tokovska, and Ragnhild Eg investigate adolescents' encounters with personalization on social media. Today, Matthew Sroka chats with two of the co-authors of that article, Merete Kolberg Tennfjord and Ragnhild Eg.

Merete Kolberg Tennfjord is an associate professor with research interests within the field of adolescents and health, with special interest in how social media may impact on their quality of life, body image and general health. 

Ragnhild Eg is a senior scientist at the department of innovation, sensory and consumer sciences at Nofima. With a background in psychology, she has a great interest in human perception and behaviour, including multisensory experiences and interplays with digital technology.

Related article:

Exploring the role of social media literacy in adolescents' experiences with personalization: A Norwegian qualitative study

Guiding and Assessing Student Writing with Dr. Erika Bass 

What does effective feedback on writing look like? How do we prepare others to give feedback in a way that is useful for the writer and values our own time?This episode, Matthew Sroka chats with Erika Bass about her article "Using university–school partnerships to facilitate preservice teachers' reading and responding to student writing. We discuss challenges with providing feedback and how these challenges impact pre-service teachers. We then explore the power of authentic feedback opportunities through a local school partnership. 

Erika L. Bass is an Assistant Professor of English Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Her research focuses on writing instruction, rural education, and teacher preparation; often those areas converge. She is currently working on a book manuscript on critically placed writing with rural high school students, conducting rural-focused book studies with secondary English teachers in her state, and writing feedback partnership to help preservice teachers engage in providing writing feedback to high school students. She is also a member of the Whippoorwill Award Committee for rural Young Adult novels and serves as the academic advisor for the English Teaching program at UNI. In her free time, she enjoys taking her dogs for walks and playing slow-pitch softball. 

Related Article:

Using university–school partnerships to facilitate preservice teachers' reading and responding to student writing.

What can teachers learn from video games? This episode, Matthew Sroka chats with Sam von Gillern about his article "Accessibility in video gaming: An overview and implications for English language arts education". We discuss how video games have been making strides to be more accessible for their users, and how teachers can learn from this to make their classrooms more accessible for all students. 

Sam von Gillern is an assistant professor of literacy education in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri. His primary research interests include video game literacies and digital citizenship.

Related Article:

"Accessibility in video gaming: An overview and implications for English language arts education"

Poem of the Day with Meg Davis 

Have you ever found yourself dreading the teaching of poetry? Whether it’s because of your own personal feelings towards poetry or how you fear students will react to poetry? 

This episode, Matthew Sroka chats with Meg Davis about her article “Every day do something that won't compute”: Student perceptions of daily poetry practice. We discuss the poetry baggage that teachers tend to carry around and students' negative feelings towards poetry and what we as teachers can do about it.

Meg Davis is an adjunct instructor and doctoral student in English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She began teaching high school English in 2015. Meg’s classrooms focus on creative writing, contemporary poetry, and dialogic processes of learning. Meg is interested in poetry pedagogy, poetic inquiry, and practices that invite poetics more effectively and wholeheartedly into classroom spaces.

Related Article:

“Every day do something that won't compute”: Student perceptions of daily poetry practice

What happens when a university collaborates with a high school to improve the literacy skills of secondary students across disciplines? In an article titled “Redesigning Reading in and for the Disciplines” Dr. Kathryn Glasswell, Dr. Chistina Madda, and Dr. Nicky Glasswell discuss doing this very thing and the result was an innovative learning strategy called Paired Wide Reading. Today, Matthew Sroka chats with one member of this study, Dr. Kathryn Glasswell, about what Paired Wide Reading is, why it’s effective, and how teachers of all content areas can start using this strategy in their own classrooms. 

Kath Glasswell is an English, Scottish, Kiwi, Australian academic who has lived and worked in the United States. She has a strong international reputation for developing research-rich, practice-led, industry-engaged partnerships that deliver high impact literacy outcomes. Kath has successful experience in leading teams for research, teacher education and school engagement across six universities in three countries. She has spent over two decades investigating the teaching of literacy, and helping teachers master differentiated literacy practice that supports all learners to success. Her passion is supporting schools to find socially just, robust solutions to everyday problems of practice. One of the most important things to know about Kath is that she loves classroom teaching. She is often to be found co-teaching in schools, working with kids and teachers. There is nothing she enjoys more than thinking together with teachers as they design and test new models of teacher and student learning.  

Related Article:

“Redesigning Reading in and for the Disciplines”