Tuned-In Teaching: Centering Youth Culture for an Active and Just Classroom - Paperback

by M. Colleen Cruz (Author), Nell K. Duke (Author), Ernest Morrell (Author)

Does your classroom ever feel stuck, or out-of-tune?

Meaningful teaching is something educators strive for each day. Educators also know that there is no such thing as a perfect classroom. Despite our best intentions, our classrooms sometimes feel like they're stuck, or out of tune.

In Tuned-in Teaching, Antero Garcia and Ernest Morrell offer a road map for creating a classroom that is transformative for your students and revitalizing for you. They explain why students play an integral role in turning classrooms into spaces for greater engagement and innovation. By tuning in to youth culture and the lives of students, we become more connected to their needs and ways of learning.

Build an active, just, and engaging classroom with students

The authors examine critical research and discuss the connection to specific aspects of teaching. They also offer six important considerations for teachers who want to build more active, just, and tuned-in learning environments:

• Students at the Center How are you ensuring you are fully seeing who your students are?
• Authenticity as a Standard How do students' interests and expertise get to shine?
• Get in Touch with Student's Digital Lives How can technology be used meaningfully in your instruction?
• Keep It Playful How is student curiosity cultivated in your classroom?
• Center Action Who are the audiences your students communicate with?
• Put It All Together How do you assess learning in your classroom?

This book is an invita-tion to learn and grow alongside the suggestions and research presented. It offers guidance for more meaningful teaching in the present, and critical pedagogy for transforming classrooms for the societies of the future.

Author Biography

Antero Garcia is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He studies how technology and gaming shape youth learning, literacy practices, and civic identities. Prior to completing his Ph.D., Garcia was an English teacher at a public high school in South Central Los Angeles. Based on his research, Garcia co-designed the Critical Design and Gaming School - a public high school in South Central Los Angeles. Antero's research has appeared in multiple journals. His recent books include Everyday Advocacy: Teachers who Change the Literacy Narrative, Annotation; Good Reception: Teens, Teachers, and Mobile Media in a Los Angeles High School; and Compose Our World: Project-Based Learning in Secondary English Language Arts. Antero received his Ph.D. in the Urban Schooling division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nell K. Duke, Ed.D., is a professor in literacy, language, and culture and also in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Duke received her Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Duke's work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in economic poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include the development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. She has served as Co-Principal Investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations. Duke has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. In 2014, Duke was awarded the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association, and in 2018 she received the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit for outstanding contributions to research, theory, practice, and policy. She has also received the Michigan Reading Association Advocacy Award, the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, the Literacy Research Association Early Career Achievement Award, the International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Research Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award, and the International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award. Duke is author and co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent book is Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of Informational Text through Project-based Instruction. She is co-author of the books Reading and Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices; Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to Five; Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent's Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills From Birth to 5, now in its second edition; and Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K - 8 Classrooms. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Effective Literacy Instruction: Research-based Practice K to 8 and Literacy Research Methodologies. She is also editor of The Research-Informed Classroom book series and co-editor of the Not This, But That book series. Duke has taught preservice, inservice and doctoral courses in literacy education, speaks and consults widely on literacy education, and is an active member of several literacy-related organizations. Among other roles, she currently serves as advisor for the Public Broadcasting Service/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ready to Learn initiative, an expert for NBC News Learn, and advisor to the Council of Chief State School Officers Early Literacy Networked Improvement Community. She has served as author or consultant on several educational programs, including Connect4Learning: The Pre-K Curriculum; Information in Action: Reading, Writing, and Researching with Informational Text; Engaging Families in Children's Literacy Development: A Complete Workshop Series; Buzz About IT (Informational Text); iOpeners; National Geographic Science K-2; and the DLM Early Childhood Express. Duke also has a strong interest in improving the quality of educational research training in the U.S.

Ernest Morrell is the Coyle Professor, a member of the faculty in the English and Africana Studies departments, and Director of the Center for Literacy Education at the University of Notre Dame. Before finishing his Ph.D., he was a public high school English teacher in Oakland, CA. Ernest is also director of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) for the James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in the English Language Arts. He is an elected Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, a past president of the NCTE, and was recently elected to the National Academy of Education. Ernest is the recipient of the NCTE Distinguished Service Award, the Kent Williamson Leadership Award from the Conference on English Leadership, and the Divergent Award for Excellence in 21st Century Literacies. Ernest has authored ninety articles, research briefs, and book chapters as well as ten scholarly monographs including Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community; Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy Education; New Directions in Teaching English; and Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City Schools, which was awarded Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine of the American Library Association. He received his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of California, Berkeley.

M. Colleen Cruz is a fierce advocate for the students and teachers with whom she shares her passion for accessibility, twenty-first century learning, and social justice. An educator with over two decades of experience in both general education and inclusive settings, Colleen is also the author of several books for teachers including Risk. Fail. Rise. A Teacher's Guide to Learning from Mistakes and The Unstoppable Writing Teacher, as well as the author of a young adult novel, Border Crossing, a Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Finalist. Additionally, Colleen co-edits the Not This But That series with Nell Duke - a popular series of books that pairs research and practice. Colleen has served as a senior staff developer and later the Director of Innovation at Teachers College Reading & Writing Project, Columbia University. She currently supports organizations, districts and schools who want to bring her unique combination of integrity, humor, real-world practicality and a rare depth and breadth of scholarship to their communities.