Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Use of technology and pedagogy has entered the arena for teacher education. As teacher educators we are examining how adolescents and teacher candidates respond to literature via electronic literature circles. An outcome of this research will be to examine methods used within a university classroom to prepare teacher candidates to use electronic literature circles effectively with middle school learners.

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: In this paper, I will explore Classic Blues Women’s relationship to traditional black protest literature- specifically, literature written by black women, about black women’s lives. This paper is concerned with those literary traditions that characterize the urban environment as providing an escape from the disenfranchised south, while fostering individualistic and alienating communities. Ann Petry’s The Street (1946) is one such work that serves as a sight of interrogation for black women’s literary performance of the blues. The Street’s blues theme echoes the sentiments that the city acts as a foreground for the eventual destruction, alienation, and un-communal community of black men and women. Angela Davis highlights some of the major themes occurring in classic women’s blues, including, economic desolation, the pathological relationships between black men and women, the distrust amongst black women, the everyday push for survival, as well as community empowerment in her Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (1998). She discusses the performance of classic blues as protest in that it has the potential to foster socio-political change. The Street can act as the backdrop for how Davis and other writers articulate the intentions and muse for black women blues artist. The life of the protagonist Lutie, illustrates how the environment molds and shapes the sentiments, attitudes, and overall spirit of blues women. Both the performance and written blues narratives are critical to black women’s articulation of their lived experiences in urban environments

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The absence of the Asian-American perspective in school curriculums and texts results in the unequal distribution of power reproducing inequities and generating negative consequences for students, especially Asian-American students. When compared to current demographics, the quantity of available texts is not commensurate with the population nor does it authentically reflect cultural complexities. Thus, there is a need for high-quality texts that authentically represent the Asian-American experience and for teachers to actively select such materials and employ effective pedagogical practices using critical literacy as a framework.

Publication Type: Roundtable
Abstract: As schools mandate increased accountability, teaching character principles in children's literature is a stategy that conserves classroom time and does not infringe upon the academic schedule.