July 10-July 21, 2023
Academic Program
The virtual program of study for this institute will be composed of synchronous and asynchronous activities. To allow for full participation across different time zones, most whole-group activities will take place in two 2-hour sessions, from 11:30-1:30 and 2:15- 4:15 EDT. Small group work and 1:1 consultations will be scheduled before or after, based on participants’ preferred meeting times.
The primary research project will be a revision of curricular unit that combines learning objectives as defined by the participant’s state standards and is informed by others adapted from literature-instruction’s past, especially its currently-marginalized concern with citizenship.

In preparation for the seminar, participants will read Louise Rosenblatt’s Literature as Exploration (5th edition, 1995), Jonathan Zimmerman’s Whose America?: culture wars in the public schools (2003) and Maryanne Wolf’s Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018).
Links to articles and book chapters are in the preliminary schedule below.
Schedule
Monday, July 10 (all times are Eastern)
11:30-1:30 | Introduction: Learning Objectives and Outcomes |
2:15-4:15 | The Two Traditions Applebee, Arthur N. Tradition and Reform in the Teaching of English: A History (1974). “Chapter 6. Narrowed Goals.” Dewey, John. Experience and Education. (1938) – Selections Brooks, Cleanth, and Robert Penn Warren. Understanding Poetry : An Anthology for College Students. (1938) “Letter to the Teacher” |
Tuesday, July 11
11:30-1:30 | Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman Zimmerman, Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools. (2002). |
2:15-4:15 | Transactions Louise Rosenblatt’s Literature as Exploration (1938). |
Before /After | Small Group Workshops on Final Projects Beginning work on final projects in five groups, each with a faculty leader, in 1.5 hour morning or afternoon sessions depending on time zone. |
Wednesday, July 12
11:30-1:30 | Dr. Philis Barragán Goetz on escuelitas and community schooling in the southwest Barragán Goetz, Reading, Writing, and Revolution Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas (2020). “Chapter 3. Revolutionary and Refined: Feminism, Early Childhood Education, and the Mexican Consulate in Laredo, Texas, 1910-1920.” |
2:15-4:15 | Reviving Rosenblatt Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration Miller, “Literature in the Revitalized Curriculum” (1967) Squire, “Toward a Response-Oriented Curriculum in Literature (1971) |
5:30-7:00 | Public Lecture: Dr. Jonathan Zimmerman |
Thursday, July 13
11:30-1:30 | Dr. Julia Mickenberg on Cold War politics, literary culture and English education Mickenberg, Learning from the Left: Children’s Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States (2005) “Chapter 4 ‘Pink-Tinged Pages’? McCarthyism and Children’s Literature.” |
2:15-4:15 | Dr. Leila Christenbury on the NCTE and the history of literature instruction Applebee, Arthur N., et al. “NCTE and the Teaching of Literature.” (2010) Christenbury, “NCTE and the Shaping of American Literacy Education.” (2010) |
Friday, July 14
11:30-1:30 | Small Group Workshops on Final Projects |
2:15-4:15 | Newman and Perrillo present history of education scholarship on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Langston Hughes. Newman, Andrew. “High School and the Great Gatsby Curve.” (2021) Perrillo, Jonna. “Bringing Harlem to the Schools: Langston Hughes’s The First Book of Negroes and Crafting a Juvenile Readership.” (2019) |
Monday, July 17
11:30-1:30 | Dr. Sarah Schwebel on the history of historical fiction in the classroom. Schwebel, Child-Sized History: Fictions of the Past in U.S. Classrooms . (2011) – Selections |
2:15-4:15 | Small Group Workshops on Final Projects |
Tuesday, July 18
11:30-1:30 | Dr. Lauren Leigh Kelly on hip hop literature in the ELA classroom Kelly, “‘It’s What We’re About’: Youth Epistemologies in the Design of Social and Educational Futures.” (2023) Kelly, “Hip-Hop Literature: The Politics, Poetics, and Power of Hip-Hop in the English Classroom.” (2013). |
2:15-4:15 | Reading for Cognitive and Social Development Khalid, A. (2021, January 12). Poverty of the Imagination. Medium. Wolf, Maryanne, Reader Come Home (2018) Reading on literature and social justice (TBD) |
Wednesday, July 19
11:30-1:30 | Dr. Sarah Levine on Standards and Testing Levine, “A Century of Change in High School English Assessments: A An Analysis of 110 New York State Regents Exams, 1900–2018″ (2019) Primary sources – historical regents examinations (1918, 1944, 1972, selected prompts) |
2:15-4:15 | Historicizing the Common Core Coleman, David, and Susan Pimentel. 2012. “Revised Publishers’ Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades 3–12.” Carillo, “Navigating This Perfect Storm: Teaching Critical Reading in the Face of the Common Core State Standards, Fake News, and Google” (2019) Reading on AI (TBD) |
5:30-7 | Public Lecture by Dr. Lauren Leigh Kelly |
Thursday, July 20
11:30-1:30 | Literature Instruction: A Manifesto Summative, collaborative writing activity |
2:15-4:15 | Small group work on final projects |
5:30-7 | PD Workshop with Dr. Deirdre Faughey |
Friday, July 21
11:30-1:30 | Participants’ project presentations |
2:15-4:15 | Reflections, Evaluations, Next Steps |