Emerging from the NEH institute, featuring “Good Reader” Project Team members and past participants.
Press
Goldstein, Dana. “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.” The New York Times, 12 Dec. 2025. U.S. NYTimes.com.
Scholarship
Jonna Perrillo, Uncensored: Educators Speak Out on Teaching in a Time of Book Bans (Harvard Education Press, Winter 2026). With its inspiring stories from real teachers and librarians and practical recommendations, Uncensored offers more than an encounter with illiberal interference in the classroom. It explains how educators can foster strong reading cultures and establish vital community networks to ensure meaningful, deep reading experiences continue.
Ryan Judkins, Samantha Collins, Sarah Esberger, Leah Singerman, “Recentering Rosenblatt to Address the Engagement Gap in State Standards.” English Journal forthcoming. Four classroom teachers explain how they addressed the absence of student engagement in state standards and improved their classroom practices by recentering ideas from Louise Rosenblatt’s Literature as Exploration (1938).
Andrew Newman and Annmarie Garcia Sheahan, “Is Literature Still the ‘Heart’ of English?,” English Journal 113, no. 5 (2024): 67–76. Drawing on a 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for Teachers on the history of literature instruction, the authors reflect on the traditional place of literature at the “heart” of English education, arguing for the continuing importance of centering students’ experiences with texts.
Articles and Opinions
- Jonna Perrillo and Andrew Newman, “English Teachers Work to Instill the Joy of Reading. Testing Gets in the Way,” The 74, September 8, 2025.
- Audrey Brimberry and Jonna Perrillo, “DOGE Cuts Shortchange the Rich Work of Humanities Texas,” Austin American-Statesman, April 15, 2025.
- Andrew Newman and Jonna Perrillo, “Trump Cuts to Arts and Humanities are a Tragic Loss,” Newsday, April 10, 2025.
- Jonna Perrillo and Andrew Newman, “Book Bans Aren’t the Only Threat to Literature in American Classrooms,” TIME magazine, October 6, 2023.
- Rebecca Guerrero, Vanessa Sanders, and Jonna Perrillo, “We Can’t Teach Democracy by Sidelining Literature in School,” El Paso Matters, August 10, 2023.
- Jonna Perrillo and Andrew Newman, “This School Year, Let’s Re-Humanize English Class,” El Paso Matters, September 16, 2021.
Professional Development Presentations
Jonna Perrillo, Andrew Newman, Rebecca Guerrero, “The High School Canon: Then and Now.” Virtual workshop sponsored by Humanities Texas, July 7-8, 2025.
Jonna Perrillo, Audrey Brimberry, Vanessa Sanders, “Making the Good Reader and Citizen: The History of Literature Instruction in American Schools.” Virtual workshop sponsored by Humanities Texas, July 10-11, 2024.
Conferences
Sheahan, A. G., & Sorensen, W. (2025, November). From Past Practices to New Dreams: Building Bold Pedagogies from Disciplinary History. NCTE Annual Convention, Denver.
Newman, A., Perrillo, J., & Sheahan, A. G. (2024, November 22). Arthur Applebee’s Tradition and Reform in the Teaching of English (1974) at Fifty: Our Shared History. NCTE Annual Convention, Boston.
Perrillo, J., Judkins, R., Collins, S., Esberger, S., & Singerman, L. (2024, November 21). Empowering Readers beyond State Standards: Implementing Lessons from an NEH Summer Institute on the HIstory of Literature Instruction. NCTE Annual Convention, Boston.
Andrews, C., Bacon, J., Newman, A., & Perrillo, J. (2023, November 17). The Two Traditions: Connecting with the History of Literature Instruction. NCTE Annual Convention, Columbus, OH.
Newman, A., & Singerman, L. (2023, October 18). The Two Traditions: Connecting with the History of Literature Instruction. New York State English Council Conference, Albany, NY.