Rick Marlatt

• PhD, MFA
• Associate Dean and Professor at New Mexico State University

This article describes a recent teacher researcher's investigation of digitized literature study at a Midwestern U.S. high school during the 2015–2016 school year that explored the use of digital literacies to support student-centered literary analysis. Digital literacy practices position literature students to connect with texts in authentic ways....

This article describes a recent practitioner-research study of secondary preservice teachers' development of literacy instruction in a content area literacy course at a large university in the Southwest United States. The study utilized a sociocultural approach that focused on discipline-specific literacy practices that define what it means to be l...

Implementation of digital literacies in secondary literature study can result in increased textual engagement and explorations of identity. The author describes the results of practitioner research at a Midwestern U.S. high school in which senior AP students created short films as a way to analyze literature circle texts. The purpose of the study w...

Cibils, L., & Marlatt, R. (2019). Poetry and cultural identity: A sociocultural approach for teacher education classrooms. Action in Teacher Education, 41(2), 137-153. Future teachers often manifest a low confidence in their own writing and do not see themselves as writers. Developing an identity as authors requires ample opportunities for writing...

This article conceptualizes a framework for understanding the discourse and literacy practices generated by players of the video game, Fortnite. As a teacher educator interested in studying how multiliteracies cultivated in social settings can be leveraged toward academic success, my two objectives for this theoretical article are to examine how Fo...

Purpose This paper aims to examine the reading of a book-length fiction or non-fiction text in one disciplinary literacy (DL) teacher education course. This paper considers how the assignment may help pre- and in-service teachers understand literacy as multifaceted and connected within and beyond their content areas (Moje, 2015). The research explo...

This study investigated the experiences of preservice secondary English language arts (ELA) teacher candidates (n=12) as they attempted to complete their crucial student teaching field experience during the 2020–2021 pandemic crises. In addition, it looked at their university supervisors’ (n=3) experiences as they sought to mentor and guide the tea...

This research examines the perceptions and instructional ideas of preservice teachers as relates to using Minecraft, a popular video game, to facilitate game-based learning opportunities in their future elementary classrooms. The participants were 21 preservice teachers who played Minecraft as part of a teacher preparation program course and then c...

The chapters in this book share examples of teachers and teacher educators using local knowledges to illustrate the practical of curriculum making (Schwab, 1969). Instead of painting a dark picture, the authors seek to illuminate spaces that “...promote practices which both expand and legitimize students’literacy toolkits”(Liz ́arraga & Guti ́errez...

ELA teachers haven’t yet fully engaged with the process of supporting online and distance learning in a way that amplifies the social, intellectual, and relational opportunities of school at scale. While emergency remote teaching continues, and we consider the social and pedagogical uses of technology post-COVID-19, we need to identify ways to plan...

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore the impact of using young adult literature in a content area literacy course to leverage the development of professional identities in preservice agriculture teachers (n= 4). Empirical studies of the literacy-based experiences and professional development of agricultural education majors are...

This qualitative analysis of experiential reflections in two English methods courses considers the ways that perceptions of literacy can shape understandings of social justice and social justice pedagogy. Although social justice is an essential component of English teacher education, scholars are still attempting to transcend theoretical discussion...

This instructional article describes recent implementations of ethics education in a teacher education course at a large university in the Southwest United States. Using a case analysis framework in tandem with a principle-based ethics schema, a teacher educator and his research assistant designed five content interventions for their content area l...

Teachers have been asked to do virtually everything—plan fantastic educational lessons, manage behavior, use technologies to engage and promote learning, assess and report to stakeholders, build strong relationships, advocate for students, keep family secrets, and more. However, as technologies have progressed and become more widely available, and...

In this case study, a team of educators explored the power of Minecraft Education so that students could advance their learning in core academic subjects. This study examined what happened when students utilized Minecraft Education challenges and scholastic esports in a classroom, across a school district, and around the world. The authors share a...

Set in English Language Arts, this article takes up recent trends in literacy toward investigating ontological notions of digital texts. Two teacher educators recently implemented a series of readings and activities in their methods courses designed to help preservice teachers sophisticate their conceptions of texts beyond autonomous, neutral colle...

This chapter features instructional approaches positioning video games and literature as text sets that can promote reading and writing engagement in English language arts. Smartphone-accessible games were recently combined with middle school literary assignments in an after-school esports club in which students who identify as English language lea...

Demographic differences between teachers and students and the need for pedagogical approaches that address issues of equity, power, and justice have bolstered arguments for community-engaged teaching in U.S. schools. Recent literature indicates that community-based experiences during teacher education may introduce teacher candidates (TCs) to more...

This practitioner article describes the recent implementation of critical media literacy (CML) activities in secondary teacher education at a large university in the Southwestern United States. Preservice teachers in a content area literacy course analyzed a variety of media coverage of events that occurred near their university. Using an analytica...

Ashley Dallacqua and Rick Marlatt examine the challenges in linking the classroom concepts of specific Content Area Literacy and Young Adult Literature. They suggest that developing a range of pathways for readers to engage, learn, and question within their particular literacy communities enable them to appreciate and build the different ways that...

When a middle school teacher introduced “weekly missions” for students, his classroom became a safe place for discovery and citizenship.

This article describes a connected learning project in which preservice teachers practice technology integration with the teaching of Shakespeare. Digitised Shakespeare pedagogy is often overlooked as a vital component for developing teachers who explore individual passions by constructing interactive spaces where personal interests and digital lit...

This chapter focuses on the history and evolution of texts in the 21st century classroom. Authors explore the similarities and differences between print and digital texts before reviewing the latest trends and innovative literary spaces students use to make meaning and mediate academic understanding in a digitized world. At a time when literary pla...

Almost 20 years ago, Pope and Golub (2000) published their seminal work on teaching with technology in English language arts (ELA) classrooms in Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Journal (CITE Journal). The purpose of this systematic literature review was to learn how subsequent research about ELA teaching with technology has...

In an eighth‐grade English language arts class, 100 students used virtual reality headsets, augmented reality–capable smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, online scavenger hunts, and print‐based texts as an introduction to William Shakespeare's life and works. The authors highlight the need for educators to offer multimodal instruction that res...

This article describes a recent collective case study of English language arts methods students at a large university in the southwestern United States who created literacy-based welcome videos addressed to future students. By crafting "This is my Story" videos, preservice teachers practiced technology implementation with traditionally print-based...

Literacy across the content areas has often signified a focus on helping future teachers navigate nonfiction texts and promote command of textual features and literary terms, yet these teachers also need to model critical insight that invites students to question information and purported facts that define their realities. Following a brief review...

This paper describes a recent qualitative examination of the discourse and literacy practices generated by preservice teachers who played the video game, Fortnite. Following the observation, recording, and transcription of over 30 hours of Fortnite gaming streams, as well as the conduction of semi-structured interviews with six preservice teachers...

Abstract Literature study in the 21st Century should be characterized by the inclusion of global texts that afford diverse students the opportunity to engage in their literacy development through and alongside authors, characters, and storylines that represent their own linguistic and cultural traditions. In this narrative analysis, I reflect on th...

This practitioner perspective responds to recent scholarship calling for reinvigorating middle level education by suggesting that the purposeful inclusion of student voices in collaborative learning activities can help educators champion the academic and social growth of early adolescents. The recent practicum experience of a preservice candidate w...

The substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition (SAMR) model offers a framework by which schools and teachers can implement digital tools through curricular design that encourages participatory learning. 21st Century students should be producing content and making meaning in educational settings with high levels of engagement and by the...

Teacher educators strive for student engagement in their pre-service curricula. Recent studies of university-level engagement have focused on the need for active learning pedagogies. Grounded in anti-deficit approaches that are relevant, responsive, and sustaining for diverse cultures and literacies, this article discusses the use of autobiographic...

Teacher educators strive for student engagement in their pre-service curricula. Recent studies of university-level engagement have focused on the need for active learning pedagogies. Grounded in anti-deficit approaches that are relevant, responsive, and sustaining for diverse cultures and literacies, this article discusses the use of autobiographic...

This article describes a recent implementation of digital literacies in which high school literature students engaged in literary analysis of a novel using the video game Minecraft. Students who had previously expressed reluctance with reading and dissatisfaction with school experiences used their gaming skills to re-create scenes, respond to textu...

This study examines the intersections of technology and literary analysis for senior students at a Western United States high school. During the 2016-2017 school year, I integrated the web application TodaysMeet into a British literature course during Socratic seminars as part of a study of Hamlet. TodaysMeet served students as their main platform...

The high school English classroom is a complex space of literacy practices and communicative interaction. Teachers and students engage in literature study in ways that are dialogic and multifaceted. The navigation of both print and digital texts along with the constructive operations surrounding those texts including the textual operations conducte...

Purpose: TO UNDERSTAND THE PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACULTY SURROUNDING THE TOPIC OF COURSE REDESIGN