Editors’ Introduction: In Pursuit of Light

• Published in: Language arts Vol. 100; no. 2; pp. 81 - 82
• Main Authors: Coppola, Rick, Osorio, Sandra L, Woodard, Rebecca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 01.11.2022; National Council of Teachers of English
• Subjects: Awards & honors; Bilingual Students; Bilingualism; Children & youth; Childrens literature; Educational Resources; Families & family life; Gender; Language arts; Learning; Light; Nonfiction; Pedagogy; Students; Teachers; Teaching; Writing; Alabama; United States > US
• ISSN: 0360-9170; 1943-2402
• DOI: 10.58680/la202232135

Pursuing the light!, we offer this unthemed issue exploring some of the ways educators are "growing out of the dark moment of a global pandemic" and the "ways our individual and collective pursuit of light . . . assist us in imagining a new story with bright spots and possible new sueños-new dreams-for ourselves, our students, and our communities" (to quote María E. Fránquiz, 2022 program chair and NCTE president-elect; see https://convention.ncte.org/2021-convention/2022call-for-proposals/). To accompany this piece, Clare Donovan Scane offers practical advice and support on how to extend critical encounters across text types and grade bands in the column "From Language Arts to Learning Communities: Elevating Discussion through Critical Encounters That Extend beyond Picturebooks and across Text Types and Grade Bands." In lieu of our regular columns, we have a variety of awards columns that share the 2022 awards from the Elementary Section Steering Committee, including "The 2022 Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children" by Donna M. Bulatowicz, Dahlia H. Constantine, Cecilia M. Espinosa, Holly Johnson, Irene Latham, Darius Phelps, and JoAnne Powless; "The 2022 Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children" by Sanjuana C. Rodriguez, Eliza Braden, Suzanne Costner, Sophie Ladd, Julia López-Robertson, Noelle Mapes, and Jeanne Swafford; "Teaching into Trajectories: NCTE's 2022 Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts" by Noelle Mapes, Detra Price-Dennis, and Tracey T. Flores; and "The 2022 Donald H. Graves Writing Award: My Inner Voice" by Carmela A. Valdez.