The Young Adult Writing Project (YAWP)

Six-Trait Model

Grammar Practice Sheets

Fees Middle School Writing Center

Information for Student Teachers

Young Adult Literature

ASU English Education
PO Box 870302
Tempe, AZ 85287-0302
Phone: 480.965.3105
Fax: 480.965.0605
Language & Literature Building Rm 215

Faculty

Django Paris

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Stanford University

MA Standford University

BA University of California, Berkeley

Office: LL 210B
(480) 965-6055
E-mail: Django.Paris@asu.edu

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Research Interests:

Django Paris is assistant professor of English in the program in English Education. He received his B.A. in English from the University of California at Berkeley, his M.A. in Curriculum and Teacher Education from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. in English Education/Literacy Studies with a minor in Applied Linguistics from Stanford University. He spent six years as an English language arts teacher in California, Arizona, and the Dominican Republic before entering graduate school. Django’s research focuses on language and literacy in multiethnic schools and communities.  He is particularly interested in understanding how pluralism works in multiethnic youth communities and in how we can re-vision language and literacy learning to foster understanding within and across difference. His teaching focuses on youth language and literacy practices, the training of English teachers to work in multiethnic high schools, and multicultural curriculum theory and design. He is currently working on his first book project, an ethnography and social language study exploring the ways the everyday oral and written language of youth of color challenges and reinforces notions of ethnic difference and division in multiethnic high schools.  His research has been supported by fellowships from the Spencer Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation.

Teaching:

Dr. Paris teaches the following courses:

ENG 482/506: Methods of Teaching English: Language/Issues and Concerns

in Teaching English: Language

Course Description:

As English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and as researchers and teachers of English Education (EE), language is what we do.  We teach, learn, and inquire about how oral and written language works in the lives of our students and in our own lives.  As teachers, we work to provide young people with the tools to make ever-deeper meaning of language, hoping that in doing so our students will become critical participants in the worlds of literature and reading, of writing, and of oral communication.  As researchers and teachers of English Education, we work to understand how various aspects of oral and written language are taught and learned, why so many of our youth do not fare well in English classrooms, and how we can make English classrooms better places to learn.  In both the case of ELA teachers and of researchers and teachers of EE, our goal is to help our young people become more conscious, skilled users of oral and written language.  Our special charge is to the English language.  And yet several things complicate these seemingly straightforward goals.  For one, English is not a monolith.  There are many systematic varieties of English, or Englishes, used in our communities and schools (African American English and Chicano English, for example). And many other languages are spoken and written in our communities and schools (Spanish and Navajo, for example). We also know that many English classrooms are failing our youth and that this failure affects students of color and low income youth far more than other students.  As preparing ELA teachers and preparing researchers and teachers of EE or other English and Literacy fields, we have an immense responsibility to respond to the needs of all of our students with the foundational skills and knowledge of exceptional English teaching, always with a critical eye focused on issues of language, power, and access.

ENG 606: Advanced Studies in English Education: Investigating Youth Language and Literacy in Schools and Communities

Course Description:

This doctoral seminar is designed to explore the educational implications and applications of youth language and literacy as it is practiced in the daily lives of urban teens.  Writing and reading are staples of social interaction in contemporary youth communities. Texts messages fly across youth space; rap lyrics are written, consumed, and performed; relationships are negotiated through literacy across social networking sites; graffiti is tagged, interpreted, and covered up; old school print notes circulate the classroom…  And oral language (Englishes, Spanish, Navajo etc.), too, is used by young people to position themselves as members of particular communities inside and outside school.  These oral and literate practices are closely tied to constructions of identity, ethnicity, race, gender, class and, more generally, to positions of relative power between youth and dominant institutions (like school).  How do we go about researching youth language and literacy? What important studies have been published in these areas? How can knowledge about youth oral and written language be a resource for curriculum and pedagogy in English and other subject area classrooms? 

In this class we will read studies in youth language and literacy, explore ethnographic and social language methods used in these studies, and conduct some research exercises in an educational setting.  The small qualitative research project on youth language and literacy required for the class may be part of a larger project students are already working on, or may be completed solely within the class.

Doctoral students in English Education have priority in the class, but others in English, education, communication and related fields who are interested in studying the educational implications of youth culture are very welcome.  The course is capped at 15 students.