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Abstract

This article describes an unexpected playground experience that occurred between the author, a reading educator and former middle grades teacher, and his six-year-old granddaughter. The experience became the inspiration and impetus to provide an introduction to, and a rationale for, the concept of text clusters to middle grades teachers. The concept of developing and implementing text clusters in the classroom is driven by inquiry and based on one question: How can middle school teachers develop and implement text clusters to help their students actively engage in imagining, wondering, questioning, and discovering? It shares and illustrates examples of text clusters. It also shares samples of instructional strategies teachers can use with text clusters to actively engage students in imagining, wondering, questioning, and discovering. It ends with some concluding thoughts inspired by the picturebook What We’ll Build: Plans for Our Future Together (Jeffers, 2020).

Author Bio

Dr. William Bintz is Professor in Literacy Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies at Kent State University. He has taught high school English/Language Arts in Chicago, Illinois, and middle school English/Language Arts in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He earned his Ph.D. in reading education at Indiana University. Prior to joining the faculty at Kent State, he was a Visiting Lecturer at the Armidale College of Advanced Education in Armidale, Australia, as well as an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. His personal experiences and professional interests include literacy across the curriculum, K-12, collaborative teacher research, interdisciplinary curriculum, and using award-winning literature as “Way-In” and “Stay-In” literature to create and sustain student interest in content area topics where no interest currently exists.

DOI

10.20429/cimle.2025.29102

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