Melinda McBee Orzulak

Biography

Melinda McBee Orzulak earned her Ph.D. as part of the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan. Before graduate school, Dr. McBee Orzulak worked as a classroom teacher and department chair at secondary schools in Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City where she was inspired to explore the intersections between power and language in effective teaching interactions. She earned her master’s degree from Tufts University as an Urban Teacher Training Collaborative intern and a bachelor’s degree from Gordon College in English language, literature, and gender studies as a Kenneth L. Pike interdisciplinary honors scholar. She also holds a current Illinois Professional Educator’s License for teaching English, journalism, and sociology. As a lover of language, her work builds on an understanding that transformational reading and writing are key for fostering resilience, joy, and connection.

Areas of expertise: Young Adult Literature; language ideologies; discourse analysis; English teacher education; multilingual students

 

Teaching

Dr. McBee Orzulak’s fields of interest include professional resilience, young adult literature, writing teacher education, and classroom discourse, which she applies to her teaching of English courses, including core English courses, methods for teaching, and Young Adult Literature. She enjoys teaching many upper-level writing courses, particularly those focused on professional writing and travel writing. She also has experience supervising student teaching and field-based seminars.

Courses Taught at Bradley:

Introduction to Literature (ENG 115)

Introduction to English Education (ENG 180)

W2: Upper-level Bradley Core Curriculum Writing:

Advanced Writing Exposition (ENG 300)

Travel Writing (ENG 302)

Business Communication (ENG 306)

Introduction to Language (ENG 311)

Grammar for Teaching (ENG 312)

Young Adult Literature (ENG 320)

Methods of Teaching Writing (ENG 391)

Teaching of Literature and Reading (ENG 392)

Integrated English Language Arts Methods (ENG 472)

Independent Study (ENG 495)

Theories and Methods of Teaching Composition (ENG 580)

First-Year Honors Seminar: This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home at Bradley, in Peoria, and Beyond

Scholarship

Dr. McBee Orzulak’s scholarship explores how understandings of language enable mindful teaching through attention to classroom discourse and lenses for counteracting linguicism—whether in classroom interactions, text selections, or teaching writing. Additionally, her current work focuses on professional discourses that enable resilience. Active in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) for the last two decades, she currently edits the English Journal’s Future Is Now column, which focuses on the inquiries of early career English teachers.

 To share her scholarship, Dr. McBee Orzulak values writing for both scholarly and practitioner audiences. Her books include Understanding Language: Supporting ELL Students in Responsive ELA Classrooms and Taking Initiative on Writing: A Guide for Instructional Leaders. She also has published in The ALAN Review, Research in the Teaching of English, English Journal, English Education, Reading Research Quarterly, Teaching/Writing, Literacy and NCTE, Writers Who Care, and The Cambridge Guide for Second Language Teacher Education. As a writer for the James R. Squire Office of Policy Research of the National Council of Teachers of English, she contributed to eight policy briefs published in the Council Chronicle, including Adolescent Literacy, English Language Learners, and 21^st-Century Literacies.

Dr. McBee Orzulak shares her scholarship at regional, national and international meetings and conferences, including the English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE), and American Educational Research Association (AERA). She especially enjoys working with English Education majors as they share their research at conferences and colloquia.

 Recent and Selected Peer-reviewed Contributions:

• Finding our place as ELA teachers: Creating opportunities to “show up for students” by seeking “small wins”. English Journal, 114(2), 107-110. (Article)
• Resisting linguicism with language love. English Journal, 113 (5), 21-23. (Article)
• Listening to YAL voices: Possibilities for understanding and addressing linguistic discrimination through critical language lenses. The ALAN Review, 47 (2), 50-57. (Article)
• Disinviting deficit ideologies: Beyond “that’s standard,” “that’s racist,” and “that’s your mother tongue”. Research in the Teaching of English, 50(2), 176-198. (Article)
• Considering resilience, joy, and play in ELA teaching: Promoting conversations among experienced teachers and methods students in ongoing University/School Partnerships (NCTE presentation, 2023)
• “I’ll take everything you have”: Making powerful connections with YA Literature (NCTE presentation, 2023)
• Beyond belief: Enacting within and innovating beyond our beliefs about methods courses and field experiences in English Education (NCTE, 2022)
• Teaching Young Adult Literature: Creating space to pursue light and to dream (NCTE, 2022)

Service

Dr. McBee Orzulak provides service on Bradley’s English Education Committee (both as a member and coordinator), as a planning committee member for Peoria Reads—an annual community literacy initiative for the city of Peoria—, and as an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English. For instance, she has been elected to NCTE’s College Section, conducted webinars for instructional leaders focused on writing initiatives, and contributed to multiple ELATE Commissions. She also has served on the Board of Program Reviewers for the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educator Preparation (CAEP/NCTE).

 

Recent Service Contributions:

 

English Journal Future Is Now column (co-editor)

 

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) College Section Nominating Committee (elected)

 

NCTE/ELATE Commissions:

Study and Teaching of YA Literature

Methods Teaching

Writing Teacher Education

 

Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE, State Representative

 

Article, Book, and Program Reviewer: English Education, NCTE Annual Meeting, Writers Who Care, NCTE/Routledge Book series, Research in the Teaching of English

 

Peoria Reads Community Sessions:

• Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard (Or Your School’s Yard)
• Central Illinois Freedom to Read
• Who am I? YA literature in the Great American Read
• The Hate U Give: A Peoria Reads Discussion for Educators

 

Bradley Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning (Forum contributor and yearly book group moderator)