Faculty: Paul Ricks
Title
Assistant Professor
Department:
TEd
Contact Information
Office: Continuing Education
Phone: 801-422-9288
Email: nope@paul_ricks@byu.edumsn.com
I’m originally from the ever-exotic Winslow, Arizona, a little town on the edge of the Navajo and Hopi tribal lands. No worries if you haven’t heard of the place, but if you’re a fan of old school rock music then it will perhaps ring a bell. Also, I studied Portuguese and Elementary Education as an undergraduate, which later led to international and stateside teaching opportunities in university and elementary settings. After teaching in fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms for seven years (it smelled like a lot of puberty, but it was an absolute blast), I eventually went back to grad school at another smallish town, State College, PA, where I worked with Dr. Yenika-Agbaw at Penn State.
My wife Stephanie and I have three little boys who keep things pretty interesting/exciting at our place. For those who may wonder, I’m a Ravenclaw, Steph is a Hufflepuff, and we just found out that our eldest is a Slytherin. The youngest two have yet to be sorted, but as ours is already a house divided, I imagine we’re in for a wild ride.
As a children’s and YA literature specialist, I like to think that my courses help readers to rediscover a love for reading. I feel like we educators often do ourselves a great disservice by taking something that is inherently beautiful/approachable/liberating, such as literature, and making it altogether quite painful. My hope, however, is that my courses do something to alleviate that unnecessary pain and suffering, and instead serve as means for learners to reframe how they position themselves as active participants in the reading process.
I teach about the artistry involved in the creation of texts for young readers, I teach about how children’s literature can and must be taken seriously, and I teach about how our engagements with literature—specifically children’s literature—help us to better understand ourselves and each other.
Critical analysis (e.g., postcolonial, critical multicultural, critical race) of texts for young readers
How read-aloud discussions enhance and/or take away from readers’ transactions with texts
The joys and productive discomforts of working with translated texts
How readers make meaning through the interanimation of written words and illustrations in picturebooks
Engaging Students with Expository Books Through Interactive Read-Alouds
- Authors: Young, Terrell Alan; Ricks, Paul; MacKay, Kathryn
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: The Reading Teacher
- Publisher: International Literacy Association
- City: Newark, Delaware
- Country: USA
- Volume: 77
- Issue: 1
The negotiations and co-creations that occur during a picturebook read-aloud
- Authors: Ricks, Paul Hancock; Young, Terrell Alan
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Teaching and Teacher Education
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis
- City: Milton Park, Oxfordshire
- Country: United States
- Volume: 124
- Issue: 104013
- ISSN: 0742-051X
- URL: https://www.springer.com/journal/10583
Understanding Conceptual Metaphors in Dual Language Immersion Classrooms: A Longitudinal Perspective
- Authors: Rosborough, Alessandro Antonio; Ricks, Paul; Peterken, Corinna; Zarahemla Rodriguez-Perry, Karla; Tanner-Wallace, Shea; Baca, Giardely; Johnson, Lauren
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Conference Proceedings
- Publication Journal: The Future of Education, 12th Ed.
- Publisher: Pixel International
- City: Florence, Italy
- Country: Italy
- Volume: 12
- ISBN: 979-12-80225-51-1
- URL: https://conference.pixel-online.net/FOE/files/foe/ed0012/FP/4934-LANG5647-FP-FOE12.pdf
Dear Vivian: A tribute to our academic mother and friend
- Authors: Ricks, Paul Hancock; Hudock, Laura
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of Children's Literature
- Country: United States
- Volume: 48
- Issue: 2
- URL: https://www.childrensliteratureassembly.org/uploads/1/1/8/6/118631535/7-jcl_48-2_scholarscommentary.pdf
Challenging single stories: A critical multicultural analysis of paired picturebooks about immigration
- Authors: Ricks, Paul Hancock; Young, Terrell Alan; Koford, Sara
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: The Dragon Lode
- Publisher: International Literacy Association Children's Literature & Reading Special Interest Group
- City: Newark, DE
- Country: United States
- Volume: 40
- Issue: 2
- ISSN: 1098-6448
- URL: http://www.clrsig.org/dragonlode.html
Playing Tug of War: The Tensions of Teacher Candidates and Their Instructor During Interactive Picturebook Read-Alouds
- Authors: Ricks, Paul Hancock; Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian
- Publication Date: 2021
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Teaching and Teacher Education
- Abstract: click to view
Interrogating whiteness: A critical content analysis of notable picture books recommended by the National Council for the Social Studies
- Authors: Gates, Jacob; Ricks, Paul ; Rodriguez-Astacio, Rene
- Publication Date: 2020
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Marking the invisible: Articulating whiteness in social studies
- Publisher: Information Age Publishing
- City: Charlotte, NC
- Country: USA
- Abstract: click to view
Conclusion: A few thoughts on using nonfiction texts in the twenty-first-century classroom
- Authors: Ricks, Paul
- Publication Date: 2018
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Exploring nonfiction literacies: Innovative practices in classrooms
- Publisher: Rowan & Littlefield
- City: Lanham, MD
- Country: USA
Critical conversations using Native American autobiographies
- Authors: Ricks, Paul
- Publication Date: 2018
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Using nonfiction for civic engagement in classrooms: Critical approaches
- Publisher: Rowan & Littlefield
- City: Lanham, MD
- Country: USA
Effective writing content conferences in a sixth grade classroom: A cross-case analysis
- Authors: Ricks, Paul ; Morrison, Timothy ; Wilcox, Bradley ; Cutri, Ramona
- Publication Date: 2017
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Literacy Research and Instruction
- Volume: 71
- Issue: 2
Combatting aliteracy: Children’s literature professors offer advice to help preservice teachers fall in love with reading
- Authors: Young, Terrell ; Ward, Barbara; Ricks, Paul ; Day, D
- Publication Date: 2016
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: The Dragon Lode
- Volume: 35
- Issue: 1
Narrative Blossoming: The Symbiotic Relationships of Newbery Novels and Their Graphic Adaptations
- Authors: Buchanan, Rachael; Ricks, Paul Hancock; Young, Terrell
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Children's Literature in Education
- Publisher: Springer
- Country: United States
- URL: https://www.springer.com/journal/10583