Disciplinary literacy is gaining momentum as an approach to adolescent literacy. Believing that a key aspect of disciplinary literacy is knowledge construction, the authors introduce a model for relating disciplinary literacy with project-based inquiry. Rather than merely exploring topics during inquiry, students use practices of a discipline to…

Describes a class project in which students write a detailed story of their family heritage and how they came to live in the United States. Notes that students also paint murals telling the story of their family and present the story and the mural on videotape. Presents four such stories and murals. (RS)

Describes a semester-long project for a first-year writing class in which students work collaboratively to research an artist as a person, write an essay as a monologue, and present the monologue as a one-person play to the class. (SR)

Describes the Los Angeles Urbanscape Tour, in which the city of Los Angeles provides 11th graders with a living laboratory of the principles studied in-depth in their literature and social studies classrooms. Describes writing assignments which grew out of the tour. (SR)

Describes how, after studying the Holocaust and other human-rights issues in their eighth-grade language-arts classes, students felt compelled to create a permanent memorial and reminder. Discusses how the project unfolded from finding and shaping an idea, collecting stories from around the nation, crafting the mosaic and the flower garden, and…

Examines the creation of process drama and writing experiences in a second/third-grade classroom. Describes how the classroom teacher used process drama (involving students in imaginary, unscripted, and spontaneous scenes) as a context for learning. Notes how process drama provided a context for content area instruction along with writing…

Describes an inventive way of promoting children's literacy learning: having them design picture books, including in the process, aspects more typically associated with illustrators, book designers, and art directors. Describes one child's creation of three different books. (SR)

Describes an exercise for a business writing class which provides teams of students with a simulated encounter involving extended conflict with an adversarial business person, extending over several weeks, and requiring extensive problem solving and a range of business writing. (SR)

Describes how sixth graders wrote and illustrated picture books to help make abstract and difficult concepts in science (in this case, the elements of chemistry) more understandable for themselves and for younger children. Describes the steps of research, modeling, developing a plan of action, drafting, final revision and editing, and publishing…

This article describes the authors' journey as three educational leadership professors implementing a program to improve teaching for social justice. The social change agents they seek to nurture in their graduate program are individuals who are keenly aware of inequities in society and possess the knowledge, skills, and will to make a difference…

Describes a year-long project created and undertaken by a group of 14 eighth-grade girls to conduct interdisciplinary research on teenage sexuality and pregnancy. The project involved reading and discussing fiction and nonfiction, conducting interviews with teenage mothers, writing and publishing a booklet, and mentoring a group of fifth- and…