How do English teachers, with their amazing gift, empower students to see and experience literature not as a burden that must be endured and memorized for the test and then mercifully forgotten, but as a vehicle for self-discovery and reflection? One effective way to help students experience and discover literature is through the characters. For…

Purpose: This paper, which originates in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom activity in Hong Kong, aims to explore English learners' expressive and creative potential in writing by studying their work in the literary narrative genre. Design/methodology/approach: A group of upper secondary students (15-16 years of age) with limited…

Mind mapping has gained considerable credibility recently in corporations such as Boeing and Nabisco, as well as in the classroom in terms of preparing for examinations and preparing for speeches. A mind map is a graphic technique for organizing an individual's thoughts and other information. It harnesses the full range of cortical skills--word,…

This study explored the effects of a portable technology intervention, the Nook Simple Touch eReader, on student performance in Reading and English/Language Arts when included as an integral part of the teaching and learning process in an elementary third-grade classroom. This study used the participating students' end-of-year second-grade scores…

Explicit pedagogy that focuses on visual design and composition principles can affect students' responses to and understanding, interpretation and analysis of images, as well as the creation of their own visual representations. This article considers the why, the what, and the how of teaching various visual elements of art and design to students…

During a 10-week classroom-based study, 20 fourth grade students participated in a number of interdependent activities that focused on developing their visual meaning-making skills and competencies. As well as reading, responding in writing to and discussing a selection of picturebooks, graphic novels, and magazines, the students created graphic…

In the English language arts classroom, social justice is a way to increase students' abilities to articulate their experiences, critique their world, and address those identified issues with subsequent action. Teachers who practice social justice education cultivate student voice through class activities, readings, assignments, and assessments…

This article describes the influence of process drama on fourth grade students' written language productivity and specificity. Participants included 16 students with learning and/or behavioral challenges at an urban public charter school. The influence of process drama on students' written language was compared across contextualized and…

This article considers an exchange between pupils in response to heard poetry, approaching it through a "conversation analytic mentality" informed by the theories of Basil Bernstein. Using his terms, it describes an existing "pedagogic device" of poetry study for schools, to which responses under discussion do not easily…

Many parents, educators, and policy makers see great potential for leveraging tools like laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones in the classrooms of the world. Under budget constraints and shared access to equipment for students and teachers, the impacts have been irregular but hint at greater possibilities in 1:1 student computing settings.…

Five content area teachers participated in this year-long qualitative research study focused on developing a language-building approach to support literacy activities for marginalized students. A mixed methods design evaluated the impact of the professional development program with the teachers. Data included structured interviews with the…

"This Book Is Not About Drama" explores issues around storytelling, silent speech, writing and imagination and shows teachers how to use role play and discussion to build language experiences that are meaningful for learners. This authoritative resource is full of simple strategies that begin with the simple and evolve in to more complex…

Global positioning systems (GPS) receivers and other geospatial tools can help teachers create engaging, hands-on activities in all content areas. This article provides a rationale for using geospatial technologies in the middle grades and describes classroom-tested activities in English language arts, science, mathematics, and social studies.…

As a teacher of Bowling Green State University's English 3810, Grammar and Writing, the author is charged with teaching future language arts teachers how to teach grammar so that it actually helps their students become better writers and communicators. Because such teaching rejects the ineffective but time-honored drill-it-and-kill-it approach, in…

Utilizing a New Literacies Studies framework, this article presents critical lessons in film production from a multiple site case study. Examples of children's classroom experiences demonstrate how filmmaking and play come together in a process of storying--a collaborative and multimodal approach to text composition. Students in both preschool and…