For almost thirty years, Alleen Pace Nilsen, in collaboration with an illustrious cast of scholars, including Kenneth Donelson, James Blasingame Jr., and Don Nilsen, have authored the yearly Honor List for prize-winning YA books. Their contributions have helped thousands of teachers and librarians select appropriate quality literature for their…

Despite the familiar American scene of lined-up students being ushered out of school buildings while their classmates lay wounded or dead inside, and despite repeated calls for restrictions on the guns used in such shootings, nearly twenty years after Columbine, the gun lobby retains a powerful grip on the nation's politicians - using money and…

It is important for students to understand and analyze political language so that they can be participatory members of a democratic society. This article stresses the importance of understanding and analyzing political language. The author claims that the mastery of such skills is what allows students to be participatory members of a democratic…

Historical nonfiction is effective in teaching rhetoric for two main reasons. First, historical texts communicate through a real-world lens that students can understand and find familiar. Students study history and are exposed to current events through the news, school, and each other. Second, since history affects people's lives so broadly, its…

One way to merge imagination with problem-posing and problem-solving in the English classroom is by asking students to respond to "cultural and political vignettes" (CPVs). CPVs are cultural and political situations that are presented to students so that they can practice the creative and essential decision-making skills that they will need to use…

Drawing connections between Chaucer, Eminem, and social issues, New York City high school teacher Tom Liam Lynch helped students become familiar with "The Canterbury Tales." Students wrote poems of rhymed couplets about today's social and political issues, created illuminated manuscripts, and recorded a rap CD. A book and album were…

Suggests that science writers have a responsibility to examine the social, political, and economic contexts of science. (DD)

Appears also in Elementary English," vol. 48 no. 4 (April 1971), pp. 241-42, 293, and in College English," vol. 32, no. 7 (April 1971), pp. 815-16. (RD)

Describes the activities in a high school English class aimed at bringing attention through the media to a local political issue. Outlines how teachers can initiate students into acts of social and political activism by writing letters. Narrates how one teacher got students directly involved with a local sewage-treatment problem. Includes an…

Each brief statement covers the areas of jargon, rhetoric, and humor in political language and how these may be approached in the classroom. (CRH)

Author discusses Shaw's The Apple Cart" as typically Shavian in content and style. (MB)

Describes three class activities that help students analyze the mass media messages of political candidates and that give students insights into language manipulation techniques. (RL)

Describes one teacher's approach to teaching students how to write research papers by involving them in providing practical proposals to significant problems faced by their schools. Gives a step-by-step outline for producing the final research essay. (HB)

An open letter by the senior past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. (RD)