Describes a lesson plan designed for an eleventh-grade honors American Studies course, but also works well for regular-level classes. Engages students in reading, discussing, and writing their own fictional slave narratives. Enables the students to connect literary texts to historical contexts and to experience antebellum history in a personal…

Presents brief annotations of 31 books (published in 1997) for children and young readers (of which libraries and schools might want multiple copies), grouped in the following categories: books with lessons for young writers; picture books packed with information; appreciating memoirs and biographies; for the poetry shelves; and books for the…

Criticizes the Unz/Tuchman "English for Children" initiative (R. Unz) a proposal that would place limited-English-speaking children in California together, regardless of age or academic abilities, for one year of intensive English instruction and no instruction in academic subjects before returning them to regular classes. Discusses the…

Describes ninth-grade English classes interviewing international students regarding their experiences and feelings about the journeys that brought them to the United States. Discusses how students from diverse cultures began to know one another, and how the gathering and the publication of these stories helped faculty, administration, and students…

Provides suggestions to promote English literacy to students with hearing impairments in residential environments. Strategies include model reading and writing, read to children regularly and in American Sign Language, set up a writing center, encourage book sharing, set up a home library/reading center, and encourage ownership of books. (CR)

Discusses how and why a pedagogy of overt comparison between students' home language (vernacular dialects of English) and school language (standard English) helps students learn the more global features of academic writing and the more sentenced-level features of Standard English. Outlines a pedagogy of overt comparison. Notes it motivates…

Discusses "textual intelligence": knowledge of how texts of all kinds work. Describes how the author uses grammar in his classroom to help students understand how to read and write better and how to think with greater clarity. Describes activities used before and after students read or write. Argues that grammar is a process that helps students…

Explores the implications of various posts perspectives on anti-oppressive education, especially poststructuralist perspectives, for social studies, English, mathematics, and science education. Focuses on two main theoretical constructs: (1) unknowability, multiplicity, and looking beyond the known and (2) resistance, crisis, and resignifying the…

Presents an open letter to English teachers outlining what the author hopes English teachers will teach his children about books and reading this year, focused on helping them love reading. Includes some thoughts about how to do so. Presents short annotations of 11 new or overlooked young adult books worth reading. (SR)

Describes how one 8th-grade English language arts teacher works to keep her students as the primary focus in her curriculum. Discusses how she uses a class council to connect with literature, discuss upsetting issues or incidents, and solve problems. Outlines activities that further the social and emotional learning component of her curriculum.…

Describes a successful strategy that develops critical thinking in middle school classrooms via an intersection of character education, adolescent literature, and authentic assessment. Describes the procedure in which students explore the literature to determine how positive and negative character traits are demonstrated, with discussions on these…

Describes collaborative study done by a prekindergarten teacher, staff developer, and college teacher educator utilizing a highly integrated curriculum whose core was multiple symbol systems. Notes focus on literacy as well as beginnings of writing and reading. Concludes that within the context of high-stakes schooling, the teacher managed to…

In this article, we draw from research on cognitive development, sociocultural learning, and organizational development to examine the key factors in teachers' professional learning. Our review of this literature suggests that looking at teachers' prior knowledge, the nature of their interactions, the representations they produce and use, and the…

This article relates the experience of Mrs. Vernon, who teaches two sections of an English course at her high school, and has evaluated her high- and low-track students based on cultural and social groups. She uses these evaluations to shape her expectations for the students' academic performance, their future life goals, and her daily method of…

A considerable use of technology to supplement classroom instruction could improve student learning. A high school teacher reveals the ways in which the use of online discussions of literature assignments increases student participation by extending dialogue beyond the physical space and time of a single class.