This article describes a teacher's willingness to perform an autobiographical spoken word poem in his classroom, which provided an important model for students as they composed and shared their own slam-style poems.

Media literacy education provides a toolbox for helping direct students' attention to the way we shape information for audience and purpose. The National Association for Media Literacy Education defines the core skills of media literacy as the ability to access, analyze, and evaluate information, as well as the ability to create and act on…

Since "English Journal's" (EJ's) founding in 1912, contributors have asked how literature shapes students' ethics, or morals. Ethics, on this account, is about people's ways of imagining and leading good lives. EJ authors explore how reading literature can help students see themselves and the wider world in light of visions of the good…

Along with forty-nine other high school students, as the author recounts of their student, Meghan is part of an elective two-week academic writing workshop. Each day begins with a freewrite exercise like this one, designed to help students develop what the workshop directors call "fluency." Like Meghan, many students write prolifically…

Process and product are always in tension. In authentic writing, they can be messy and hard to assess. Because writing is recursive and generative, every word written opens new possibilities. Not only that, but writing is influenced by ability, time allowed, task definition, rhetorical situation, relationship to reading, and helpful thinking…

In an era of "colorblind racism," in which race and racism are often suppressed as topics of discussion in classrooms, this article explores how students used comics to invent workarounds for "colormuteness" in their school. Knowing comics are not generally taken seriously, students employed the medium to subversive ends.

Whether spectators or active participants, students are regularly affected by the world of sports. For many of them, athletic competition is the most energized part of their high school experience. The intensity that sports engender is one of their primary attractions, and teachers can build on this emotional focus to engage students and, more…

While middle school and high school students may have watched the Disney and Disney/Pixar films when they were younger, chances are they did not do so with a critical eye toward difference and disability, despite the fact that these films serve as excellent tools for teaching about difference. Recent estimates label 20% of the world's population…

The mythology of the "norm" has direct repercussions for schools, and its ideological reinforcement is the primary cause of bullying today. Though it is difficult to pinpoint an origin for "the norm," the medical model and its systemic structural power is one powerful institution that perpetuates this mythology. The medical model has a biological…

In the Toulmin model, arguments begin with a "claim" supported by "data." The movement from claim to data is authorized by a general, unstated proposition Stephen E. Toulmin calls the "warrant." Unlike all other components of the Toulmin model, warrants usually remain implicit in an argument; they are the unspoken assumptions that bind together…

As teachers of writing, the authors know that choices matter: the more choices they can give their students, the better their writing will be--and the better writers they'll become. Many teachers design their courses as writing workshops, so that students make choices about the genres they compose in. They structure writing assignments so that…

Shakespeare molded language to meet his needs. Can students learn from his example? In this article, the author suggests studying Shakespeare's creative use of functional shift, spelling, and vocabulary to help students develop greater control of their own writing. The author is advocating that teachers approach Shakespeare as descriptive…

This article describes the assignments the author created to engage preservice teachers in designing instructional materials that befit today's students to help them overcome hurdles sometimes present when learning classic literature. Secondary and middle school English teachers may find these assignments useful as well so their students, too,…

When asked by a principal to design a workshop for ELA and ESL teachers on addressing new ESL regulations, the author suggested that they offer professional development that might inspire teachers to try new practices that could help their students grow as writers. The author decided to devote a workshop not to rules and regulations, but to…

Communicating effectively is a skill that must be taught and practiced--and the act of listening is a large part of this skill. According to the "International Journal of Listening," listening skills are imperative to reading comprehension and are valuable enough for "38 out of the 51 government entities to include listening skills as part of…