Sixth grade language arts teacher Julie Ramsay was disheartened at her students' lack of interest in writing, so she began looking at what they were doing online to see if she could bring some of those experiences to the classroom. She saw that students enjoyed having opportunities to share their experiences with an audience and receive…

Writing allows students to clarify their thinking. Through the process of writing, students recognize what they know and what they still need to learn. This article describes how a middle school mathematics teacher and language arts teacher worked with a secondary content area literacy professor during a specific writing assignment. The "How-to"…

When a language arts curriculum provided students with the opportunity to translate meaning across sign systems (that is, from poetry to dance), numerous benefits were noted. Transmediation, the translation of meaning from one sign system to another, led students to analyze compositional structures and to enhance their use of academic language…

According to a 2009 AP-MTV survey of 1,247 people ages 14-24, 50% of those surveyed have experienced cyberbullying (Gatti 1). Victims were twice as likely to need help from a mental health professional and were three times more likely to drop out of school than those surveyed who did not report being cyberbullied (5). Given this alarming social…

This article examines how Chicana/o and Latina/o youth employed their political-historical knowledge to "talk back" to the xenophobia and political contradictions that underlie the (im)migration "debate." A literacy unit that honed bilingual students' everyday translating created opportunities for students to utilize this political-historical…

The purpose of this action research project report was to increase the homework completion rate of middle school students through the use of interventions. The participants in this study came from one public middle school. The participants were thirty-four 6th grade students in language arts, respectively. The intervention took place from…

This article describes the experiences of a sixth-grade language arts class that participated in a research and portfolio-writing exercise using the school library media center. Students in this class learned that organization and process are central to the completion of a successful research project. After learning various note-taking strategies…