Research in English education needs further exploration on the purposeful implementation of death and grief within English curriculum. In this article Lori D. Ungemah examines how, as a high school English teacher, she integrated death and grief into a unit of study with her eleventh- grade English class. She discusses how her curriculum…

According to the author, prior to a move, their classroom was overflowing with stuff on the walls, on the shelves, under the tables, in the file cabinets, and in the folders upon folders in their computer drive. It wasn't just the author's physical and virtual spaces that were full; their curriculum units were packed with lessons and activities,…

Across the country, adolescents are writing and performing spoken word poetry. In this article, the author works with members of a spoken word poetry group to develop ways to integrate spoken word into classroom and school communities.

This article offers strategies for adjusting in-class curriculum to align with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and how to increase fluency with the demands of standardized tests. The implementation of the standards themselves, the inequality among school districts, whether the tests measure privilege over aptitude, the quality of…

In this article Deidre Faughey shares an experimental classroom project that she developed with a diverse group of students in three ninth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Podcasts provide a unique opportunity for students to embrace experimentation and to take risks with their own voices, explore the school building and community, and…

The English Language Arts (ELA) standards are compositionally flawed and further distorted by a high-stakes environment that discourages balanced, meaningful pedagogy; to subvert this reality, teachers must practice subterfuge by foregrounding Personal Standards as the primary drivers of instruction. This author discusses how ELA instructors must…

An English teacher and a math teacher collaborating to improve practices in classroom discussion develop a problem-solving method that steers students away from seeking simple solutions and into an understanding of the complexity and nature of problems.

According to the most recent census, there are five million Native Americans in the United States. Of these, there are at least 500,000 Native Americans attending public schools. However, the educational system does not fully serve this population and in fact often ignores them. More importantly, each tribe and clan has its own distinct cultural…

Implementing multimedia in the high school language arts curriculum has become necessary so that teachers may build connections between the background knowledge of students and the printed texts that are thrust upon them. This idea comes from an area of research in cognitive science known commonly as schema theory, which contends that every…

Discusses curriculum reform in California. Suggests choosing works that have quality and depict what is universal in human nature in order to select literature that is meaningful to all. (MS)

Analysis of 38 curriculum guides suggests the pace of change in English classrooms is slow and undramatic. (JH)

Describes a program using thematic language arts learning contracts. (DD)

Evaluation of the evolution of an English Elective Program at the end of the first year in operation in a high school. (RB)

Urges the inclusion in planning and in-service education programs of effective ways teachers can interact with parents and students to help them understand the English language arts program. (DD)

Surveys 40 middle-school language-arts teachers in 3 local public school districts. Finds that (1) most teachers believed it was important for their students to master grammar; and (2) teachers spend considerable time teaching grammar. Argues that grammar deserves a prominent place in the middle school curriculum. (RS)