In this article the author first defines high- quality text- based discussions. Then, he demonstrates how talk in the language of comfort meets the definition of high- quality discussion. Next, he illustrates how teachers can encourage and support students to discuss texts using their language of comfort. The examples of discussions come from two…

Words are more than a string of sounds and letters that denote a particular meaning. Linguistic anthropologist Judith T. Irvine contends that speaking is a social activity where the relationship of language, culture, and society is enacted (249). Linguist Deborah Cameron defines language ideology in "Verbal Hygiene" as the notions,…

This piece explores how moving from grammar instruction to language study empowers students and their writing. To shift perspective and re-envision how language discussion can begin in the classroom, suggestions are offered with power dynamics and contextual needs of real communication situations. The authors detail activities that draw on…

The author argues that English teachers are in a unique position to respond to death through writing, reading, and speaking. She describes four experiences and offers specific, language-based responses guided by experience and literature.

Picture a group of classroom teachers gathered around a table late one afternoon discussing the results of the statewide writing assessment, the returned scored papers scattered across the table top. This article details research exploring which rhetorical elements are associated with statewide assessment scores and considers the role and…

Recounting a successful means of introducing other Englishes, the author encourages understanding and acceptance of devalued Englishes among mainstream-English-speaking students.

This article raises the reality of English as a naturally variant and fluid language inseparable from culture. The author addresses the tensions teachers face in the classroom when they make decisions about how African American students should use their language.

This article suggests effective approaches to teaching English language learners in ways that can be of benefit to all students in mainstream middle and high school English classes. The five approaches described herein that mainstream ESL teachers can do to make assessments more accurate and reliable, as well as to address heterogeneity, are: (1)…

This article interrogates some metaphors that Common Core State Standards (CCSS) proponents have used as arguments to characterize CCSS, and then checks the facts that others have amassed around the issue. The authors offer up considerations of metaphor as a rhetorical resistance strategy: Name, Frame, Fact (Check), and then Speak Up. Teachers…

This article explores problems with the trend of business language making its way into schools and provides strategies for how to address this issue.

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…

The authors identify the necessity of focusing on and pluralizing understandings of transgender youth experiences and trans-specific topics. This is especially important for preservice teachers, who will be the ones to have similar discussions with their own students in the future. The authors describe a series of classroom activities and…

The author has always had an appreciation of language--its rhythms, sounds, wordplay, dialects, usage variations, and powers to manipulate. Reflecting on how she came to this appreciation, she remembers her father reciting poems to her when she was a little girl. She was enthralled by the rhythm, the rhyme, and the sounds of the words--both…

In this article, a team of university-based researchers and ESL teachers describes how English learners in a high school responded to Poetry Inside Out -- a poetry -- and translation-based literacy curriculum.

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…