The author's eighth-grade ELA curriculum is rich with opportunities for students to bear witness to a variety of experiences. Besides the Holocaust unit, they read "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2018) while exploring police brutality and segregation; "The Giver" by Lois Lowry (1993) while investigating government…

Today, "Night" is probably the most commonly taught work of Holocaust literature in the United States, read by middle school and high school students alike, even though US adolescents were not the author's intended audience. This article offers suggestions for teaching "Night" in ways that engage students, challenge them to…

In this article, the authors describe how integrating music with reading and writing practices stimulated transmediation to (1) honor musical students' identities, (2) deepen readers' meaning making with literature, and (3) invite writers' memories to generate emotional grist for composing poetry. The authors share examples to inspire teachers to…

In this article, the authors describe how an embodied arts-based approach to teaching the story of Anne Frank enhanced eighth graders' experiences in three middle school classrooms. The article begins by framing the theories that guide the authors' perspectives on embodiment and drama-infused instruction to promote literacy learning. This is…

In this article, the author recounts her teaching experience with new high school students at Northwest Yeshiva High School, an Orthodox Jewish high school on Mercer Island. In teaching the students about writing, the author describes how she was moved by the narratives written by her students, and that after reading their stories she decided to…

Presents an overview of a Jewish literature course for high school students with the observation that the heritage of a people can endure only as long as it is celebrated by the young. (RB)

Examines some of the issues surrounding a school district's decision to remove Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" from the list of books in the high school English curriculum. (TB)

Describes a fifteen-week elective course for juniors. (DD)

Describes in detail an elective unit that used novels, plays, films, and historical texts to engage student interest in a difficult and relevant topic. (JL)

Describes how a survivor of the Holocaust helped a sixth grade class understand the experiences of the Holocaust and how the class helped the survivor to reach into his own repressed pain. (PRA)

Examines fiction for young adults that authentically and realistically portrays the diversities and complexities of United States society. (RL)

Argues that children could leave 12 years of school thinking that the Holocaust is the chief contribution of Jewish people to world history. Shows through a survey of reading anthologies for grades K-12 that Bible stories are largely left out, as is fiction about the modern Jewish culture. Offers a critical explanation for this state of things.…