This article provides practical ideas for integrating technologies into the classroom in ways that honor students' out-of-school technology funds of knowledge. The challenges and unintended consequences of integrating technology into the classroom and the role that video gaming can play in helping students find agency and the ability to think…

In an effort to use adolescents' enthusiasm about blogging to design more effective writing experiences, Read analyzed its appeal and found that blogging satisfied two of Maslow's "hierarchy of needs": relatedness needs and growth needs. By studying the blogs of 6 adolescents, Read also discovered that the process of writing in blogs helps…

Describes the author's experience in keeping a reading-writing journal. Notes how her journal began as an academic journal, but her personal life crept into it. Notes that her students experienced the same thing. (SG)

Students who engage in the writing process learn to write. Period. And yet many teachers, including Lain when she was a beginning teacher, don't know how to make the time for it, how to structure it, and how to evaluate it. Here, Lain offers us the help we need by focusing on the teaching tools for introducing students to this format, the…

Describes how the author, for whom writing is otherwise a chore, shares a journal with her daughter, and another with her mother, in which both writers have an opportunity to tell their stories, communicate with each other, and express their thoughts and feelings. (SR)

Long an advocate of literature circles, Daniels recaps the history of literature circles and cautions against the "terminology drift" that labels practices as literature circles when, in fact, they are not. He offers resources that anchor best practice in this area, and discusses how the concept is evolving and expanding. He also introduces us to…

Relates how, throughout the author's life from early childhood well into adulthood, literacy has been a powerful adventure helping her to survive and thrive. Notes that she teaches reading and writing to her students to share these gifts of language with them. (SR)

Using an Around the World unit to introduce students to over 30 nations, Wilson proposes "trail mix" over "melting pot" as a metaphor for multiculturalism in this article. Students kept a travel journal as they explored different cultures, and a school-wide celebration of diversity included trying out the dress, music, and language of each.…

Describes how art-making and writing intersect in a sixth-grade art classroom. Discusses how writing about art-making promoted reflection and thinking, and was essential to the learning in class for both students and teacher. Offers brief notes also about art in the language arts class. (SR)

Presents in "journal entry" form, one year of teaching in particular that stands out as the year the author shifted from teaching facts to teaching children. Concludes that preparing students to perform well on standardized tests does not have to be separate from good teaching and authentic learning. (SG)

Uses the example of the Women's Journal Group to show how a personal, emotional commitment to a personally connected writing community will change that way a writer thinks, feels, and acts. Describes the beginnings of the Women's Journal Group, the members' differing backgrounds, goals, and expectations. Outlines the principles of multimedia…

Describes the crisis that young women face--a kind of suffocation--at adolescence, calling it both developmental and cultural. Argues that responsive teaching, and regular, fast, expressive writing without evaluation about whatever is in their minds will help girls define what is most important to them and examine what is going on in their lives.…

Describes how the author used writers' notebooks with her students (grades 6-8), all Chinese immigrants, to find and express their memories and dreams, to find meaning in their experiences of change and loss; develop voice and a sense of audience; develop fluency in English; and find a growing sense of control over their new language and their new…

Examines the pressures girls in classrooms face as they reach adolescence and experience cultural norms that encourage the silencing of a young woman's voice as she grows into adulthood. Looks that the journal's potential to save that voice. Explores how classroom journals can be structured to help girls nurture and grow their voices. (SR)