A classroom teacher reflects on the benefits of professional development leading to improved and energized student writing. Although traditional professional development sparked interest and encouraged modifications, the support of a teacher inquiry group as ongoing professional development provided the impact needed to effect significant change…

Offers the author's (a noted writer of children's novels and picture books) personal theories about mixing mirth and mayhem. (SR)

Reports on a study of stories written by eighth graders in three very different schools, stories carrying powerful messages about how girls understand their place in the world. Finds that, in one set of stories, females control their lives only as long as they are "good," and in the other set, autonomous female protagonists fail (often for no…

Argues that the study of humor should be worked into English curricula starting in middle school, taking students inside jokes to expose the subtle way humor can convey information, images, and assertions. Discusses understanding humor, reading humor, and writing humor. (SR)

Argues that classic authors can and should still be kept at the center of the literature curricula in the middle school. Uses Leo Tolstoy as an example, describing briefly some of Tolstoy's works that are especially appropriate for early middle school readers, later middle schoolers of average reading ability, and the most able middle school…

Describes how the author discovered practical, accessible ways of talking with her seventh and eighth graders about the considerations and decisions of fiction writers. Appends a fiction writing handbook. (SR)

Describes how one eighth-grade teacher, disturbed by students' ignorance of the variety of poetry available to them, developed a poetry anthology assignment, in which students immersed themselves in poetry for three weeks, each one choosing and creating a poetry anthology comprised of 20 poems. Notes students' enthusiasm for the project and pride…

Presents a rationale for developing and implementing integrated curricula in the middle school. Draws connections between the middle school concept, integrated curriculum, and constructivist learning theory. Explores differences between integrated curriculum and the more traditional separate subject curriculum. Examines several models of…

Describes a nine-week South Dakota history unit for junior high school students that incorporated writing for learning. Describes the eight writing assignments that were the key activities of this unit. Concludes that writing helps students comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. (SR)

Describes the use of social justice notebooks by a seventh/eighth-grade social studies teacher. Discusses the process of notebook writing and how these notebooks have improved students' thinking skills as well as class discussion as students engage with moral dilemmas. (SR)

Describes episodes of humor in a middle school classroom. (SR)

Describes how two different middle school teachers transformed the study of vocabulary in their classrooms by engaging students' interest in words, moving the study of vocabulary into students' worlds through theatre and through word tickets and a student-created museum. (SR)

Argues that drama is one of the most powerful teaching strategies available in the classroom, in all subject areas. Notes reasons drama is not used much. Describes two drama activities used with seventh-grade students, and how they used it (with excitement) as a way of experiencing, thinking through and representing new understandings. (SR)

Describes organizing a poetry "slam" (a contest in which people read their original poems and listeners cast votes for their favorites) involving 200 eighth graders from two different schools. Discusses how this experience made vivid for students the need to write for an audience and to revise. (SR)

Describes how one middle school teacher was inspired by Janet Allen's book, "Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12," to significantly change the way she thought about and taught vocabulary. Describes several strategies and activities that engaged students in activating background knowledge; making meaningful connections; learning…