The climate crisis raises questions such as: Why are corporations continuing to produce plastic for their products when more sustainable solutions are available? Does recycling make a difference? Can oil companies be "green" and "sustainable," as their ads claim? Why are factories, landfills, and extraction sites located where…

The 2018 "English Journal" young adult honor list selections are an amazing mix of truth and fiction, fact and fantasy. The protagonists, five females and one male, all demonstrate what it means to follow your heart and speak your truth. Consideration of young adult books for inclusion in the 2018 Honor List begins in January and…

For almost thirty years, Alleen Pace Nilsen, in collaboration with an illustrious cast of scholars, including Kenneth Donelson, James Blasingame Jr., and Don Nilsen, have authored the yearly Honor List for prize-winning YA books. Their contributions have helped thousands of teachers and librarians select appropriate quality literature for their…

Having students read news articles or novels, watch television snippets, engage in class discussions, essay-writing, emailing, and drafting letters are excellent ways to broach any number of society's systemic and oppressive social maladies. Engaging in these activities in the English language arts classroom can serve as a catalyst to encourage…

Located in the suburbs of a large midwestern city, Trail Middle School serves a predominantly middle-class population. The data the authors feature in this article include group discussions and interviews with students, as well as recordings of in-class lessons, student work, and fieldnotes. The authors focus on the theme of gender as it emerged…

In this article, ELA and urban teacher educators who have been long-time advocates for and users of young adult literature in their work with beginning English teachers re-think the cultural constructs of "black and brown" adolescence that undergird the genre and guide their work.

The author primarily teaches traditional high school English texts in a largely white, middle-class school, but the method she uses allows her to address important issues relevant to students. One unit she teaches is an investigation of the criminal justice system and a variety of issues related to the school-to-prison pipeline. A crucial text…

In thinking about teaching nonfiction, the authors acknowledge that many contemporary and important nonfiction texts that students should be encouraged to read take up social issues that are not easy to talk about or even to think about. They discovered that combining well-chosen nonfiction on social issues with specialized digital games and other…

Sierra Leone is only one of the more than 50 armed conflicts currently going on around the world. It is estimated that 20 million children were either refugees or displaced internally, and some 300,000 children under the age of 18 were used in hostilities at any given time as government or rebel soldiers, with about one-third reportedly fighting…

Drawing connections between Chaucer, Eminem, and social issues, New York City high school teacher Tom Liam Lynch helped students become familiar with "The Canterbury Tales." Students wrote poems of rhymed couplets about today's social and political issues, created illuminated manuscripts, and recorded a rap CD. A book and album were…

"Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of the most powerful young adult novels to come along in the past decade. It has won numerous awards, including the "School Library Journal" award for "Best Book of the Year," and was a National Book Award Finalist. Despite this acclaim, many English teachers are uncomfortable teaching "Speak" in their…

Two high school teachers consider the use of and misuse of the term "sexism," the efficacy of using such a term and its connotations, and the need to fight social inequities with both words and actions. (RL)

Describes how a teacher found literature for Upward Bound students. Presents Geoffrey Canada's "Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America" as a nonfiction work to provide clarity and connections that might not have been available in a fictional work, yet it had elements of literary fiction that made the text…

Describes how social justice education has the potential to prepare citizens who are sophisticated in their understanding of diversity and group interaction and able to critically evaluate social institutions. Notes that young adult literature provides a context for students to become conscious of their operating world view and to examine…

Discusses how the English teacher can incorporate the principles of women's studies into the regular English curriculum. (EL)