Robert Perrin emphasizes the active and playful power that can be discovered from specificity of language. Students observe the impact carefully chosen words have in their daily lives by examining names of products and colors used for particular contexts and audiences, as well as names given to inventions, highlighting the vibrancy of…

To "help students think carefully about specific words and their uses," Darren Crovitz and Jessica A. Miller conceive a diagram that visually expresses the spaces and ties between words. Students eagerly explore contextual connotations and defend subtle shifts in word meaning, discovering how time, use, and circumstance all influence meaning.…

Correlation of a film to a work of literature helps students develop greater sensitivity to each, and a sharper awareness of the relationship between the two. (Author)

Students' relationships with language are likely to change when they are permitted to play with it, but teachers must construct multiple classroom situations for experimentation, and thus change, to take place. Margo A. Figgins and Jenny Johnson give several ideas for how to foster wordplay among students, describing use of eponyms, word…

Dawnene D. Hassett and Melissa B. Schieble contend that literacy instruction must include attention to the multiple ways in which print and visual images work together. They propose ways to update accepted reading strategies "with visual texts and new literacies in mind." Using examples from picture books and graphic novels, they expand our…

Argues that students must be attuned to the fact that language serves those who are in power and excludes those who are not. Describes an exercise demonstrating this arrangement that uses a simple "degrees of meaning" list. Notes that students realize that linguistic rules are only as strong as those who impose them. (RS)

Describes how to use the "Make a Wish" television series to stimulate student interest in the art of playing with language; includes a sample of student writing based on study of the series. (DD)

Offers examples of texts and assignments that reinforce an appreciation for the importance of context in the study of vocabulary. (RL)

Describes the use of language analysis and speech-act categories (declarations, assertives, directives, commissives, and expressives) to deal with meaningful classroom concerns, thereby enabling the teacher and students to work more effectively together. (KEH)

English teachers do not take their subject--language--seriously enough; command of language is what students need to find themselves and cope with the forces of society. (JH)