Providing students with the opportunity to generate new content and share it with a wide audience invites students to compose texts with the care and conviction that cannot be duplicated when writing solely for the teacher. This piece documents one teacher's effort to engage 99 eighth graders with an authentic writing opportunity: the…

For the past few years the author has been studying the writing lives of teachers, first analyzing the contributions of teachers to National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) journals for the ten-year period between 1998 and 2008 and then surveying and interviewing teacher-authors whose works appeared during that period to learn more about…

Charlie was a target for bullying in the high school where the author taught. At 15, kids had not grown out of the need to pick on Charlie for his high-pitched voice, his overweight stature, and his uncontrollable and exuberant laugh. What really targeted Charlie for the bullying, however, was his seemingly childlike fascination with drawing comic…

As teachers of writing, the authors know that choices matter: the more choices they can give their students, the better their writing will be--and the better writers they'll become. Many teachers design their courses as writing workshops, so that students make choices about the genres they compose in. They structure writing assignments so that…

The idea of joining a conversation through reading and writing is not new; in his 1941 book "The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action," Kenneth Burke suggests that the acts of reading and writing are like entering a parlor where others are already conversing. The author explores the place of professional debate within NCTE and…

In this article, the authors focus on the decision-making process that goes into professional writing and ways to emphasize ethical decision-making in writing classrooms. Professional writing has at its core an emphasis on action and audience. Certainly teachers want their students to write effectively--to serve their clients, organizations, and…

This article comes from a speech that Richard Peck gave at the Colorado Language Arts Society Regional Spring Conference in 2007. At our request, he prepared this excerpt for "English Journal" readers.

Writer's workshops provide students with the appropriate processes they need to learn about publishing and First Amendment freedoms when collaborating on a school newspaper. High school teacher and journalism adviser Janet Ewell outlines the structures students can use for learning to find, research, develop, respond to, and reflect on story…

Recommends writing about education for local newspapers in order to gain experience in finding a voice, meeting deadlines, and becoming aware of the community as an audience. (EL)

Formatting magazines help students to learn new computer skills and promote creativity when they write about the topics they choose and also sharpen their skills in writing mechanisms as they edit their work and pieces written by others. The benefits of publication process, printing, and assembling magazines are discussed.

Tells how to develop ways for students to share writing with others both inside and outside the classroom. Discusses possibilities for publishing within the school and in the community, as well as how to submit entries to writing contests and national publications. Contains tips about submitting manuscripts. (EL)

Describes various techniques and methods used by three practicing English teachers for implementing the publication of student-generated writing in the English classroom, including student readings. (HB)

Urges teachers to write for publication, with their class's help, in order to demonstrate the writing process to students. (DD)

Points out that the "English Journal" considers all readers prospective contributors. Lists and discusses the criteria that "English Journal" uses to judge manuscripts that purport to describe effective classroom practices. (ARH)

Describes the reaction to his "English Journal" article on gay teens. Discusses loss of job, invitations to give speeches, requests for interviews, and the response of individuals and the administration at the community college where he teaches part time. (EL)