One of the best methods in the English language arts classroom is to educate students through the world of stories. The beauty of storytelling is that it often has a more powerful impact on young adults than a didactic lecture or a textbook chapter. Many times students would say that they internalize a message much more willingly through reading a…

The authors provide a rationale for the critical study of film texts in the English language arts. For struggling or reluctant students, film offers an accessibility that the printed text may not. Students who are intimidated by, or impeded from, accessing print text are able to discuss film with acuity and insight. The study of visual texts can…

This article describes the author's experience co-facilitating a project for which seventh-grade students designed and created original video games based on Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time". The author provides an overview of recent literature on video game implementation in the classroom and explains how the project was designed and…

Grounded in theory and best-practices research, this practical text provides teachers with 40 strategies for using fiction and non-fiction trade books to teach in five key content areas: language arts and reading, social studies, mathematics, science, and the arts. Each strategy provides everything a teacher needs to get started: a classroom…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the length of superintendent tenure, longevity, and continuity relative to student achievement as evidenced by the 2008-2009 3rd Grade New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) in language arts. Achievement in the study was defined as those students who…

Global positioning systems (GPS) receivers and other geospatial tools can help teachers create engaging, hands-on activities in all content areas. This article provides a rationale for using geospatial technologies in the middle grades and describes classroom-tested activities in English language arts, science, mathematics, and social studies.…

The bulk of current research on teacher professional development is focused on teacher learning in the context of teacher professional learning communities (PLCs). In teacher PLCs, groups of teachers meet regularly to increase their own learning and the learning of their students. Teacher PLCs offer a learning model in which, "new ideas and…

When the author offered the option of writing an article for "Voices from the Middle" to her seventh- and eighth-grade language arts classes, some students were unwavering in their preference to stay on the steady, familiar ground of writing a letter to a peer about a book they had read and loved. Noah McCord, Tobin Feldman-Fitzthum, and…

This study was presented at the American Educational Research Association 2012 conference in Vancouver, Canada. The study explored how action research of arts-based teaching (ABT) impacted at-risk students in three urban public schools in southern California, USA. ABT was defined as using arts, music, drama, and dance in teaching other subjects. A…

This paper investigates the differences in academic achievement trajectories from elementary through middle school among English Learner students in four different instructional programs: English Immersion, Transitional Bilingual, Developmental Bilingual, and Dual Immersion programs. Comparing students with the same parental preferences but who…

This report is made up of seven chapters relating to Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) performance level setting (PLS). Chapter one describes the goals of the PARCC program, content standards measured by PARCC, PARCC performance levels, and components of the PARCC system. Chapter two discusses the goals of…

This report examines the placement of Teacher for America (TFA) teachers and examines their impact on the learning gains of their students during the 2013-14 school year. Sets of eligible TFA teachers were identified in 2013-14 from which the subset of teachers assigned to teach language arts and/or mathematics to students in grades 3 through 10…

In this article, we uphold diversity and 21st century skills as central to literacy pedagogy and use a cosmopolitan lens to present the integrated curriculum of a fourth grade bilingual teacher and the experiences of her students. We describe a unit built around language arts, science, and social studies with a focus on social justice and global…

The Common Core Standards have defined literacy and outlined the mission for English Language Arts in a way that provides a natural fit with the National Standards for Language Learning. Taking advantage of this connection, language teachers can showcase the importance of learning languages by demonstrating how literacy is learned, practiced, and…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the National Standards for Foreign Language Education have several areas of commonality: (1) both standards have the goal that all students, by the end of 12th grade, will have the skills they need to be successful world citizens; (2) the literacy skills that are found in the Common Core are the same…