Three Student Perspectives: An Introduction

Middle school students love to be in the driver’s seat, and when teachers can find ways to allow that in the classroom, the benefits are tangible. When I saw that Voices from the Middle had a call for manuscripts written from a student’s perspective, I knew that the opportunity to have a wider audience of educators would invigorate my students, that the reflection on their literacy learning would make them more aware, conscious of it, and that the challenge of formatting and preparing a piece for publication would stretch them as writers. Many students chose this valuable process as an alternative to a different writing assignment in my class.