Council Chronicle - Volume 20, Issue 3, 2011

NCTE award programs help early-career educators of color build careers.

Bypassing first-year Comp courses is a national trend with both critics and defenders.

“Much is made of the economic impact of education,” but Carol Jago says she’s “more concerned about preparing students’ hearts and minds for whatever the future may hold.”

This policy brief states that one implication of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is that they have refocused attention on reading and writing across the curriculum (RAWAC), and that, regardless of one's position on CCSS, the clear stand they take on behalf of RAWAC may provide the foundation for creating a robust program of reading and writing across the curriculum in K-12 education.The brief goes on to describe benefits of RAWAC, give research-based recommendations for fostering reading and writing instruction in all subjects, and outline the role of professional development in helping teachers who feel unprepared to take up RAWAC in their classes.

The most effective approaches for teaching Shakespeare develop reading and interpretation skills, providing benefits that outlast a particular unit.

Mary Ellen Dakin uses this “weird words” handout as part of an activity to teach specific skills for figuring out the meaning of words in Shakespeare’s plays.

At a time when our profession struggles with rigid benchmarks for success alongside increasingly scarce resources, Lou LaBrant’s advice for tackling literacy head-on continues to ring true.

Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse editor Shari Frost invites you to join her and others with an interest in literacy coaching in this new online community.

Read resolutions approved by NCTE members at the NCTE Annual Business Meeting on November 19, 2010.

For poet and author Terry Hermsen, poetry “began with memorizing.”

Rebecca Bowers Sipe, chair of the 2010-11 Nominating Committee, has announced the following slate for the spring elections.

NCTE’s Web-based curricula help Katherine McKnight and her English-Methods students “emulate the real world”

Since April 2010, when NCTE member Sarah Brown Wessling was chosen as Teacher of the Year, she has traveled throughout the United States, learning from teachers, celebrating them, and speaking on their behalf.

Visit these links to learn more about LouLaBrant and her contributions to the English language arts.

NCTE Consultant Ingrid Wendt believes that “the future well-being of our children and their children depends on their ability to imagine a more peaceful world.” In this Commentary she shares Middle Eastern poetry and poems by William Stafford that were part of a Stafford celebration she arranged in Eugene, Oregon, where she lives.

An interview with US Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin

NCTE Poetry Consultant Korina Jocson discusses the power and possibilities of youth poetry.

On a night when she had run out of ideas, Jaime Wood introduced her development writing class to Adrienne Rich.