English Journal - Characters and Character, Sept 2012

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.

Members of the Secondary Section Steering Committee comment on topics of importance to English language arts educators.

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.

“Speaking My Mind” invites readers to speak out about controversial issues relevant to the teaching of English language arts.

A student’s fascination with the Man of Steel inspires this teacher and well-known author to ask three deep questions about how we can and should engage with charactersin English class.

Alienation and derived identity form the basis for several activities that can encourage adolescents to connect with works by Amy Tan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston,and Sandra Cisneros.

A post-apocalyptic novel provides the impetus for discussions of literature, love, and what people really need.

Characters who face difficult circumstance “such as Anne Frank and characters from “Am I Blue?” and A Child Called “It”” inspire deep connections and increasedreading skills.

Can the death of a 19th-century Russian bureaucrat breathe life into 21st-century American students?

A memoir of a dysfunctional childhood inspires students in a high-poverty district to develop strength, empathy, and hope.

Is Odysseus really a hero to today’s students? Join this high school English teacher’s quest to find out.

Sardone’s suggested activities can really take students places!

Technology-rich activities help this middle school teacher’s students develop the kinds of personal connections with Percy Jackson, White Fang, and others that she had withNancy Drew and Scarlett O’Hara.

Following this author’s innovative suggestions for studying characters may earn you Most Interesting Literature Teacher.

Mentoring Matters focuses on effective ways to support new English teachers and student teachers.

Research for the Classroom publishes mini-studies of ELA classroom practices and suggests ways in which high school and middle school English teachers may study the effectiveness of their pedagogy.

Teaching Young Adult Literature describes innovative methods for engaging students in reading, writing, and discussing contemporary and classic literary texts written for adolescents.

Success with ELLs suggests effective approaches to teaching English language learners in ways that can be of benefit to all students in mainstream middle and high school English classes.