English Journal - Volume 91, Issue 2, 2001

In many school districts and states, there is a trend towards addressing workplace literacy within the English class, but how can that be done in an already overcrowded curriculum? Rather than reducing traditional curriculum to make room for workplace training, Robbins suggests ways to use the functions of workplace documents--such as memos, status reports, and newsletters--to support work routinely done in the classroom.

In this teacher research project, Craig helps you to answer your students when they ask, “Why do we have to learn this stuff?” Here she reports on the results of a survey that asked workers at various skill levels about the type and quantity of reading and writing in the workplace, as well as details related to quality standards. The results underscore the importance of many things currently taught in the English classroom, and suggest steps to take to strengthen the connection between school and work.

Students may have an oversimplified notion of what it means to prewrite, suggests the author, and they could grow by analyzing and experimenting with alternative forms of prewriting exercises. Citing a case study by Jack Selzer, in which he observes a professional writer who did not write drafts, Blackburn-Brockman reminds us that research, interviews, related reading, and content grouping, are all valuable prewriting activities, and she suggests how this professional writer's tasks might translate into classroom activities.

The job of teachers, explains Hernandez, is to impart lessons from the past to the next generation. Here he explains how he uses Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s autobiography, Night, in a nine-week unit on tolerance and prejudice, and relates how his tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau personalized his classroom instruction and affected his students’ responses to the concept of bearing witness and to Weisel’s autobiography.

A delicate balance exists between passing on our literary judgments and encouraging students to develop theirs, says Versaci, and the challenge begins in the middle and high school classroom, where teachers must present literature at once in a way that interests students and teaches them to evaluate literature. One way to do this, he suggests, is to use comic books. In this article he details the many merits of using comics and graphic novels in the classroom, suggests how they can be integrated into historical and social issues units, and recommends several titles.

When changing standards forced the faculty of a predominantly white, white-collar secondary school in suburban Philadelphia to address multicultural education to include more minority writers, the teachers were up to the task. Here, Robinson outlines the multicultural literature program, which includes an author lecture series. She describes the progress thus far and the plans for the future, noting that taking a global perspective of literature provides students with a complete picture of the real world.

Two principles guide Parker’s teaching: first is the belief that curriculum should connect with life, and second, is that she has an obligation to promote tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality. An important aspect of this is revealing to her students her own sexual orientation. In this article, she explains why she exposes her personal life, and describes how she creates a dialogue with her students about homosexuality, beginning with how the word “gay” is used in everyday language, specifically as a term to belittle peers. She also explains how infuses gay and lesbian literature with studies of canonical literature.

Bored and discouraged by workbook style grammar instruction, Dean took example from the past and implemented sentence imitation in her classroom. In this article, she explains how she uses passages from literature for grammatical patterns and allows her students to apply their creativity in writing sentences imitating the same form. The method has many benefits, says Dean. Students get to practice grammatical structure without being weighed down by grammatical terminology, and they gain an understanding of how to look at what they read as a model for what they want to say.

In this article, Milburn takes a critical view of a recent article appearing in Harper’s magazine, in which the author condemns English teachers and the materials they teach as the reason students learn to loathe literature. On the contrary, says Milburn: every day kids show us how to help them love literature; all we have to do is listen.

Gutchewsky tells how she incorporated researched approaches to reading in her classroom

The editor shares her experience of finding a school newspaper from 1979. An article written by former student inspires her to reflect on the personal connections she’s made with her students throughout the years.

In this narrative, a teacher argues with a new student who won’t take a state-mandated exam? or does she?

Teaching students-feel good curriculum that nurtures their self-esteem, says Reiner, has been done to the detriment of self-respect and confidence that they deserve. It has denied them of a sense of responsibility for their own grades and behaviors and has prompted them to seek quick fixes and easy answers.

The Secondary Section Steering Committee remains focused on one of its major goals - secondary reading - and thus continues to sponsor reading workshops that invite secondary teachers to learn about and share experiences with the challenge of incorporating reading instruction into the secondary curriculum.

In the Internet Age, the price of an ‘A’ is $9.95. Is there a solution to Internet Plagiarism? In this exchange of ideas, two teachers argue the possibilities.

Vanoverbeke, a pre-service teacher, wonders: How does a teacher strike a balance between not caring at all and caring so much about students that it affects health and well-being? Cavanaugh responds with advice and words of encouragement.

Answers can be found in this issue at the end of “English in the News.”

Recent news stories related to literacy, literature, and language arts.

Kern writes about how preparing an online learning project about the Holocaust has informed her thinking about classroom-based teaching practices.

Poems by Robert Fox and Bonnie Bishop.

The three books reviewed in this column show ways that we as teachers can engage our students in learning more about what words can accomplish and what they convey in various kinds of writing.

This month’s column explores the relationship between fathers and sons in My Old Man and the Sea, by Wallace Green, and Jim the Boy, by Tom Earley.

This month’s column features the 2001 honor list of new YA books.