English Journal - Re-Forming Writing Instruction, Sept 2004

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

“Snapshots” offers insights about teaching and learning through teacher stories about a particular classroom event.

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

“Teacher to Teacher” provides a forum for teachers to share ideas, materials, and activities.

Changing the form of the traditional research paper could result in a greater emphasis on inquiry. James Strickland advocates use of an alternative form of presentation that capitalizes on available technology and requires students to develop thinking, reading, writing, and presentation skills.

Students can write for real audiences and purposes and still meet state and national standards. Lori A. S. Kixmiller confronts the challenge of helping them do so by requiring students to complete a senior project.

Students who debate learn skills of critical thinking, argumentation, and presentation. Randi Dickson explains how she combined essay writing and debate to address a range of language arts standards and, more importantly, help students become better-informed participants in a democracy.

Having perfected her instruction of the five-paragraph essay, Lesley Roessing realized that her eighth-grade students had mastered the formula but lost their voices. She describes her transformed approach to teaching writing and offers specific assignments that helped students “think outside the five-paragraph-essay box.”

Using tools available in common word-processing programs and widely available technology, high school teacher Thomas E. Krucli has created a more effective method of responding to students’ papers. Student response has been positive, and assessment has become a powerful tool for instruction and student self-reflection

Dissatisfied with his method of teaching composition to high school seniors, Joseph M. Shosh sought ways to move from teaching as transmission to teaching as transaction. Asking students to use a dialogic discourse diary resulted in improved thinking and writing. He offers the assignments he gave and documents students’ reactions and growth.

The power of apprenticeship was realized by high school juniors who spent five weeks studying the style and craft of Ernest Hemingway. Lisa Garrigues provides details of several assignments that helped students analyze Hemingway’s work and learn from this “master craftsman.”

Emphasizing “the dynamic aspects of language correctness,” community college teacher Gregory Shafer helps students understand that achieving correctness is not simply a matter of following a set of rules. He then asks students to write letters and speeches in which they demonstrate the relationships among language, power, purpose, and audience.

Students’ out-of-school literacy practices can complement in-school speaking and writing—if the teacher knows how to incorporate them. Drawing from a larger study, Jamal A. Cooks analyzes how one student writes an essay and a rap on the same subject. Cooks recommends bringing hip-hop culture into the classroom to help students become academically successful.

To support progressive reform in English language arts education and to honor the legacy of James R. Squire, NCTE has established a center of policy research in his name. A major figure in the profession himself, Edmund J. Farrell details Squire’s life and work.

River guides and teachers share important characteristics, according to Elsa C. Bro. She calls on the similarities as she studies a high school sophomore with learning difficulties.

Three specialists in young adult literature compile an Honor List that includes those eight titles most often mentioned on lists of the best books published in 2003.

“Research Matters” provides teachers with review and application of research that illuminates the daily concerns and activities of English language arts teachers and classrooms.

“New Voices” raises questions, offers insights, and provides a forum for novice teachers to engage in the professional conversation surrounding the teaching of English.

“Teaching English in the World” examines the teaching of English in a global context.

“English in the City” focuses on the particular challenges, choices, and celebrations relevant to teaching in an urban setting.

“Taking Time” addresses challenges in teaching and curriculum that affect middle level education through focusing on the middle child in urban, rural, and suburban settings.

“Professional Links” reviews professional books and materials, linking them to complementary software and appropriate Web sites.

“Bold Books for Innovative Teaching” provides dynamic, informative viewpoints on important issues in publishing and teaching contemporary literature, especially literature for adolescents. Reviews of young adult literature will also appear in this column.

“Poetry” features poems by teachers and professional poets.