English Journal - Volume 94, Issue 6, 2005

Several colleagues pay tribute to Stephen Dunning.

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.

High school teacher Jane Koszoru describes a successful dual-enrollment program that allows high school juniors and seniors to experience the rigor of college classes while maintaining a small high school community on a community college campus. The program has helped a remarkable percentage of students develop the responsibility and knowledge necessary for later university education.

Capitalizing on students’ interest in a local newspaper story, high school teacher Hannah Mancina developed a research and writing project that resulted in the ninth-grade students’ “finding their voice and power through writing.”;

Chris Davis and Jennifer Davis embrace the teaching environment of their science and technology magnet school. Using their students’ skills in Web development, PowerPoint, Photoshop, and other technologies, the authors create lessons that help students “make connections with one another and with the community.”;

Believing that traditional summer school programs are largely ineffective, Michael Wenk and his colleagues developed a summer academy for high school students. With a two-week session and small class sizes, the academy provided an environment for teachers to address standards while promoting lasting change in students’ approach to their education.

The English Journal staff interviews Joy A. Fowler, Department Chair, Writing Department, School for Creative and Performing Arts, Cincinnati, Ohio

The English Journal staff interviews Edith Graybill, English instructor, Henry Ford Academy, Dearborn, Michigan

To encourage creative thinking, high school teacher Kelly Courtney-Smith asked her students for creative responses to Hesse’s novel, using a technique she learned from coauthor Michael Angelotti. Students painted or wrote poems interpreting their reading, then responded to the creations of their classmates. The students found that these “collaborative activities provided insights into the novel, their classmates, and their paintings and poems.”;

Barbara Bennett explains the tenets behind ecofeminism and why it is a useful and appropriate method of literary analysis for today’s world. By applying the theory to Le Guin’s story, she helps her students relate the issues of ecofeminism to their American lifestyle.

Pairing high school seniors with elementary students to write, edit, and publish children’s picture books proved to be an engaging project for Jennifer Richardson Conrad’s students. Seniors stayed focused and eager to work on the project and proved they had learned editing lessons by teaching them to the younger students.

Through a study of writing by high school seniors and first-year college students, Jay Simmons became convinced that classroom conditions were a large factor in student improvement. Larger class sizes in high school and less time devoted strictly to writing were found to be the chief detriments to improvement in the seniors’ writing.

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