English Journal - Volume 98, Issue 2, 2008

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

“Speaking My Mind” essays, Writing Project colleagues explain why using the five-paragraph essay for teaching writing is ill-advised.

As he suggests useful ways to talk and listen to students about homework, a veteran English teacher and teacher educator surveys the most significant current scholarship on the homework controversy.

Rather than fight the lure of the Internet for teens, this high school teacher has found ways to harness students’ interests by creating electronic homework assignments.

A high school student and her teacher tell the story of how they brought a traditional research paper strategy into the 21st century.

Combining practical suggestions with references to research, Fisher and Frey help teachers encourage students to take ownership of their assignments.

Over 180 students were surveyed to enable these high school teachers to rethink what works for homework and what doesn’t.

This first-year English teacher made a deal with her students: No other homework this year, if you read 20 books on your own. Did it work?

An English teacher turned curriculum coordinator updates Hillocks’s reading levels to create a method for improving students’ reading comprehension and critical-thinking skills.

This twelfth-grade English teacher couldn’t help but dread grading piles of students’ essays, until she began to employ Writer’s Notebooks in her class.

A high school English teacher finds Sexton’s retold fairy tales can spark students’ imaginations while helping them learn to analyze literature.

Why is enrollment in his successful journalism course waning? This school newspaper adviser gets the story.

“Adolescents and Texts” focuses on adolescent literacy and the teaching of reading in high school and middle school.

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

“Off the Shelves” discusses new young adult literature and explores ways of teaching YA texts in middle and high school English classes.