English Journal - Volume 98, Issue 4, 2009

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

This issue’s guest editors discuss the place of LGBTQ people, curriculum, and concerns in schools and introduce the contents of this special issue of English Journal.

This glossary includes terms and acronyms for understanding important concepts related to sexual identity and gender variance.

The authors encourage teachers to help students learn to read LGBT texts for pleasure.

In a personal account, Banks suggests reading LGBT YA lit critically and empathetically.

The authors offer a powerful argument for teaching LGBTQ literature and provide a list of suggested titles.

A new high school teacher describes her efforts to teach queer theory.

The chair of NCTE’s Gay Straight Educators’ Alliance proposes LGBT-inclusive language.

A British educator explains how specific reading practices can assist students with issues of sexuality and sexual identity.

In a moving tribute to his son, the author Stephan Sure, Suhor celebrates the power of the written word.

This slam poet responds to violence against his lesbian daughter.

This author explains how works by Dickinson and Whitman can be used to integrate GLBT themes into English classes.

An American teacher asks Turkish students to confront homophobia.

Sanchez’s LGBT-themed novels can be taught to meet a wide range of ELA curriculum standards.

Blazar’s students understand the play’s characters and themes by writing and interacting in role.

The author uses educational drama to enable students to understand and counteract homophobia. Many suggestions for classroom practices are highlighted.

A secondary teacher describes an assignment that asks students to write in the voices of those embroiled in the tragic death of a gay young man.