Voices from the Middle - Volume 16, Issue 1, 2008

The author, a renowned researcher and literacy expert, helps young adolescents see themselves as having potential. In the classroom, they explore the importance of building relationships, leadership styles and skills, and their roles in society to create their own identities.

Van Sluys and five eighth-grade ethnographers with a range of linguistic experiences in Spanish and English write about their processes and findings in their shared study of parent literacy practices. Here, they describe a disconnect between their own understandings of literacy and their roles in a literacy learning community. For example, their Parent Project observations motivated them “to start richer conversations with people in literature groups and to listen carefully to what others have to say.”

Gainer talks about the importance of connecting students’ background knowledge, experiences, and interests to curricular goals. He highlights the voice of DeAndre, an eighth-grade boy in special education classes, whose participation in an after-school club led to the creation of a video. According to Gainer, “[W]hen given the opportunity to engage with popular culture as a text, DeAndre was a highly organized, self-confident, and caring leader who coached, scaffolded, and taught others using a variety of high-level literacy competencies.” DeAndre’s experiences reflect the power of popular culture in helping us build bridges between students’ in-school and out-of-school literacies.

The authors describe a collaborative relationship between a new middle level language arts teacher and a teacher educator in which they implement “classroom committees.” This project enabled students to be responsible for their classroom environment as they worked together to problem solve issues that were important to them. Bryant and Daniels feel strongly that “Classroom Committees can be a powerful tool for teachers in their effort to resist standardized teaching and passive compliance with policies passed down from those who do not know their students.”

Citing his study with Michael Smith on boys’ engagement in school, Wilhelm calls students’ in-school experiences “mind-numbingly poor quality.” Students crave meaningful work and meaningful relationships, he believes, and when there is a focus on inquiry and the design of artifacts born of meaningful knowledge, there is more engagement, more understanding, and a stronger promotion of parent and community collaborations.

This unthemed issue is a chance to mention some wonderful YA books that allow adolescents to explore the issues they care about and, in some cases, enable them to face their own prejudices and problems. Reviewed are: Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham; The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert; Deadline by Chris Crutcher; Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez.

With her trademark poignant anecdote, Kittle paints a familiar picture of adolescents whose clothing and demeanor loudly identify the person they want others to believe they are. But in the end, there is always a story to tell, a connection to be made, a truth to understand. Writing is one way to find them.

Shanklin discusses webquests as a great way to offer diverse reading materials as part of an inquiry cycle alone or in teams, answering a question, solving a problem, completing a task often involving interdisciplinary learning. The appeal of integrating technology and the intrigue of learning to create webquests for each other make this an exiting addition to any teacher’s arsenal.

Seven students from Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis tackle a review one book each of the seven books from the widely read Harry Potter series.

Hayes shows how a movie-making project in a Georgia middle school illustrates the elements of NCTE’s definition of 21st century literacies.

Reviewed are: Finding the Artist Within by Peggy Albers; Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry by Jeffrey Wilhelm; Dramatizing the Content with Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre, Grades 6–12 by Rosalind Flynn; Free within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s Literature by Rudine Sims Bishop.

Hedrick introduces us to Rebekah Shively, a reading coach in Florida, who used the impending birthday celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King to construct a relevant and engaging lesson that pushed her lowest-quartile middle schoolers to work hard and inspire each other.

In a teaching climate of test prep and scripted lessons, Johnston has given up the classroom. He has not given up on teachers, however. Here is a description of the rationale for a Middle Level study committee that plans to document poor teaching practices dictated by school districts and to construct a database with research-supported techniques that can validate alternative approaches for those reluctant administrators who so easily buy into structured programs they can control.