This article describes a schoolwide read that was conducted in a middle school in the Southeastern United States. We answer the question: What happens when a middle school implements a schoolwide read of a young adult novel that explores multicultural issues? Our data suggest that schools who participate in schoolwide literacy events like this one and who intentionally choose texts that address the needs of their students provide opportunities for social learning within and beyond classrooms forge cross disciplinary connections and foster talk that leads to critical dialogue.

Rick Meyer past president of CELT (Center for the Expansion of Language and Thinking) introduces us to the organization’s history and current activities. CELT is dedicated to the improvement of education through a greater understanding of the relationship between language thought and learning.

The authors demonstrate with two elementary-level projects how teachers can successfully engage students in meaningful literacy learning while still addressing standards. In both projects standards are addressed but do not drive the instruction.

First graders learn the power of transmediation—recasting meaning from one sign system to another—as they create meaningful texts in a very dynamic artists/writers workshop. Students study picture books to identify story elements conveyed in both pictures and in words and then infuse their new understandings into their own carefully crafted picture books.

High school students working in small groups create Shakespearean comic books to bring the text of Romeo and Juliet alive for themselves and their classmates. The students work on paper rather than online.

Fifth-grade students take on the identities of adults in a fictional book publishing company then research and write their own book about Colonial America. The improvised classroom drama of the publishing company brought a new dimension to student inquiry and the pictures the students created to illustrate their book helped to reveal their comprehension of the information they were researching.

News from the WLU president and board.

Jeff Felix discusses a study on how teachers use blogs as an instructional tool in their classrooms and found that there are many benefits to both teachers and students. Blogs are highly motivating easy to use and encourage active participation in the learning process.

The Talking Points editors introduce this issue’s articles based on the theme Emerging Literacies for the 21st Century.

News from the WLU president and others about upcoming WLU events.

WLU President Katie Van Sluys updates members on the organization’s news and events; there is also information on WLU membership and next year’s Literacies for All Summer Institute.

Kellie Chavira’s first teaching job is in a bilingual second-grade classroom in Chicago. As a way of focusing on complex and critical definitions of literacy while still addressing the outcomes associated with guided reading expectations Kellie undertakes a readers theatre project which gives her students practice in decoding and fluent reading while engaging them with real issues and challenging solutions.

Read the full issue online.

Bess Altwerger and Prisca Martens introduce the articles in this their final issue as editors.

Author Debra Goodman describes the first-/second-grade classroom of Susan Austin who provides a rich literacy learning experience for her students that is based on whole-language principles. Goodman finds that contrary to common belief whole-language classrooms can be highly organized in a way that maximizes opportunities for learning.

Stephen Mogge describes the learning experiences of an adult English language learner from Brazil who in her quest to obtain an Illinois driver’s license learned much more than just the “rules of the road.” The syntax of the drivers’ manual proved challenging but less so than the knowledge of the social context in which licenses are obtained. Mogge concludes that a discreet and decontextualized approach to language learning is inadequate for meeting ELLs’ needs.

Two new TAWL groups are introduced and three other groups catch us up on their recent activities.

President’s Message Talking TAWL Call for New Talking Points Editor WLU Board News WLU Membership InformationMichael Muise president of WLU and other members of the WLU Board update readers on the Board’s activities. Membership information is also included.

Jerome Harste and Christine Leland review the children’s book Once upon an Ordinary School Day and discuss three instructional strategies that can be used to delve deeper into the book using a critical literacy perspective. They say that it’s not the book itself that is critical but rather what you do with it.

Prisca Martens and Bess Altwerger introduce the articles in this issue of Talking Points and encourage readers to attend the 2007 Literacies for All Summer Institute

Pamela Stockinger and Michelle Tharpe take us into Michelle’s first-grade classroom where we observe the children in rich literacy events reading and writing for real purposes. Michelle provides meaningful contexts for learning meets her students at their point of need and observes them as they respond and grow.

Steven Strauss a linguist and practicing neurologist critiques the theory and science behind Sally Shaywitz’s research on reading and the brain that has so strongly influenced federal reading policies and finds it lacking.

Caryl Crowell introduces us to Tucson TAWL both the group’s history and its current activities

Rick Meyer looks at the cognitive frames that lead to students and their schools being labeled “below proficient” or “needs improvement” by various government agencies and proposes instead a new frame through which we can see the remarkable achievements of students and their teachers.

This column discusses the value of identifying with literary characters—and the value of not identifying with them—and places both in the context of the inquiry work the authors do with texts and readers.