In the spring of 2010, the author had the pleasure of working with four fifth graders, exploring reading engagement with graphic novels. During her research study, she became inspired by the connections these fifth graders made between the graphic novels they discussed and the film medium and ultimately concluded that this connection contributed…

Project "Green Footprint" is a local community environment project created by fifth-grade students to remind the citizens of their school (and Earth) to tread lightly on Mother Nature's creations. The students chose to focus on the air quality outside the school, specifically the carbon emissions produced by idling cars. Students complete Internet…

It's a common dilemma in many classrooms: Give your students an inch and they often take a mile. As teachers, they've probably all been in the situation where they want to encourage student participation and find a way to engage students in a particular text or topic, yet they err on the side of caution to keep the imagined mayhem at bay. Because…

Jason Ranker argues that struggling students need "opportunities to use print and produce meanings in diverse and multifaceted ways." His case study of two fifth-grade girls who used digital video production to better understand aspects of the civil rights movement reveals ways in which multimodal literacy practices "can create new possibilities…