David Narter has taught English and AP Language and Composition at Leyden High School for 19 years. As a high school English teacher, it breaks his heart to see a gradual shedding of pleasure reading and its academic benefits. Yet, it is a trend he says he has grown familiar with among his best students, who, as they grow older, are taught that…

In the years since 2008, when the "Success with ELLs" column started, these authors have seen many changes to the educational landscape, not dealing specifically with ELLs, but having implications for their education. Probably, the most significant change has been the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which have no…

This article suggests effective approaches to teaching English language learners in ways that can be of benefit to all students in mainstream middle and high school English classes. The five approaches described herein that mainstream ESL teachers can do to make assessments more accurate and reliable, as well as to address heterogeneity, are: (1)…

"Research for the Classroom" publishes mini-studies of ELA classroom practices and suggests ways in which high school and middle school English teachers may study the effectiveness of their pedagogy. The author of this mini-study notes that it takes around six minutes per day of instructional time for students to remember most of the…

Novice teachers often find themselves isolated; they are often assigned students with the most difficult challenges, with no mentor, and without professional learning to further develop the skills they began to acquire as student teachers. It is important to disrupt the institutionalized isolation of the novice teacher (Darling-Hammond and Sclan;…

There is an alternative to conventional teacher mentorship. The authors describe and analyze a promising model of mentorship where multiple mentees and mentors, each with varying levels of experience, engage collaboratively in the study of teaching practice. They have found that well-designed contexts in which beginning and experienced teachers…

Throughout the author's 10 years in the middle school classroom, Anne Frank remains one of the most powerful figures that her students take away from their eighth-grade year. At first glance, her students don't think they share much more than their age with the World War II heroine. They are from almost every part of the world "except" Europe;…

This article describes the assignments the author created to engage preservice teachers in designing instructional materials that befit today's students to help them overcome hurdles sometimes present when learning classic literature. Secondary and middle school English teachers may find these assignments useful as well so their students, too,…

One of the most important aspects of developing a close, personal relationship with literary characters is "relevancy." Readers have to find something to connect with in characters to care about them, and for that connection to take place, stories and their characters have to be relevant in the eyes of an adolescent to the point where they can…

"Two, four, six, eight, we ain't gonna integrate!" the author's eighth-grade students shouted with gusto. They were reading "Warriors Don't Cry," Melba Patillo Beals's memoir about her experiences as one of the nine African American students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Each time those hateful words uttered by…

This article describes an instructional lesson the author developed to help students use parody to read and write original poetry. The author begins this article with an introduction to parody and a rationale for using it as an instructional strategy. Then, he describes materials and procedures he used and he shares samples of student writing. He…

Teachers put much effort into selecting books and planning literature activities that will engage their students. On reflection, the author recognized a need to give students more freedom to choose what to read. Research shows that "when students were provided opportunities to select which text(s) they would read for a given topic or unit, their…

How might team teaching, young adult novels, and zines work together to engage students in thinking about, writing about, and building community? Four researchers worked with three eighth-grade English teachers and one student teacher to find out. The four eighth-grade English teachers teach as a team, meeting formally at least once a week to plan…

Literature that provokes readers to engage in activism is the author's favorite type of writing. For years she has celebrated the tradition of counterculture authors who advocated for a cause, using narratives to educate the world and elicit change. As a culminating project after a year of embracing dialogue and promoting writing for power, she…

In the May 2009 issue of "English Journal", we reported on our analysis of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to provide a first look at changes in the teaching of writing over the past 30 years. In this article, we provide a more detailed look, drawing on data collected from visits to 260 English, math, social studies, and…