As the use of English spreads around the world, it is important to remember that there is not now just one English but multiple "world englishes." Many scholars and teachers have argued that language changes to adapt to different cultural contexts. This world of rapid cross-cultural communication is the world in which our students read and write.…

The speed with which the technologies of literacy are changing is dazzling and unsettling. Almost every year, it seems a new way of combining words, images, and video emerges and becomes a phenomenon among students. Meanwhile, teachers are left wondering how to respond to these new ways of writing and reading and the identities that students…

Electronic portfolios allow students to include video, images, hyperlinks, and audio, along with written texts, to create varied and comprehensive representations of what they have accomplished. Such collections of information also change the ways that teachers and students choose to present themselves and the ways that we read these presentations…

The question is not whether literacy practices are present in contemporary popular culture--it is hard not to find a movie or program without some representation of literacy in it. The more important and useful question is, How do we in the audience interpret the literacy practices we find in popular culture? What do such representations tell us…

Emotional responses to plagiarism are rarely addressed in professional literature that focuses on ethics and good teaching practices. Yet, the emotions that are unleashed by cases of plagiarism, or suspicions of plagiarism, influence how we perceive our students and how we approach teaching them. Such responses have been complicated by online…

Alarms about a "literacy crisis" among young people have been sounded on a regular basis for more than a century. Yet as each generation of students matures, it is able to accomplish the reading and writing tasks necessary for society to continue. Perhaps then, rather than sounding more alarms, it is time to consider what anxieties, particularly…

The power of culture to shape gender identities becomes particularly crucial for adolescents as they make the transition from child to adult. Yet as adults we offer little coherent, direct instruction in such matters. The author advocates supporting girls as they explore complex and empowering literacy practices, particularly online.

In this article, the author advocates the use of literacy narratives--assignments in which students are asked to describe and reflect upon their experiences with reading and writing. Among their other uses, she believes that they provide a sense of students' prior literacy experiences and of their general feelings toward reading and writing, and…

In this article, the author, a mother of twin boys in middle school, shares excerpts from her sons' writings which she thinks are too violent and action oriented. She marvels at their knack for pacing, detail, and metaphor, but in the back of her mind she wonders what the content will make readers think of them as a boy and of her as a parent. She…

Beyond decoding words and sentences, everyone thinks of a reader as a person who makes particular kinds of intertextual connections, who asks particular kinds of questions of a text, who reads at a particular intellectual distance from the text, who talks about more than the text's meaning and analyzes its nature. The difference in how teachers…

Discusses labels, literacy, and education; defining truth; and the role of identity in literacy practices. (SG)

Considers how in recent years, media literacy education in the classroom has been viewed as a bridge to more sophisticated print literacy. Examines assumptions about the connections between popular media--using television as a specific example--and print literacies. Outlines three approaches to media literacy exploring advantages and disadvantages…

In exploring her uneasiness in dealing with issues of religion in her classroom, the author asks, "Should I guide students away from writing about issues that explicitly dealt with their faith? Should I impose an outright prohibition on such writing? Or should I find ways to engage with the issues and the perspectives that were so clearly…

The author acknowledges that there is often a gap in how and for what ends technology is used--a gap between some students and their teachers and a gap among different groups of students. What is less obvious is the nature of these gaps in terms of literacy practices. He then asks, "Could we be missing ways to connect with our students and help…

The complexity of race and its effects on students?and teachers?in and out of school make it so difficult to address that many of us avoid it at all costs. Yet, as troubling as that may be, race is a pervasive and powerful force that organizes culture and society, and we do our students no favors by pretending it doesn't affect our lives,…