Christensen discusses why teachers need to teach students "voice" in its social and political context, to show the intersection of voice and power, to encourage students to ask, "Whose voices get heard? Whose are marginalized?" As Christensen writes, "Once students begin to understand that Standard English is one language among many, we can help…

When asked to discuss their middle school language arts classes, talented eighth graders identified concerns and made suggestions for their teachers. Students voiced desire for choices in selecting reading materials, writing topics and genre. They preferred having extended periods of time to engage in reading and writing activities, rather than…

In the summer of 2009, this author devised a Saturday program with an emphasis on writing for publication targeting three students as his nucleus. One of the students, Mariano, was the only one of the three to accept the invitation. This was a strong indication of his passion for writing. Thus, three weeks before school began, the author and…

This is an introduction to a high school student's perspective on what the ideal language arts classroom should look like. It is based on a middle school language arts classroom structured around a Nancie Atwell style workshop model. The workshop model in the classroom was grounded in real life literacy experiences, allowed for choice in writing…

When the author offered the option of writing an article for "Voices from the Middle" to her seventh- and eighth-grade language arts classes, some students were unwavering in their preference to stay on the steady, familiar ground of writing a letter to a peer about a book they had read and loved. Noah McCord, Tobin Feldman-Fitzthum, and Jill…

According to Wilhelm, a teacher's power lies in learning to work "with" students, starting with listening. He recommends setting up conditions and mechanisms that help you learn from your students what they are learning, what challenges they are facing, and how best to teach them. Through inquiry, the classroom can become a vital and engaging…

Pursuing student voice in your design of curriculum helps students take more ownership of their learning. Gaynor and Shanklin developed an open-ended survey to gather information about students' growing understandings of the purposes for reading and writing and to solicit feedback about the year's activities. The survey is presented here, along…

A learning community includes all of the people who want to ensure that students are successful: (1) the teachers and their colleagues and administrators; (2) the parents; and (3) the students. Through sharing curriculum requirements and responsibilities for teaching, students in the author's class learned in-depth content knowledge, respect for…

At the minimum, one of every four middle school students will struggle to cope with the grade-level textbooks they are typically assigned to read. Few reading programs used in middle schools have any research evidence that they actually improve student reading proficiencies. Only three programs had even modest evidence of a positive effect, and…

Reluctant and struggling readers, many of whom are boys, are placed in reading intervention classes; however, often the environmental conditions of these intervention classrooms are not conducive for fostering a student's love for reading. This article describes Cambourne's optimal conditions for literacy learning and the results from implementing…

Based on her experiences with the transformation of 8th-grade reading in one school, Ivey advocates for a substantial shift in what students read in English class and what is available to them in school. Middle school classrooms are in dire need of a book makeover, and this should be the first order of business when considering what to do for…

The authors interviewed 17 middle school reading and language arts teachers as part of a larger study on an evidence-based intervention called Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR). CSR is a multi-component reading instructional model combined with cooperative grouping and peer discussion. We show from the teacher interviews that CSR has benefits…

Clay's work regarding how learners develop independent, strategic control over the process of constructing meaning from written texts indicates that all learners need a flexible repertoire of strategies as a network for: (a) "problem solving" or working on text on the run, (b) "self-monitoring" of the message for clarity and coherence, and (c)…

As educators who have been strongly influenced by this journal, the authors decided to do a content analysis of the "voices" from "Voices from the Middle," from its inception to today. They listened closely to who is talking, what the authors are (and are not) discussing, the educational contexts of these conversations, and how the dialogue has…

Middle Section member Johnston traces the history of the Middle Section, from the growing acknowledgment that middle level teachers had specific needs and concerns that had to be addressed to voting for the Section's establishment to presenting at the NCTE Annual Convention with a student who had once considered himself to be a non-reader. He…