Describes a project which used email to link the author's English classroom with classrooms in three other states so that students could discuss Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Discusses email as a distinct genre of writing with rules, characteristics, and even an aesthetic of its own. Offers a student-generated list…

Discusses the ways that middle school English teachers can use popular teen culture within the context of general English instruction. Suggests bringing television, film, comics, advice columns, and teen magazines into the English classroom. (HB)

One of the most important educational objectives of high school is to teach critical-thinking skills, and no class does this better than strategic debate. Professor Mike Allen, lead author in a definitive study on debate and critical thinking, lauded debate's promotion of critical-thinking skills. Additionally, researcher Joe Bellon discusses the…

Beginning teachers typically enter schools feeling like foreigners, coping often with the jolting disorientation of not knowing where to find basic things such as restrooms, copiers, and mailboxes. They also struggle to pick up on the routines that others seem to have mastered with ease. At the same time, the culture and territory of US schools…

Provides an account of a class discussion of the poem, "Grace" by the Native American writer Joy Harjo. Describes how students systematically investigated the meaning of the title. Asks teachers to use Native American poetry more and provides sources of such works. (HB)

Provides an account of how one English teacher fosters awareness of the metaphorical nature of language and the sensory experience of poetry. Shows how the poem "Bullfrogs" was used to instruct students concerning point of view and the various perspectives from which a story can be seen. (HB)

Many of our children are exposed to practical, everyday issues that would have seemed foreign to us as a society twenty years ago: sexual harassment (regardless of gender), cyberbullying, virtual violence, and stalking by Internet predators. Widespread censorship for middle school students is counterproductive to thinking in such an open and…

Presents a list of books that were protested/attacked/censored at least three times between 1986 and 1995, culled from the American Library Association's "Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom." Discusses the limitations of any survey and standards for censorship. (TB)

In the book "Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning", Peter H. Johnson illuminates the power of classroom discourse and encourages us to become more conscious of and reflective about what we say and how we say it. Johnson presents five categories of classroom discourse with a chapter on each.

The consideration of questions of morality and ethics, of right and wrong is not confined to churches and mosques and synagogues; it also exists outside religious frameworks, notably in the schools and in teaching. In this article, the author extends the exploration of ethics into the classroom where virtually all acts of writing, language, and…

Time and opportunity to discover truths are essential in education. Discovery takes repetition and trial and error. Discovery crosses intellectual and disciplinary boundaries as well. What is learned through the diverse experiences of one's academic and individual lives will pollinate each other if there is room left for discovery. The tyranny of…

This issue of "Stepping into the Classroom" reaches the broad ends of the spectrum of experience to showcase two authors who have worked hard to learn from personal experience and translate ideas into practice. Greg Van Nest, a veteran teacher of six years, had gone to many national conferences, but in Nashville in 2006, he came away knowing he…

Three English teachers share their ideas on how their work as a writer helped them as a teacher. One teacher has found that the desire for meaningful response to her own writing has led her to evaluate her students similarly. A second teacher discusses how personal experience translates into teaching how to convey rejection in a useful and tactful…

Considers the root of English teachers'"public relations problem" as really a self-image problem. Proposes an examination of the unique features of English instruction in relation to other disciplines, both for cooperative educational improvement and the enhancement of English instruction as a unique discipline. (RL)

An article entitled "Pupils Persevere" covered the front page of Madison's local newspaper in February 2005. Highlighting the plight of four alternative programs in Madison's public school system, the article both angered and pleased students at this school. Although the central point of the front-page article was a plea for a larger physical…