In this article, classroom researcher Harrison Campbell recounts his research into the literacy experiences of eight junior high (grades 8 and 9) students over the course of a school semester in Western Canada. Using phenomenological inquiry, Campbell invited students into a process of making meaning through experience. These experiences, brought…

For the last several years, teacher-researchers Jessica Jasper, Laura Dvorak, Steven Athanases, and Sergio Sanchez have partnered with a program called Globe Education, Shakespeare's Globe London. Practitioners in the program use teaching practices that engage learners with Shakespeare's works and other complex texts through drama practices. Jess…

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;…

"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…

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…

Being up front with students about Standard English as "the language of power" allows them to learn valuable lessons about Standard and non-Standard English dialects. In this article, the author describes an eighth-grade language unit that helps students understand the value of dialects and standardized English. The author concludes that the…

English teachers share the blame for the lack of imaginative responses from students to the texts they bring to students, given their penchant for focusing on the most technical elements of literature rather than on its emotional resonance. In classrooms, teachers often concentrate too heavily on what Janet Allen calls the "products" of their…

When students take a stance on authentic social issues in their English classrooms, they have the opportunity to imagine their world as otherwise. Along with attention to other intellectual skills and civic skills, educators should prioritize the development of imagination, as it is "crucial" if students are to "project and embrace a vision for…

How can teachers merge research and daily practice? Where can they find the time, information, and resources? In exploring this issue, it is important to clarify the definition of "research". "Research" might mean (1) using best practices that are already research-based or (2) doing research on one's own students. For purposes of discussion in…