If we listen to them, the words of our students can provide a road map for instructional responses that meet their diverse literacy needs. In this article, Cara Gutzmer, a middle school literacy coach, and Phil Wilder, a teacher collaborator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discuss how a responsive teaching framework guided their…

New literacies are affecting the ways that we choose to spend our time in teaching and learning. In this article, Hagood describes the work of nine middle grades teachers' explorations of new literacies, including digital technologies and pop culture, and their implementations in their content area instruction. She also highlights some of the…

Argues that students are capable of discovering a great deal about a poem simply by exploring their thoughts, ideas, and feelings instead of worrying about whether their analysis matches that of the teacher. Presents a "lively and insightful" discussion with a group of sixth graders on Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." (SR)

Talks about the "writing from the heart" practiced in one sixth-grade classroom by students and teacher, for many different purposes. Describes instructional approaches that encourage such writing. (SR)

Describes how one teacher worked with a learning-disabled sixth grader, who benefited from the opportunity to write about what he knew and cared about. (SR)

Discusses how a teacher of sixth- and seventh-grade primarily Mexican immigrants: (1) models being a second-language learner by working at Spanish; (2) provides an enjoyable school experience; (3) learns about students' culture and gives it respect; (4) seeks a detailed picture of where each English learner is academically; and (5) cultivates a…