This article, based on a study in a sixth-grade middle school classroom in the rural southern United States, details a writing project that questions the nature of text and how text might positively affect students' perceptions as they become change agents for their communities.

In this article, the authors discuss how teachers can help students to grieve through the power of writing. Six years ago, a student named Miranda, experienced a great loss. To make sense of the tragedy, Miranda did what came naturally to her; she picked up her pen to write in her journal. Now a college sophomore, Miranda has grown through the…

One of the most important aspects of developing a close, personal relationship with literary characters is "relevancy." Readers have to find something to connect with in characters to care about them, and for that connection to take place, stories and their characters have to be relevant in the eyes of an adolescent to the point where they can…

Demonstrates how sixth graders became engaged with the daily journal of an eleventh grader and how this motivated them to write journals themselves. Discusses the varying topics they read and wrote about and how they learned from this experience. (PRA)

Describes how a survivor of the Holocaust helped a sixth grade class understand the experiences of the Holocaust and how the class helped the survivor to reach into his own repressed pain. (PRA)

Describes the computer as a hammer, a tool with unique qualities that allows people to perceive, manipulate, and express language in ways quite different from traditional media. Explores the tool of the multimedia presentation, a common use of technology in classrooms today. Describes a simple project with sixth graders that incorporates reading,…

Describes the use of language analysis and speech-act categories (declarations, assertives, directives, commissives, and expressives) to deal with meaningful classroom concerns, thereby enabling the teacher and students to work more effectively together. (KEH)

Describes a sixth grade reading workshop in which every class begins with a five-minute minilesson focusing on reading strategies and in which students choose their own books from a variety of sources. Discusses the required assignments in which students write at least one letter per week in a reading dialogue journal. (KEH)

Shows how teaching grammar through writing can be a successful strategy. Points out the steps one teacher used in teaching a writing and grammar process with her sixth graders and illustrates its effectiveness, both with one high-risk student and also through a school disruption caused by fire. (SR)

Describes the Multiple Intelligence search (used by the author with 6th and 9th graders) based on Ken Macrorie's "I-Search" and Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Describes the process as students conducted a search using library resources and technology; became experts on topics they are passionate about; created a professional…

Describes the Analytic Writing Exchange (AWE) as a cooperative endeavor by teachers who teach students to score writing papers and provide opportunities for students to exchange and grade papers written by their peers in cooperating schools. Claims students in the program become better writers and score better on state tests.(NH)

Assesses students' responses to and production of story conventions in detective or mystery stories and explores students' responses to literature as potential connections between comprehending and composing text. (MM)