Learning approaches that support students' awareness of real-world issues and provide opportunities for taking action will lead to true transformation of education.

Michael is 15 and repeating the ninth grade. He habitually tilts his chair back and drums annoyingly on his desk with a pencil. This morning, he was doing it--again--while you were trying to teach. What will you do? Responsive teachers shift their reactions in important ways. They adopt a social emotional lens: What does Michael's tapping say…

In 2006, a secondary English and feminist studies teacher created a course and designed a study around a reading exchange for eighth-grade girls from two vastly different communities. Girls from a school in a northeastern state read young adult novels and wrote about their reading and related topics with girls from Washington, DC on a wikispace…

Conceptions of literacy in the secondary English language arts classroom today have expanded in multiple directions, moving far beyond former emphases on reading comprehension and writing ability. This article presents the efforts of two secondary English language arts teachers in the Midwestern United States to expand the meaning of literacy in…