It is imperative that in conversations about literacy instruction teachers incorporate curriculum dedicated to youth empowerment, especially for emergent bilingual and LGBTQ youth, as recognizing and honoring students' linguistic and epistemic privileges entails taking their claims about the world seriously. In this article, the author discusses…

To "help students think carefully about specific words and their uses," Darren Crovitz and Jessica A. Miller conceive a diagram that visually expresses the spaces and ties between words. Students eagerly explore contextual connotations and defend subtle shifts in word meaning, discovering how time, use, and circumstance all influence meaning.…

Lists five supplementary instructional materials that offer writing lessons for students during independent study time inside or outside of class. Provides publication information and a brief summary for each selection. (MM)

Three English teachers from the US have described about the texts they have used to expose their students to exercise their voices in a participatory democracy. The English teachers have used films like Sojourner Truth, Avalon, and Erin Brockovich to teach students the importance of voice of democracy.

Discusses interactive fiction (IF), a computer-based form of literature in which the reader plays the part of an important character and makes decisions affecting story outcomes. Finds that IF, with its orientation toward problem solving, encourages systematic, consciously planned metathinking, and engages students' interest. (SR)