Explains how a teacher uses a mystery novel and an aesthetic approach to literature appreciation, as opposed to one concerned with facts in the text, to engage students and prep them for writing their own mystery stories. Shows how one student in particular overcame her sense of exclusion and felt a part of the "literacy club." (TB)

Considers how the successful teaching of Shakespeare represents the ultimate challenge for many English teachers, one that measures their ability to enlighten and inspire. Discusses how her colleague approaches teaching Shakespeare to eight graders. Describes how she approaches teaching Henry V to her ninth grade students. (SG)

It is very important and fun for the English teacher to take time simply to read to the students. (JH)

Describes how writing character descriptions of "The Cosby Show" is effective for discussing universal family problems and teaching positive values and standards. (MM)

Encourages modification of teaching strategies to facilitate academic achievement among students from diverse groups. Describes how the author collaborated with professionals from the Folger Library's Teaching Shakespeare Institute to develop a better way to teach Shakespeare to her predominantly African-American students. Describes how her…

Describes the collaboration between two teachers, involving six eighth grade and two ninth grade English classes, to present a unit reflecting the needs, hopes, and potential of the handicapped. Explains how volunteerism was incorporated into the classroom. Describes preparation, traveling to the Special Olympics State Basketball Tournament, class…

Describes how the author teaches her eighth-grade students to revise their writing, providing "working revision days" in class, offering direction and structure, and thereby helping students learn how much impact going back to a piece of writing and making sweeping changes can have on the end result. (SR)

Describes an open-discussion format for an eighth grade literature class in which students engage in higher order inquiry and clarification skills which then transfer to their reading and writing tasks. Provides rules for open discussion: be courteous; tolerate silence; and self-evaluate. Includes a sample discussion cue sheet. (MM)

Describes a writing project designed to encourage eighth-grade students to examine their past with specific objectives to: (1) complement the speech and reading components of a theme on childhood and youth; (2) introduce or review basic mechanical skills and basic research skills; and (3) introduce basic tools of expressive writing.(NH)

Describes an interdisciplinary unit combining eighth-grade language arts and U.S. history, based on the study of the immigrant experience and involving writing across the curriculum and role-playing. (MM)

Offers a close look at how three eighth-grade students used their writer's notebooks, examining what they thought of their writer's notebooks, what purposes they used them for, and how their responses changed over the course of the school year. Notes that the authors learned that their involvement in the writer's notebook was vital. Includes…

Describes a successful paper exchange program between eighth-grade students and high school seniors. States that the peer evaluations created audience awareness and motivated students' writing efforts. (MM)

Describes how the author's eighth-grade students went on a yearlong search to find the literature of the twenty-first century. Describes how the students read widely, chose their own books, evaluated them according to topic questions loosely based on the theme of breaking stereotypes, kept and shared journals, and carried out projects of their…