Web-based digital video (DV) applications such as Animoto, Magistro, and Videolicious allow users without technical experience to easily create quality video by matching up appropriate images with text and sound. DV's multimedia capabilities encourage students to become more proficient in new literacies as well as new technologies. This piece…

The first part of this article recounts the experiences of a language arts teacher, Terry Patrick Bigelow, and his former student, Cynthia (Noyes) Ried, who suffers from Fahr's Syndrome, a neurodegenerative congenital disease that forms calcium deposits deep inside the brain. It is irreversible, inoperable, and incurable. In the first part of the…

Presents nine short pieces written by teachers describing how they relate the visual arts to language learning in their classrooms. (SR)

Offers observations and comments on what makes a good mentor at the middle school level from several experienced and novice English language arts teachers. (SR)

Discusses how to teach students the values of "understanding, tolerance, caring, and respect," and to help them understand and appreciate cultures other than their own. Focuses on five levels: building a classroom library of multicultural literature; using "lit sets" (multiple copies of the same book) to promote multicultural…

Explores the responsibilities of junior high/middle school language arts teachers in the 1980s and reports on the functions of the JH/MS Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English. (DD)

Surveys 40 middle-school language-arts teachers in 3 local public school districts. Finds that (1) most teachers believed it was important for their students to master grammar; and (2) teachers spend considerable time teaching grammar. Argues that grammar deserves a prominent place in the middle school curriculum. (RS)

Offers brief portraits of 10 remarkable and accomplished middle school language arts/English teachers from around the country. Finds common threads in their philosophy of teaching, learning, and living. (SR)

In this article, several teachers share their ideas on what they enjoy about coaching, directing, or advising. One of them, Mary Ann Yedinak, teaches middle school language arts, has a family, and has several partially written books still stored on her computer. However, she still wants to add an extracurricular activity such as Drama Club to her…

Discusses the development of a program for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that provides opportunities for students to be active in their language activities, to sample a range of language activities, and to use language in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes. (Author)

Offers brief descriptions from four teachers of middle school or high school students concerning how they have successfully used particular young-adult books in their English classrooms. (SR)

Relates stories of three middle and high school teachers to describe how teachers can effectively integrate young adult literature into the curriculum. Notes a variety of strategies, including the particularly effective use of multiple genre thematic units, where a variety of texts are linked by some common theme, allowing students to use…

Presents brief descriptions from 8 middle and high school teachers of various ways they have successfully incorporated history into the English curriculum, including using historical fiction; doing prior research; using interdisciplinary projects coordinated with the history teacher; a women's suffrage unit; linking world literature with classes…

Describes a year-long project for seventh graders that incorporates all aspects of language arts. Relates how the project culminates in a videotaped dramatic production of student writing. (MM)

Describes how a middle school English/language arts teacher had students paint in watercolors their responses to the novel the class was reading. Describes how this approach signficantly improved the rate and quality of student participation, and brought out new voices and fresh readings of the text. (SR)