"Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of the most powerful young adult novels to come along in the past decade. It has won numerous awards, including the "School Library Journal" award for "Best Book of the Year," and was a National Book Award Finalist. Despite this acclaim, many English teachers are uncomfortable teaching "Speak" in their…

The authors elaborate on the experience of creating for high school students effective multisensory, hands-on learning centers that address a full range of elements from the English language arts curriculum. Allison P. Movitz and Kerry P. Holmes detail the centers Movitz designed for a Mostly Medieval unit to show how learning centers can help…

A former high school teacher's reflections on the connections between basketball and poetry suggest the significance of extracurricular activities for teachers and students. W. Douglas Baker recounts how he guided students to make connections among "the collision of activities in their lives" by delving into the practices and discourses of three…

Stacey Brown energizes high school students with "brain-twisting" writing prompts, word games to hone vocabulary and spelling skills, and art to show complex ideas. Additionally, reading aloud to her class models fluent reading, expands students' vocabularies, builds community, and stimulates student-led discussions about the novel. (Contains 1…

Offers examples of research in language arts education to illustrate both the values and difficulties of such research. (RL)

Describes the 2000 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in North America. Notes the festival was designed to create opportunities for personal communication between poets and teachers, who share so many similar concerns for the future of language arts education. (RS)

Joseph Coencas shows scenes from films to help special education students improve their visual and auditory skills, build confidence in their abilities to talk about and analyze the components of a narrative, and feel comfortable engaging in class discussion and writing. He also encourages students to pursue their interests in subjects they have…

A rationale for using film in the language arts classroom and suggestions on how to use it. (DD)

Discusses curriculum reform in California. Suggests choosing works that have quality and depict what is universal in human nature in order to select literature that is meaningful to all. (MS)

Studies of media systems should be part of English education so students could understand how language functions in social contexts. (JH)

Sources are listed for free and inexpensive materials for secondary language arts. (JH)

The author discusses a seven-day advanced seminar in General Semantics held at the University of Denver during the summer of 1969, and the profound effects it had on an experienced, disillusioned English teacher. (Author/LF)

Describes how an English teacher uses ghost stories in his classroom to further students' interest in and understanding of epics. Presents a short unit in which all the class work focuses on scary kinds of things. (SR)

Argues that language arts education and discussions of language arts have skirted issues of existential philosophy and religion, even though these issues are inherently a part of literature. Raises concerns about the personal and political consequences of avoiding questions about why people exist and what purpose they have in life. (TB)