Provides eight citations and annotations, including plotlines and thematic overviews, of autobiographical writings suitable for English instruction purposes for middle-school students. (HB)

Reflects on a lifetime's work in education. Relates the author's experiences, both as a teacher and as student, to illustrate how the quest for renewal and the love of learning run through it all. (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…

Describes a teacher's personal memories which, when shared with students, helped make the poetry of Wordsworth and Whitman more meaningful. Suggests that for true comprehension of poetry to occur--Romantic or otherwise--teachers must lead students and model from within their own personal connections. (NH)

Describes ideas for writing prompts and assignments proposed by three different teachers: (1) writing poems inspired by smells of herbs and spices; (2) writing about past perceptions and feelings after looking at a photograph; and (3) writing a "self-portrait." (TB)

Discusses how a high school writing teacher became increasingly aware of her own writing processes and attitudes toward writing. Reflects on what makes writing worthwhile for her, what prompts her to write, and what part revision plays in her writing. Notes that becoming a reflective writer has changed the way she teaches writing. (RS)

Describes a class activity designed to play up the blurred boundary between fiction and nonfiction. Notes that students filled out Internal Revenue Service tax forms for people who might exist and that other students created biographies and autobiographies from the fictitious tax forms. (RS)

Explains the author's trip to a conference of English teachers in South Africa, focusing on how her time at the conference and during her travels afterward within South Africa (where teachers in local classrooms are struggling to help students communicate in a country that has 11 official languages) expanded her concept of literacy as a cultural…

Presents a high school student's description in class of her deep connection to Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," and how it offers a glimpse of the vast interior lives of women. (SR)

A high school teacher describes his educational philosophy, which he feels would result in his ability to take the opportunities he missed with his high school students to teach future classes with the new philosophy in the mind. He also hopes that it would allow him to develop teachers who would be able to give more consideration to "the…

Describes how a teacher uses Stanley Kunitz's poem "The Portrait" to help students write poems full of concrete, sensory images about deeply private experiences. Presents examples of student poems. (RS)

A graduate student preparing to teach, who suffered from traumatic brain injury (TBI) that resulted in partial amnesia and learning disabilities when she was a high school student, describes her experience. She illustrates the difficulties she faced in returning to school and recommends strategies educators could use to help similar student they…

Discusses how certain novels can be used to create hope in student readers and help them to see that life is worth living. (CRH)

Describes the way one English teacher used teacher research in her classroom to study writing, literature, her students, and herself. Explains her activities and some of her findings. Advocates teacher research as a natural activity that teachers, either consciously or unconsciously, engage in every day of their professional lives. (HB)

Recounts a humorous personal experience while producing the yearbook in a small Illinois high school in the late fifties. (EL)