Authentic writing allows students to write for audiences other than the teacher for reasons that matter to them and that lead to changing how an audience thinks, feels, or acts. How can teachers prioritize authentic writing instruction and help students become successful writers? Lauren Esposito does this through improv, an art form that develops…

"Improvisational theater" is a collaborative art form in which performers co-construct unscripted narratives, often based on audience suggestions, and always guided by a set of central principles. One practice common in improv instructional settings is "side-coaching," the move of providing immediate, public, verbal feedback…

In this article, the authors explore multimodal literacies and how they use literacy contracts and quadrants to help students to examine their identities via writing and the creative arts. A notable outcome of their joint efforts is that when teachers and students transacted with multimodal literacies, they showed value for their personal and…

In this article, the authors describe how an embodied arts-based approach to teaching the story of Anne Frank enhanced eighth graders' experiences in three middle school classrooms. The article begins by framing the theories that guide the authors' perspectives on embodiment and drama-infused instruction to promote literacy learning. This is…

Dynamic and responsive methods enable teachers to assess students' writing skills precisely and equitably, and to empower students of diverse skill levels to develop their writing. Assessing writing with equity-minded precision requires paying close attention to students' performances as writers, identifying challenges in those performances, and…

Whether novice or experienced, writers must come to terms with the daunting task of filling up a blank page, or screen, in an effort to produce writing. Student writers are no different. They enter teachers' classes having confronted similar difficulties with discovering what it is they want to say. In seeking to help students, they devote…

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) concluded that "literature reading is fading as a meaningful activity, especially among younger people." How can educators continue to teach students about the power of literary response when the priority is for them to achieve proficiency on standardized tests, whose scores can only be narrowly…

After teaching in rural North Carolina for about six years, the author was on the verge of giving up on teaching Shakespeare to her students. Although they seemed to enjoy the action and the drama of Shakespeare's plays, the lack of connection between the students and the language and culture of the plays interfered with her ability to generate a…

Challenges the identification of literacy with intelligence and abstract reasoning ability. Suggests nonverbal projects as a way of broadening the definition of intelligence in the English classroom. A bibliography is included. (DF)

Gustave Weltsek, a high school English teacher, has turned to process "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to avoid passing on traditional views and interpretations of the play. He has helped the students to see relevance in William Shakespeare's text by using improvisations to get them talking about issues that are important to them.

Advocates incorporating humor in the classroom (as a means of assessing students' learning and understanding) by deliberately establishing a classroom environment conducive to original expression and risk-taking, and by the juxtaposition of curriculum material. (SR)

Discusses the story, The Witch", and explains that the story is a devilish puzzle which defies rigid interpretation but openly invites complacent students to sift, sort, and contest tidbits of evidence. Suggests how this can be done. (Author/RB)

Describes a seventh grade class project that incorporated language skills and creative writing in making a monster magazine. (GB)

Describes how having students draw both their own and a literary character's reality not only introduces students, quite painlessly and concretely, to a large number of literary terms, but also suggests that literature appreciation demands an imaginative extension into the life of another. (MM)

Offers a number of techniques designed to challenge or alter or disrupt how a student perceives reality, thereby facilitating student development in creative thinking. (RL)