Young adolescents are immersed in 21st century literacies in their daily lives, and they bring into schools a level of appreciation and expertise that often goes untapped. This article presents an eighth-grade English classroom's experience with digital video composing and informal classroom drama as multimodal literacy practices. Students in this…

Declaring that "public education is at a crossroads where the future of our world could not be more precariously poised," the author addresses the challenges facing middle school teachers, such as the narrowing of curriculum due to high-stakes assessments. She argues that students should not leave middle school without the "interpretive skills"…