Describes the role of class discussion and a teacher's particular discourse moves in the development of an inclusive learning culture in a high school English literature course with a rigorous academic curriculum. Focuses on how the teacher transformed previously tracked gifted and talented and general students' understandings of what counted as…

Discusses the author's approach to writing nonfiction for adolescents and her experiences with reactions of young readers. Explains the value of real stories being told and read by adolescents. Supports the incorporation of nonfiction into the classroom. (SC)

Discusses a course in children's literature offered through distance education in a community college. Describes topics to be addressed, including a brief history of children's literature, didactic stories and romantic stories, child development and folklore, illustration, and the political questions of our time; and sex roles, multicultural…

Provides support for using computer games in the English curriculum, as texts of the new technologies, to strengthen links between students' in-school and out-of-school worlds. Claims that far from presenting a threat to accepted literacy practices, the games help students gain an awareness of how texts work and become more reflexive about the…

Brings historical evidence to bear to evaluate different articulations of citizenship and corresponding forms of education. Claims both critical citizenship is a core value and the centrality of civic education. Maps the history of various definitions of citizenship. Examines the linkage between educational theory and curricular development, the…

Argues that any curriculum of peace must have at its core the teaching (not preaching) of empathy. Recommends ecphrastic poetry (poetic response to works of art) as a teaching tool for empathy, and discusses how the author uses one particular poem written in response to a World War II photograph to stimulate student writing response and…

Looks at the missions and goals of the International Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, a global multicultural network promoting communication and cooperation for international exchange of teaching practices, literature, literacy, curriculum development, and research in English. Suggests some criteria to look at when…

Presents an interview with Chris Crutcher, the 2000 recipient of the Margaret A. Early Award. Notes that he was given the award for his contributions to writing for teenagers. Talks about his life and origins as a writer, and his early influences as a writer in terms of style. Discusses the use of Crutcher's literature in the classroom. (SG)

Attempts to make sense of "English in the New Zealand Curriculum" and, in addition, to reflect on ways in which the document has forced teachers to make sense of or construct English. Describes flaws in the national English curriculum as represented in the document, and notes some positives. (SC)

Argues that Curriculum 2000 fails to address the complexity of modern life. Agues that there are substantial gaps in the curriculum which derive mainly from British government policy being premised on crude and obsolete notions of English identity. Notes that this severely constrains English educators' ability to construct a critical curriculum…

In this paper, we draw on Bernstein's [1996. "Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique." London: Taylor and Francis] notion of "framing" of pedagogical communication to propose a framework for use in specific literacy contexts. Here, we illustrate how this framework has emerged from an examination of text response online…

Paula Ressler, an English teacher, suggests unconventional ways to work with William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in the secondary school English curriculum to challenge normative sexual and gender identity beliefs. Reading queerly to explore non-normative sex and gender identities and reading for social justice have the potential to…

Teaching English in Turkey has its own potential problems due to the lack of authentic language input. Turkey is a foreign language context. This hinders learners in their mastering English in a short time. Moreover, other problems caused by poor instructional planning contribute to this process negatively. With these potential hindrances, the…

Progress assessment aims to assess students' performance and progress during a course of study. Its purpose is primarily developmental--to help students improve learning. Progress assessment is of special value in distance education in that it can motivate or pace distance learners throughout their course of study. It can help the tutor monitor…

The majority of college English departments in America identify and categorize their writing courses by genre. Because of this, writing instruction as a field represents teaching interests and results in written products that are diverse enough to suggest that departments should hire writing specialists who have equally diverse credentials in the…