Lucy Milner has taught English in two urban high schools in North Carolina and English Education at Salem College. She has been involved in the North Carolina Governor’s School program for more than three decades, first as an English teacher and then as the Director of N. C. Governor’s School West. She has developed curriculum materials for several institutions and has written numerous book reviews and features for a variety of newspapers and educational journals, co-edited two books on children’s literature and English pedagogy, and co-authored five editions of Bridging English.  Like her co-authors, she has received local and state awards for her educational work, but none so cherished as having two high school annuals dedicated to her.

Joan Mitchell is completing her Ed.D. in English Education at the University of Alabama. She is an award winning English teacher in North Carolina and Colorado high schools.

Initial Definitions 1

A Brief History 2

Challenges of Teaching English in the

Twenty-first Century 5

Core Beliefs 7

Importance of Core Beliefs 8

• Traditional Principles of Learning 8

• Student-Centered, Active,

Constructivist Learning 9

• Student-Centered Mnemonics 11

Individual Decisions 13

Conclusion 14

The Nature of Learners 15

Learning Styles 16 • Right/Left Brain 16

• Multiple Intelligences 17

The Learning Process 18

Instructional Objectives 18 • Educational

Outcomes in the Cognitive Domain 19

• Differentiation 19

Four Organizational Structures 22

Lecture 23 • Whole-Class Discussion 27

• Group Work 37 • Individual Work 44

Layering the Four Approaches 46

Learning Stations 47

Learning with Technology 49

Technology in Schools 51 • Technology

in the Language Arts Classroom 51

• Critical Web Evaluation 53 • National

Technology Standards for Teachers and

Students 54

Conclusion 54

3 Centering on Language 55

Awakening and Broadening Language

Consciousness 57

Language Inquiry in the Classroom 57

• Doublespeak 59

The Story of the English Language 64

American English: 1620–Present 65

• Language and Power 66

The Study of Language: Linguistics 66

Descriptive versus Prescriptive Grammar

66 • Issues of Right and Wrong 67

The Instructional Debate 68

The Linguistic Debate: Change versus

Stability 68 • The Political Debate:

Cultural Diversity 71 • The

Psychological or Biological Debate:

Language Acquisition 76 • The

Practical Debate: Research and

Experience in Grammar Instruction 78

Language Instruction 80

Definitions of Grammar 80 • Grammar

1 80 • Grammar 3 80 • Grammar 2 83

• Grammar and Technology 87

• English Language Instruction for ELL

Students 87 • Benchmarks for

Evaluating Language Instruction 88

Conclusion 89

Classroom Talking and Listening 91

The Talking and Listening Classroom 93

Oral Language Activities 93

Activities: Individual to Group, Control to

Release 94

Contents

Creative Drama 101

Content Goals 101 • Personal Growth

Goals 102 • Rules of the Game 103

• Resources 103 • Creative Drama

Activities: Fixed to Free 103

Alternative Oral Strategies 109

Readers’ Theater 109 • Storytelling 109

• Interviewing 112

Evaluating Oracy 114

Conclusion 115

What Is Literature? 117

Why Read Literature? 118

The Death of Literature 118 • The Life of

Literature 119 • Goals and Methods for

Teaching Literature 119

Three Phases of the Teaching Cycle:

Enter, Explore, Extend 121

Enter 121 • Explore 122 • Extend 122

Four Stages of Reading Literature 123

Reader Response 123 • Interpretive

Community 124 • Formal Analysis 124

• Critical Synthesis 124 • Instructional

Strategies/Teaching Activities 124

Reader Response 125

Personal Triggers 125 • Suppositional

Readers 126 • Conceptual Readiness

126 • Synergistic Texts 127 •

Associative Recollections 127 •

Collaborative Authors 128 • Imagine

This 129 • Character Continuum 130 •

Character Maps 131 • Focal Judgments

132 • Opinion Survey 132 • Verbal

Scales 133 • Interrogative Reading 134

• Jump Starts 135 • Title Testing 135

Interpretive Community 137

At the Point of Utterance 137 • Jump-In

Reading 137 • Communal Judgments

138 • Defining Vignettes 139 • Readers’

Theater 139 • Assaying Characters 140

• Psychological Profiles 140 • Venn

Diagramming 142

Formal Analysis 143

Basic Principles of Formal Analysis in the

Classroom 143 • Teachable Moments

144 • Formal Discussion Questions 145

• Literary Rules to Notice 146

• Intertextuality 149 • Students Write

151 • Authors Speak 151 • Teachers

Read 152

Critical Synthesis 153

A Rationale for Critical Theory in

Secondary Classrooms 154 • Our

Approach to Critical Theory in the

Classroom 154 • Classroom Strategies

163 • Evaluation 165 • A Plea for

Pluralism165

Conclusion 166

Finding Poetry 169

Nonliterary Prose 169 • Music 170

• Advertising 173 • Bumper Stickers

175 • Unexpected Places 175

Forging Poetry 176

Templates 178 • Fixed Forms 181

• Open Forms 184 • Wild Card 187

Discerning Poetry 188

Definition 189 • Choice 189 • Personal

Response 190 • Enactment 192

• Visualization 193 • Synthesis 197

Probing Poetry 197

Adolescent Readers 199 • Selecting

Poems 200 • Listening to Poems 200

• Discussing Poems: Setting, Approaches,

Questions, Sequences 200 • Poets Talk

202

Placing Poetry 202

Resources 205

National Poetry Organizations 205

• Poetry Web Resources 205

Conclusion 206

Teaching Reading 209

Profiles of Struggling Readers 209

• What Good Readers Do 210

• Strategies for Struggling Readers 211

• Struggling Readers in the Digital

Age 213

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Tackling the Classics 214

Historical Roots of the High School Canon

215 • Texts in the High School Canon

215 • The Canon Wars 216

Challenging the Canon 218

Critical Literacy Challenge 218

• Deconstructionist Challenge 219

• Reader Response Challenge 220

• Genre Challenge: Young Adult Fiction

221 • Genre Challenge: Graphic Novels

224 • Multicultural Challenge 226

Teaching Noncanonical and

Canonical Texts 231

Instructional Approaches to Multicultural

Literacy 231 • Multiple Strategies for

Extended Texts 237 • A Reader’s Bill of

Rights 246

Censorship 246

Community Standards and School Policies

247 • Allies 248

Conclusion 250

Enter, Explore, and Extend

Drama Worlds 252

Entering the Plot and Setting 253

• Exploring Character 256 • Exploring

Theme and Extending Interpretation 259

• Extending through Form 262

Teaching Shakespeare 263

Reading Shakespeare 264 • Performing

Shakespeare 264 • Shakespearean

Activities for the English Classroom 265

Conclusion 274

Why Teach Nonfiction? 276

Students’ Actual Reading Choices 276

• Blurred Genres 277 • Critical

Challenges to the Literary Canon 277

• Nonfiction’s Instructional Potential 278

Nonfiction Genres in the

Classroom 279

Essays 279 • Biographies 283

• Autobiographies and Memoirs 288

• Testimonials 292 • Diaries and Journals

294 • Letters 294 • Newspapers 296

Nonfiction in the Fiction Classroom 300

Conclusion 302

Produce: Students As Creators 305

Electronic Media 306 • Advertisements

308 • Music 309 • Television and Radio

310 • Magazines and Comics 311

Receive: Students as Listeners

and Viewers 311

Film 312 • Podcasts 316 • Music 317

• Paintings, Prints, and Photographs 318

Examine: Students as Anthropologists

and Literary Critics 320

Watching Television 320 • Covering the

News 322 • Examining Advertising 324

• Reading Magazines 326

Critique: Students as Media Critics 327

Do the Media Corrupt Cultural Morality or

Mirror It? 328 • Do the Media Falsify

Expectations of Life or Create a Sense of

Possibility? 328 • Do the Media

Reinforce Passivity or Promote Action?

328 • Do the Media Undermine Critical

Reasoning Capacity or Promote

Thoughtful Reflection? 329 • Do the

Media Promote Consumerism or a

Consumer Protection Mind-Set? 329

Conclusion 330

A National Writing Report Card 332

Core Beliefs about Language

and Writing Instruction 333

Developmental Tasks 334

Developmental Sequence 335

Process Model 339

Basic Assumptions 339 • The Teacher’s

Role 341 • A Case for Revision 343

Writing Workshops 345

Writing Workshop Principles 345

• Writing Workshop Proper 347 • Work

of the Writing Workshop 348 • Physical

Arrangements and Workshop Rules 351

Contents ix

Portfolios 352

Variety of Contents 352 • Works in

Progress 352 • Student Responsibility

353 • Portfolio Impact 353

Authentic Assessment 354

Writing Tasks Assessed, Writing Tasks

Taught 354 • Authentic Writing

Assignments 354 • Rubrics for

Assessment 356 • State-Initiated,

Performance-Based Assessment 356

• Rubrics for Classroom Instruction 358

• Full Circle 358

Conclusion 359

Four Basic Needs 361

Substance 361 • Skills 361 • Structure

361 • Style 361

Collaborative Writing 362

Environmental Journalism 364

Foxfire’s Lessons 365 • Interviewing 365

• Contemporary Excavations 365

Journal Writing 366

Write to Learn 368

Math and Science 369 • Difficult

Problems 369

Sentence Combining 369

Strong Kernels 370

Vocabulary Growth 372

Acquisition 372 • Immersion 374

• Morphology 374 • Semantics 375

Research Alternatives 376

Controlled Sources Research 377

• Textual Analysis 377 • Historical

Synthesis 377 • Contemporary Issues

Research 377 • Scholarly Research 377

• Multigenre Research 378

Elemental Variation 379

Topology Procedures 379

Lit. Write 379

Collaborative Authors 382

Roles Around 382 • Other

Collaborations 384

Apprentice Writing 385

Copying (Duplicating Exact Texts) 385

• Paraphrasing (Translating Passages) 386

• Modeling (Employing a Template) 386

• Imitating (Mimicking the Masters) 387

Summary of Research About

Writing 388

Conclusion 389

Standardized Tests 391

District- and State-Mandated Standards

and Tests 392 • Standardized

Achievement Tests 394

Grading and Evaluation 395

Definition of Terms 396 • Purposes of

Evaluation 396 • Learning Possibilities to

Be Measured 397

Alternative Methods of Evaluation 399

Self-Evaluation 399 • Portfolios 402

• Contracts 404 • Observation 400

Evaluating Knowledge and Response

to Literature 406

Selected-Response (Objective) 407

• Constructed-Response

(Subjective) 409

Evaluating Writing 413

Outside the Classroom 414 • Inside the

Classroom 414

Alternative Grading Choices 419

Critique of Traditional Grading 423

Pedagogical Dangers 423 •

Psychometric Dangers 423 • Personal

Dangers 424 • Cultural Dangers 424

• Moral Dangers 424 • Unique

Difficulties for English Teachers 425

Conclusion 425

Lesson Planning Models 427

Creative-Process Model 428

• Conversation-Based Model 430

• Objectives-Based Model 431

• Content-Based Model 434

Unit Planning 436

Focused or Integrated Units 437

• Inquiry-Based Planning 437

• Concept-Based Planning 439

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• Topic Selection and Instructional Design

440 • Steps of Unit Development 440

• Student-Centered Planning 441

Curriculum Planning 442

Variables in Any Planning 442

Students 442 • Individualization,

Interaction, and Integration 443 • Four

Modes of Classroom Organization 443

• Sequence and Flexibility 443 • A

Common Danger 444 • Writing Out the

Lesson 444 • Planning with Discipline

and Inspiration 444

Constant Classroom Structures

and Concerns 446

Weekly Planning 446 • Routines and

Emergencies 446 • Motivation 446

• Classroom Management 447

• Homework 447 • Block Scheduling

449 • Paper Load 450 • Advice from

Experienced Teachers 451 • Learning

from Mistakes 452

Conclusion 452

Defining Yourself as a Teacher 454

Mismatch: Expectations and Actualities 454

• Shaping a Teacher Persona 455

• Defining Yourself for Your Job

Interview 457

Building Public Trust 458

Include 459 • Inform 459 • Involve 459

Promoting Professional Growth 461

Goal Setting 461 • Self-Evaluation 461

• Peer Review 462 • External Assessment

463 • Action Research 465 • Guild

Building 466 • Association Membership

466

Professional Leadership 468

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