Showing papers in "English Journal in 2010"

Closing the Gap between High School Writing Instruction and College Writing Expectations.

Abstract: As standardized testing tightens its grip on the ways in which we un derstand and assess the quality of education in the United States, that education is being shaped and molded by the pres sure of the testing itself. We are, in the profession and in the culture at large, coming to accept qual ity public education as something that is objective and quantifiable, something we can chart in an Excel file. However, this way of thinking about ed ucation at the primary and secondary levels directly contradicts the mission of higher education. Here in the dawning years of the 21st century, ever-in creasing numbers of high school graduates are at tending college?indeed, a college education is a requirement for most career-oriented jobs. Even those employers whose requirements for entry-level positions as recently as ten years ago did not in clude a college degree now list one in their mini mum qualifications. Even if we think of education in terms of its "real world" applications, then, higher education is crucial. As this public/corporate expectation for higher education grows, the idea that a high school educa tion is an end in itself becomes old-fashioned, quaint. Despite the tracking model still deeply en trenched in public secondary education, with stu dents labeled "college bound" or "vocational," or variations on that theme, most students are, in fact, college bound. Whether they attend a local commu nity college or a prestigious research university, most students will pursue postsecondary education. It is often argued that community colleges mediate the secondary tracking system by provid ing an intermediate step between high school and university for the not-obviously-college-bound stu dent. As it applies to the content and work of of fered courses, rhis perception is both naive and condescending. Most community colleges have ar ticulation agreemenrs with universities in the sur rounding region; courses taken at community colleges are assumed to be equivalent to similar courses taken at the universities with which they are aligned. English 101 at a community college is institutionally assumed to be equivalent to English 101 at the research university a few miles up the highway, and all students should be assumed to be learning similar content and developing similar skills. If we think of all students as college bound, then we can think about high school education gen erally as college preparatory, spreading that concept over a wider and more level field. From that stance, we must reformulate our conception and creation of secondary education as a middle point rather than the end point of the learning curve. As we think of elementary, middle, and secondary education as oc curring on a continuum, with one grade preparing students for the next, we must begin to think of postsecondary educarion occurring on the same continuum, with high school learning intended specifically to prepare students for rhe next level of study. But isn't high school learning already a lead ing step into college? Isn't college content already designed to build on what students have previously learned? Well, sure, to a degree?and with a criti cal difference. High school education is designed to

A Springboard Rather than a Bridge: Diving into Multimodal Literacy

Abstract: n our experience as teacher educators, many preservice teachers view literacy as a print-bound process. With multimodal literacy becoming more important as many states push for 21st-century learning standards, we are always looking for ways to help students break their concepts of literacy away from the printed page. As we worked to incorporate new literacies into our literacy methods courses, however, we realized that we lacked accessible resources for preservice teachers. Too many of the new literacies articles emphasize theory over classroom application. This gap between theory and application led us to consider how to break down many new literacies concepts into manageable bits as we sought to introduce them to our students. This article is the result of those efforts to explain, familiarize, and apply multimodal concepts with preservice teachers. Meadow works with preservice teachers at the elementary level (K–5) and Sheila works with preservice teachers at the middle school and secondary levels (grade 6–adult). In this article we provide an overview of key multimodal concepts we have introduced to our students, and then we describe two assignments we have designed to encourage preservice teachers to push against the print-based text definition so prevalent in language arts. We see these assignments as starting points for a much broader conversation that should happen across content areas.

Applying Toulmin: Teaching Logical Reasoning and Argumentative Writing.

Abstract: U ? rank I. Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, has made a successful ?iML?? career out of crafting the language of political debates. He encouraged the Republican Party to speak about the "death tax" rather than an inheritance, or "estate taxes." This shift in language altered the public s stance on this topic. While Americans were nearly split about tax ing inheritances or estates, nearly three-quarters of them were opposed to a government tax on death (Luntz 164). Though we admire Dr. Luntz's skill with language and his keen awareness of audience, we are tired of sound bites that masquerade as sound arguments. We think it is time to reinvigorate pre vailing notions about critical thinking in English language arts. How we logically relate ideas and in formation to argue well has been given short shrift at a time when distinguishing between haranguing pundits and careful thinkers seems especially impor tant for the future health of our democracy. With this in mind, we refocused our teaching and curriculum on developing students' ability to create and articulate soundly reasoned arguments. We wanted to promote their capacity to engage big ideas, important questions, and complicated prob lems. By this, we mean that we wanted students to start by putting ideas, questions, and problems into words, and mulling them over so they could see them from different angles and reason their way through to where they wanted to stand. Then, hav ing decided their position, we wanted them to per suasively argue their case in talk and writing with pertinent evidence and explanations. This ability to interrogate and create not just a stance but also evi dence and warrants is crucial for a productive and informed public. In what follows, we explain the framework we used and describe how we taught reasoning to stu dents at an alternative high school, where we re corded what happened. Some of those records, including student work, lessons, Web resource links, and teaching videos, can be found at the Michigan Argument Research Group website, where Steven is the designer and webmaster: http:// sitemaker.umich.edu/argument/home.

Motivating Students through Power and Choice.

Abstract: alph Waldo Emerson once said, "our own experience instructs us that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he should know, what he shall do" (102). As teachers of American Literature, we admire Emerson's faith in the individual and find Thoreau's resistance to conformity an act of daring bravery, and as we think about these enlightened men and their ideals in relation to students, we wonder: If given the opportunity, would individual freedom and choice motivate students in the 21st century classroom? If allowed the time to adjust to such power and guidance on how to use it, we think that indi vidual freedom would motivate students to achieve scholastic excellence and embrace personal empow erment. Teacher control in the classroom has con structed an environment in which we no longer trust students, and they do not trust themselves. We have faith that students want to learn despite the incredible resistance we all face in the class room. Students aren't resisting learning; they're re sisting the whole context in which they are taught. This resistance has encouraged us to examine how changing the power structure in classrooms can en courage creativity and motivate students to have power over their learning.

Motivation Requires a Meaningful Task.

Abstract: I I key element of learning (e.g., Guth ???????* ?Jk? rie and Wigfield). A study of over 300 high school juniors and seniors demonstrated that motivation was at least as pre dictive of achievement in a subject as was intelli gence (Steinmayr and Spinath). Among younger students, motivation is a linchpin to learning, even at a time developmentally when overall motivation for school work is in decline, bottoming out at the seventh-grade level (Wigfield and Eccles). While there are many factors that might explain this de cline (i.e., changes in the structure of the school day, developmental changes regarding affiliation and belonging), as a result teachers too often find themselves assigning less-rigorous tasks designed to placate disenchanted students. However, differences between children and adolescents are pronounced, especially in the ways they interact with one another. In particular, ado lescents increasingly turn to their peer groups for validation and support. The interplay between mo tivation and development provides middle school and high school English teachers with the unique ability to capitalize on this. In our high school En glish classrooms, we do this daily through collabora tive learning. The energy and motivation that occur when students are engaged in productive group work result in meaningful learning. Students, even those who routinely drag themselves through the school day, find reasons to read, write, discuss, and create when in the company of like-minded peers. However, we have also learned through experience that motivation doesn't occur simply because we've moved the desks together. We need to create mean ingful tasks that are tailored to the developmental, academic, and social needs of students.

Creating Motivating Learning Environments: What We Can Learn from Researchers and Students.

Abstract: began my career teaching kinder garten. All 38 of my students (this was before class size reduction) showed up to school excited to be there and eager to learn. When I moved to the mid dle school, it was an entirely different story. I was stunned when most of my students didn't care whether or not they were successful academically. I encountered the same attitudes years later as a ninth grade English teacher. Many students told me they "hated" reading and that school was "boring." At faculty meetings across the years, colleagues have spent countless hours discussing students' lack of motivation and brainstorming strategies for engag ing them. Some students responded well as we tried to make our presentations more exciting and our as signments more hands-on. Others continued to sit with their hoods up and heads down, disinterested in the content or the process. In 2007 I left the full-time English classroom and began teaching in a college of education, but I have stayed connected to students. As I observe in dynamic teachers' classrooms and interview students to find out what makes them motivated, I have learned a lot. The students are excellent at articulat

"Wiki, Wiki, Wiki--WHAT?" Assessing Online Collaborative Writing

Abstract: OK, guys, how are your wiki pages coming?" "Wiki, Wiki, Wiki?WHAT?" Every time I said wiki for the first few days of this project, my students just couldn't resist this prime opportunity to share a lit tle beat boxing. In fact, I still have a hard time hear ing the term without hearing the beat in my head. I conducted my first wiki project last semes ter because I was running into wikis so often that I knew I had to try out this new technology. Michael Pennell, in his article "'Russia is not in Rhode Is land': Wikitravel in the Digital Writing Class room," describes wikis in a nutshell: "Wikis (Hawaiian for 'quick' or 'fast') represent a set of Web pages with an open editing system; in other words, anyone can add to, delete, or change a wiki, making them highly collaborative" (79). Although cooperative learning is common in my classroom, I had never attempted a full-blown collaborative writing project. Recognizing that my students are actively en gaged in both public and peer-to-peer networks such as MySpace, Facebook, online gaming, and blogs, I knew it was time to employ networked pedagogies to further explore the collective intelli gence of a community in creating knowledge. Since I knew that students were already posting informa tion socially, I wondered if the wiki might harness their interest for writing while teaching them to use these types of technologies with discernment. In addition, I wanted to allow my students an op portunity to conduct themselves as part of a com munity of learners and cocreators. These online technologies?wikis, blogs, so cial networks, podcasts, and tweets?are bringing the social and collaborative nature of composition into the spotlight, but as I planned my wiki project, I had little guidance in developing the way I would assess the actual collaboration taking place. In an educational environmenr so focused on numbers such as test scores and GPAs, it is hard to tell stu dents that they have to depend on someone else to do their part in earning a group grade. This is where I found myself last semester, and this is an area I believe needs further discussion in composition: If we value collaboration and want students compos ing together, how do we teach them to deal with the conflicts that arise, and how do we assure students that the assessment is fair to all contributors?

Collaborating like Never before: Reading and Writing through a Wiki.

Abstract: T_JT I I ead down on a pile of mediocre pa I pers, I overheard a student in my *??b J????? study hall say, "I wish Facebook wasn't blocked by the Internet fil ter; it would be nice to talk with some people who aren't in this study hall." Like a drowsy student called on during class, my head shot up from the desk, and I leapt to the computer. I thought to my self: Social networking is exactly what Vygotsky was talking about; it just needed to be updated. I knew that the school was not going to unblock Facebook or MySpace or any other popular social networking site, but there was a site that acted in a similar man ner where people can chat and share ideas: a wiki. That day I signed up for a wiki. The wiki was free and gave me all the tools I needed to create a virtual classroom where my students might feel more at home discussing ideas and helping each other write papers. Suzanne M. Miller discusses the importance of student-led discussion in the class room when she writes, "Evidence from discussion based literature classes suggests that students' discussion experiences shaped their dialogic think ing, characterized by both self-reflexive strategies and the intellectual disposition to use them" (309). Using a wiki to promote discussion and aid with writing was a long shot, but it was ludicrous enough to work with my hesitant writers. I tested my the ory of using a wiki for social networking by having one class of students do their entire paper on the wiki while another class, of the same academic level, used more traditional methods of working through the writing process. David A. Joliffe and Allison Harl found that college students are more likely to read a text if it is online. Joliffe and Harl go on to say, "Students are motivated by and engaged with reading, but the texts that they interact with most enthusiastically are technologically based" (612). I employed this idea with my high school students, thinking that their attitudes toward writing and technology are not that different from the college students Joliffe and Harl sampled in their study.

Taming the Warrant in Toulmin's Model of Argument.

Abstract: One of the most radical shifts in high school and college writing instruc tion over the past 20 years has been the move toward argument as the dominant mode. In two massive studies of first-year college composition conducted in 1985 and 2004, Andrea A. Lunsford found that the biggest change in writing assignments during that period was a shift from personal narrative essays to argument es says (vi). In their immensely popular book They S ay II Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Ger ald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein maintain that "broadly speaking, academic writing is argumenta tive writing" (3). Increasingly, high school teachers are being urged to teach written argument. The 1996 IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts, for example, expect students to generate ques tions/pose problems, conduct research, synthesize data, and communicate answers/solutions (3)?all essential skills in written argument. The National Writing Project recommends a writing assignment in which high school students write a persuasive ar gument in support of their course grade ("30 Ideas"). The free-response questions on the AP English Lan guage Exam are all essentially argument-based: an analysis of a persuasive piece of writing; an argu ment in which students draw on their own knowl

Small-Town Perspectives, Big-Time Motivation: Composing and Producing Place-Based Podcasts

Abstract: w e begin with a classroom snapshot. Chatter spreads like wildfire across the room. Students have been given the directive to list topics that mean the most to them. Angie, a sophomore girl twirling a few strands of hair, has so many questions that it is difficult to keep up with her. The conversation begins with the absence of a topic on which to write. We discuss a number of possibilities: school, cheerleading, her favorite En glish teacher. Nothing sticks right away. "Yes, you may write about anything you want. Remember, this project is called Rural Voices. So, any story that you would like to tell would be per fect for the project." She asks if she can write a poem about a rela tionship that has recently ended. "Certainly. A poem would be perfect."

Navigating through Social Norms, Negotiating Place: How "American Born Chinese" Motivates Struggling Learners

Abstract: literature but prefer nonfiction texts dealing with science or history. Yet, Cheryl and thousands of educators like her are still responsible for making sure all students are prepared to take state and national assessments. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and No Child Left Behind have mandated it. Finding texts that motivate and engage her students and using strategies that can successfully improve their reading comprehension can be a challenge, but Cheryl has found that the graphic novel is wellsuited in addressing both these concerns and others. This may be due to the graphic novel’s inherent ability to provide visual scaffolding. Many students with disabilities may have trouble visualizing what they read. Nanci Bell, co-creator of the LindamoodBell Visualizing and Verbalizing strategy, which involves getting students to visualize at the word level, sentence level, paragraph level, and even at whole-page level via attending to specific structure words, asserts that the creation of mental pictures when reading is essential for reading comprehension for every student. If students are not able to form a mental image of the story, it is difficult for them to understand what has happened in the story (Bell). Many graphic novels combine print text with images without sacrificing interesting content or literary merit, providing the scaffold but allowing for quality interaction with the text. One graphic novel in particular has spoken to Cheryl’s class on multiple levels: Gene Luen Yang’s 2007, Michael A. Printz Award–winning American Born Chinese, which was also a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award. This text helps students exe are a ninth-grade teacher in a Special Education English class (Cheryl) and a teacher educator (Bucky) who know of each other’s work through a mutual interest in graphic novels. Here’s what happened in Cheryl’s class when her students read American Born Chinese and discussed that text in a blog with its author, Gene Luen Yang.

The Cognitive Vocabulary Approach to Word Learning.

Abstract: nglish teachers face myriad de m mands every day that include not *??????????????I only helping students read litera ture in interesting and engaging ways but also attending to the needs of students challenged by the demands of more complex and sophisticated texts. Vocabulary learning is at the heart of this struggle for many students, especially for English language learners and students who have difficulty with literacy skill development. Ob viously, a lack of vocabulary knowledge limits stu dents' understanding of a passage and also hinders their ability to engage in the deeper reading we aim for in our teaching. Yet, sometimes teaching word meanings before students read, while a widely ac cepted practice, may not be enough to ensure that comprehension will be enhanced for these learners who are burdened with language issues, learning problems, and other constraints that can lead to disengagement. In this article we describe a cognitive strate gies approach to vocabulary teaching and learning that can serve as a starting point for effective vo cabulary instruction. This approach highlights the merging of important facets of vocabulary instruc tion with cognitive strategies used to comprehend texts. We begin by drawing attention to what we currently know about connections between vocabu lary learning and reading comprehension and we describe a cognitive strategies vocabulary approach to instruction. Then Elizabeth Buckelew-Martin (Liz), a high school reading teacher, recounts her experience using this approach with her students. Current Understandings of Vocabulary and Comprehension

Motivating Students' Research Skills and Interests through a Multimodal, Multigenre Research Project.

Abstract: It was the beginning of April of my first year of teaching. I knew that I had to include a research paper in my [year's curriculum] and I was dread ing it because I didn't know how to make it inter esting for my kids. . . . The research project that I did was horrible, ... It was about apartheid, and it linked to the novel Waiting for the Rain. I tried to make the research interesting by connecting it to the book and by asking students to make a popu lar collage [along with their traditional research paper] with facts and statistics they had found, pasting it on paper just to display the information. It failed miserably. The kids were not engaged because the topic was very traditional, historical. They just were not interested in it. They hated it! / hated it! And then I had to read all those papers.

Helping Students Cross the Threshold: Implications from a University Writing Assessment.

Abstract: ome English Journal readers may fondly (or not so fondly) remember reading lists for college-bound students, which were once routinely distributed to promote the reading of The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice, The Pearl, and other noteworthy classics. Today, virtually any English teacher would recognize that a focus on solely canonical texts was the greatest flaw of these lists; however, another important consideration exists: How did we know that college professors expected students to have read these books? Were faculty polled to learn if the reading lists mattered and why? Were focus group interviews conducted of students who had and had not read these books? Did an analysis of syllabi or assignments demonstrate a prevalence of these books in university classes? In short, what assessment confirmed the value of reading lists for college-bound students? Because of the current testing craze across the country, we use the Aword, assessment, cautiously; however, assessment need not be an inherently negative word. As evidence, EJ readers should consider the writing assessment currently taking place across the country on university campuses. Unlike statemandated tests, university assessment tends to be designed, implemented, and interpreted by local faculty and administrators for local purposes, such as to more accurately describe and analyze curricular programs, to enhance teaching, and to improve stu-

Computers, Coffee Shops, and Classrooms: Promoting Partnerships and Fostering Authentic Discussion

Abstract: oanne Canan and I (Constance) en tered a brave new world of chat and collaboration when we committed ourselves to bridging the high school teacher/university faculty divide. For the past four years, we've shared our differing experi ences and knowledge in an effort to foster student collaboration in online summer reading discussions. We first met in April 2005 when Joanne, an exem plary high school teacher and chair of the Moon Area High School English department, agreed to take a chance on me as her student teacher. I'd al ready racked up over 20 years of experience in teaching writing and literature, but it was all in university classrooms. And yet, through an odd combination of faculty retirements and departmen tal reorganizations at the university where I teach, I found myself serving as the coordinator of second ary English education. Lacking any high school teaching experience or training (despire a PhD from a school of educarion's program in writing), I was profoundly aware of my lack of lived understanding and professional credibility as they related to the high school English classroom. During my student teaching internship, Joanne and I quickly learned that despite our dif ferent teaching environments, we shared a lot in common, especially a love of reading and a passion for sharing that love with our srudenrs. We both had the dream of converting every student into a lifelong reader. Yet all too often, the stories we shared were tinged with failure, tales of students who reneged on assignments, refused to participate in class, and resisted books. We also confessed to one another rhar at least

Teaching Dystopian Literature to a Consumer Class.

Abstract: students are struggling with more depression and anxiety than ever before. These are characteristic dangers of the "consumer class" 1.7 billion people worldwide who are "characterized by diets of highly processed food, desire for bigger houses, more and bigger cars, higher levels of debt, and lifestyles devoted to the accumulation of non-essential goods" (Mayell). Mindless consumerism threatens physical, social, and psychological health; total abstinence, on the other hand, means starvation. How do we guide students to navigate such treacherous, shifting seas? I teach dystopian literature, which exaggerates our modern context so that we can challenge it. Providing for its readers a glimpse into a horrifying but fully possible future, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and M. T. Anderson's Feed show how unrestrained industry often relies on manipulation and herd mentality, an unspeakably grim encroachment on the individual. When the important thing is selling and buying, the individual becomes nothing more than consumer or worker. This is where it gets tricky: Young people love advertising, consuming, entertainment, and technology. If we attack these trappings of modern life, we risk nurturing defensiveness. The challenge is to focus on the dangers, demands, and opportunities common to the "consumer class" without alarmism difficult terrain to navigate. It's a matter of human nature, not stuff: "man in using his reason to create the ultimate life of pleasure has ceased to be human" (Greenblatt 97). Dystopian literature such as Feed and Brave New World is to consuming as Frankenstein is to cloning theoretical exploration and warning. Four important traits of modern consumerism that these two novels address are powerful advertising and industry, mindless consumption based on instant gratification, reliance on technology, and the resulting atrophy of language. English teachers can explore these important concepts with their students, as I explain below. Using these texts, we can meaningfully discuss what it means to be responsible, aware, knowledgeable, and moral consumers.

Contemporary Memoir: A 21st-Century Genre Ideal for Teens

Abstract: U or the past 20 years, we have been I reading and teaching literary mem ???????m oir to students of all ages. In the mid-1980s, we began looking for ways to incorporate more nonfiction into our litera ture classes, hoping to find a fresh genre unflattened by instruction. We wanted to explore with students a genre that literary critics had not already overana lyzed and for which they had not created formulaic heuristics for student analysis. More than anything else, we wanted to find literary works that connected directly with students' lived experiences. During our search, e discovered Russell Baker's Growing Up, Patricia Hampl's "Memory and Imagination," and William Zinsser's Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir. These readings and many others ex panded the scope of nonfiction texts for us and our students. We began to understand that we were wit ness to a genre in the making, that of contemporary memoir (CM). This genre has topped the New York Times bestseller list for a number of years and has be co e increasingly popular a ong professional writ ers who often helpfully subtitle their books A Memoir. Looking for texts that exist outside our instructional walls and that lead students to improve their abili ties in sophisticated reading, writing, critical think ing, and inquiry strategies, we found CM to be a genre ideally suited for teens of the 21st century.

Challenging Texts: Engaging with Critical Literacy--Reflections on Teaching and Learning.

Abstract: As teacher educators we agree with April that incorporating a critical literacy approach in English education is important but challenging But before we go any further, we have a confession to make Although we work to implement a critical literacy prac tice within our university classes, we don't always know what we're doing We have found that apply ing critical literacy to classrooms has lots of ups and downs There are days when we struggle to start and sustain discussions Then there are days where discussions are vibrant and seem effortless; all the pieces seem to fit together, the class is buzzing with anticipation, and new ideas are being presented and examined When things go well, our students co-construct new understandings and question beliefs through crirical dialogue around the texts we choose, and when they don't go so well, we learn from those experiences and move on Because we make it clear that we are implementing a critical literacy approach to our instruc tion, we find that teachers will ask what they can do to launch this practice in their own class rooms Many express that they want their students to move beyond regurgitating facts and ideas, and begin to use texts to understand their world in trans formative ways A favorite quote that we share in our classes is that

The Animated Classroom: Using Japanese Anime to Engage and Motivate Students.

Abstract: ach year, seventh graders at Wood m lawn School in Davidson, North ???????????k?M Carolina, learn about Japan through a compilation of literature, history, and art. They are introduced to a wide range of ideas and materials: they study the Heian and Toku gawa Periods as well as modern Japan, the code of the samurai warriors, haiku and its components, and Japanese calligraphy and sumi-e. While this in terdisciplinary unit is full of interesting subject matter, the seventh-grade teachers sought a more engaging foothold for students to become person ally invested in Japanese culture. We therefore de cided to harness the entertaining, inviting quality of anime, or Japanese animation, to create a collab orative interdisciplinary project. Weaving together the subjects of history, language arts, ecological sustainability, and visuals arts, the project used anime to introduce students to contemporary issues in Japanese culture, the process of literary analysis, and, finally, the technical considerations of anima tion (see fig. 1). In addition to motivating the stu dents, anime added a new dimension to our work, allowing us to also examine ways in which popular culture might provide insight into the society that creates it. Anime is at once a uniquely Japanese art form and a valuable classroom tool. Students are often al

Motivating Students to Read with Collaborative Reading Quizzes.

Abstract: One of the most important challenges a teacher faces is motivating his or her students to complete reading assignments and to complete them carefully. After all, if students bring to class a basic understanding of the text up for discussion, much deeper learning can occur than if the teacher is forced to spend time explaining the reading to stu dents who either didn't read or did so in only a cur sory fashion. The standard solution is the reading quiz?a series of multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the blank, or short-answer questions. However, this strategy creates its own set of problems. First, such a commitment to quizzing generates a steady and occasionally overwhelming stream of paperwork. Second, making quizzes a part of every class period cuts into the precious time a teacher needs to accomplish significantly more meaningful tasks. Most importantly, there is a pedagogical problem. The goal of the traditional reading quiz is singular: to reward those who have done the read ing and to punish those who have not. Thus, it measures only what each student has remembered or learned and provides no further opportunity for learning. Nevertheless, these traditional reading quiz zes, if administered differently, can be used to achieve much more. Without changing the original multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, or short-answer questions, a teacher can create a more enriching experience merely by placing those same questions in a different context. Enter the "collaborative quiz," an opportunity both to ensure that one s students have read care fully and to provide them with an engaging class room experience. In short, we propose allowing students to work collaboratively on quizzes, deter mining answers and crafting explanations together. The Collaborative Quiz offers at least five benefits:

Finding Difference: Nemo and Friends Opening the Door to Disability Theory.

Abstract: p> m ur students have no doubt watched M a good chunk of the Disney library ^of films. Earlier generations saw Cinderella, Snow White, and Robin Hood in first release; later came Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Over the last 25 years, Pixar has joined in by releasing Toy Story and its se quels and a host of other films to delight audiences everywhere. Entertainment, however, has never been the only reason that as parents we allow our kids to watch the Disney and Disney/Pixar films. We hope that the stories will teach them lessons about people and situations. We hope they can see themselves represented there?and represented well?and we hope they can find something to take away from the film other than the characters' names, colors, and characteristics. While middle school and high school stu dents may have watched these films when they were younger, chances are they did not do so with a criti cal eye toward difference and disability, despite the fact that these films serve as excellent tools for teaching about difference. Recent estimates label 20% of the world's population with some form of disability (Riley 1), making it important for us to consider the ways in which disability is represented in literature, film, and other cultural texts. Disabil ity does not only exist solely on the televised stages of a Jerry Lewis telethon but also in the fabric of the cartoons that we enjoy with our children. The fol lowing pages describe how the film Finding Nemo can be used as an excellent tool for helping students at all levels to start thinking about disability in dif ferent ways. Interpreting Disability

Thank You for Sharing: Developing Students' Social Skills to Improve Peer Writing Conferences.

Abstract: After listening to the cooperative learning trainer discuss the impor tance of developing social skills in the classroom, I began to realize why peer-conferencing sessions in the required En glish II and English IV classes were not going as I had hoped. I needed to help students identify ap propriate behaviors used in everyday social skills and used in effective peer conferences. By discussing peer conferencing in terms of social skills, I would not only help students improve discussions about writing but also teach them how to collaborate with others. Simply, effective social skills are essential if students are expected to discuss writing. I knew that in an urban school of 1,800, the students in my class did not know a soul, and they would rarely intro duce themselves to a person they did not know. If they could not initiate a conversation with someone they did not know, how could I expect them to share and comment on each other's writing? I wanted student conferences to look like a conversation. As a graduate student in a writing center, I began tutoring sessions by introducing myself to the person and getting to know him or her. For five or ten minutes we talked without dis cussing the paper. That brief time was essential in building rapport and trust. These same warm-up conversations occur when I meet with a peer. In any kind of social inter action with a peer, we exchange pleasantries and share updates on family events and upcoming activi ties. After this chat, we usually get down to busi ness. As teachers, the time we get to talk with peers, our friends, is an important, almost sacred, time be cause there is never enough of it. Why not allow students the opportunity to chat with friends?the same courtesy I appreciated in meetings with peers? Why did I fight "off-task" talk? Through talk, stu dents can improve their conversational skills, which in turn would help their peer-conferencing skills. Many students go to school purely for socialization. Incorporating socialization helped students see that I valued all types of talk. If student writing confer ences are conversations between people with mutual respect, writing can grow. Or, at least, that is the assumption I worked from. Giving students oppor tunities to talk about their writing ideas would en able them to internalize their thoughts and ideas. I wanted them to talk about writing, to collaborate to provide feedback that moved beyond a focus on sen tence-level errors.

Exploring Text through Student Discussions: Accountable Talk in the Middle School Classroom.

Abstract: t's a common dilemma in many classrooms: Give your students an inch and they often take a mile. As teachers, we've probably all been in the situation where we want to encourage student participation and find a way to engage students in a particular text or topic, yet we err on the side of caution to keep the imagined mayhem at bay. Class room chemistry, school climate, and individual teacher-student relationships all play a role in how far we as teachers can push the limits and take chances in our classrooms. Because I tend to be di

Of Mice and Media.

Abstract: Ryan hated my class. His defiant at titude, slumping shoulders, and careless work ethic conveyed only one sentiment: / would rather be any where but here. I wish I could claim that I pulled him aside one day and changed his life with an uplifting speech, but instead I just kept teaching, doing my best to inspire through innovative instruction and high expectations. I tried not to take Ryan's obvi ous disdain for my English class too personally. During the spring semester, the clouds parted, the birds sang, and Ryan transformed into an ener getic, diligent, and respectful student. He com pleted all of his assignments and seemed proud to have each one ready on his desk. He offered insight ful commentary during class discussions and looked me in the eye as he spoke. I think he even smiled once or twice. I did not know for sure what had sparked such a dramatic turnaround, which he sus tained for the rest of the year, but I was careful to nurture it with steady doses of praise. Two years later, my wife and I went out to dinner with some friends, and I immediately recog nized Ryan as our waiter. He greeted us sheepishly and explained how he was working his way through college. Later, as he delivered our entrees, he bent down beside me and revealed, "I just wanted to say thank you. Your class was cool with the videos and stuff. Of Mice and Men was the first book in my life where I actually read the whole thing." Mystery solved. I already knew that John Steinbeck's novella was a class favorite. Ryan had not been the first (or the last) to confess his love for this simple yet compelling tale. But I left the res taurant that night with an important reminder of the powerful impact that literature can have on even the most cynical or struggling student. And perhaps even more importantly, from a pedagogical stand point, I felt a strong sense of validation in my deci sion to teach Of Mice and Men using multimedia. I introduce the book to my students using film clips and other advance organizers, but ultimately the students determine the direction of their own learn