Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Thirteen Ways Of Looking At Poetry Writing (Minus Twelve): Using Bad Poetry To Make Good Poetry Accessible, Sheila Benson

The Utah English Journal

This article presents my effort to move students past their belief that poetry is inaccessible by requiring them to write bad poetry. My original goal was to bring back the fun of poetry by letting students play with words and sounds rather than obsessing over rhyme schemes. I wanted my students to see that they knew more about poetry than they thought they did, that poetry and language play are a natural part of how we think. As students created bad poetry and discussed what they believed poetry was (and wasn’t), we discovered together that much of our fear of …

How Can I Know What I Think Until I See [And Hear] What I Say? - Getting Students To Start Taking Responsibility For Their Own Writing Through Oral Revision, Joseph Anson

The Utah English Journal

Peer conferences and PVC phones are but two methods I’ve found to get students up to their elbows in their own revising, and for the most part, enjoy it. Both can be used effectively to reinforce the effectiveness of oral revision. Once they can see and hear what they have to say, their thoughts and writing become clearer.

Ready To Read: Incorporating A Reading Workshop, Amy Lavin

The Utah English Journal

As Kelly Gallagher (2009), the author of Readicide, states on the English Companion Ning (an online network for English teachers) during a discussion about his book, “There are two kinds of teachers in the world: those who have taught twenty years, and those who have taught one year twenty times.” Trying to be more like the former teacher, I attempt to incorporate something different in my classes each school year. As I started my sixth year of teaching, I wondered, what would happen if I offered my students more freedom? Certainly, I didn’t mean a free-for-all where fun and games …

Inquiring Into Ivanhoe: A Study Of Student-Teacher Collaboration, Caleb Mcclellan, Mary Rice

The Utah English Journal

This paper traces the individual and collaborative history of a student and his teacher in terms of their writing experiences, particularly with feedback. After sharing their own perspectives about writing, reviewing the current literature on writing feedback and discussing the ways in which the inquiry was conducted, the revisions of an in-class assignment are analyzed, revealing a new way for both authors to think about writing feedback.

The Power Of Tweeting, Brenda J. Anderson

The Utah English Journal

Libraries and English classrooms will evolve to include social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and more. Just as email has become commonplace in schools, the information technologies built to increase dialogue and to expedite the transfer of knowledge to others will blend in with everyday language arts practices.

Structured Revision: A New Model In Rethinking, Rewriting, And Reiterating Text, Tom Henry

The Utah English Journal

Many procedures offered by textbooks, including the process model itself, fall short of actually encouraging students to successfully revise and/or make significant changes to their texts. Yet a form of revision which is more carefully structured may help students to make more specific changes while improving the quality of their diction, syntax, paragraphing, and the overall quality of their writing.

Creating A School Garden: Food For Thought, Kenna Rodgers

The Utah English Journal

We are coming into a time where our knowledge of food, its connections, and its significance is blossoming as a national and global conversation. This food conversation must become pertinent in our schools as well.

Sudden Sky, Davide Trame

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Just Write, Steve Shilling

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

English Teacher's Pay, Sharon Nauta Steele

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Reading Time, Stephanie B. Thompson

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

A Letter To My Distant Kin, Troy Urquhart

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

Spelling Lessons, Joe Mills

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Merits And Pitfalls Of Partnered Writing, Shauna Mcpherson

The Utah English Journal

As writers argue for their writing choices, they have to analyze their decisions, look for support, and communicate persuasively to partners.

Speech From The Utah English Teacher Of The Year, Krissy Beecher

The Utah English Journal

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at my desk after school feeling really discouraged. I was upset about the current state of education funding. I knew I was losing my prep days for next year, my pay was going down, and my class sizes were going up significantly. I was also discouraged because I had just seen the tentative plan for what classes I would be teaching next year. I wondered, “Why am I a teacher?”

Mad Hot Classroom: Test Prep And Literacy Instruction As Imaginative Dance Partners, Sirpa Grierson, Heather Hansen Wing

The Utah English Journal

“Slang. Dialect. Ethnic terms. Stream of Consciousness. . .” With state testing only a few months away, Heather felt pressured to cover another eight remaining literary terms she had not yet covered from the eleventh grade state language arts core (USOE, 1996, 31). The unfinished task buzzed at the edge of her consciousness. She wanted her students to succeed. But how could she teach them these remaining state core requirements in a way that would foster, not squash, their clever inventiveness? Her biggest fear was that a classroom usually sizzling with creativity and moxie would fall asleep when her eleventh …

Stories From A Service Learning Project In An Assisted Living Home, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

Maddy, 10th grade, took notes as 89-year-old Cordelia, comfortably settled in her wheelchair, recalled life as a teenager during the Great Depression. Periodically the two paused, reflecting on the story just told. Then Maddy leaned forward with another question, and Cordelia’s animated storytelling would resume. Zack, 9th grade, wrote furiously as Louis, 87, with hands punctuating the air, talked of World War II. Louis served in the Army unit responsible for the invasion of Japan, a mission in which unit casualties were projected at 80 – 90 %. The invasion was called off when Japan surrendered. These stories were among …

Metamorphosis, Kim Irvine

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

The Aesthetic Mask: Cinematic And Musical Icons In Ellison's Invisible Man, Gary Lemco

The Utah English Journal

Critics of Invisible Man seem to have been blind to the fact that Ralph Waldo Ellison was both music major and filmgoer. While struggling to create a seminal novel of Afro-American identity, Ellison was the cultural inheritor of a vast system of sounds and visual icons making up the national and - I daresay - the international tradition of aesthetic values. If the narrator of Juneteenth comes to claim a movie actress as his mother, so too does the unnamed narrator of Invisible Man seize upon music and film as possible sources of his being, as stable representatives of our …

Doing It For The Love Of It: Weaving Lives In A Community Of Learners, Maryann Felps

The Utah English Journal

Robert Frost said that "what is done is done for the love of it - or not really done at all." This past school year at the non-public school where I work something was done for "the love of it" and served to create a community of learners whose lives became successfully interwoven. What follows is a description of this community, how it was originally developed, how it progressed, and what resulted at the conclusion of its ten-month existence.

"What Do I Do With This One?": Teaching Esl Writers Who Have Been Mainstreamed, Todd Heyden

The Utah English Journal

With the addition of non-native speakers in their courses, teachers may find that their job description also includes the teaching of ESL writing. "What do I do with this one?" is a question I commonly hear from concerned colleagues. Understandably, they want to know how to best meet the needs of the ESL writers who have been mainstreamed into their Pope John XXIII courses. At the top of the list of their concerns is error correction. An ESL writer's essay can contain a myriad of errors, even in just a single sentence. Where does one begin to address so many …

Imagine Lunch, Susan Grandfield

The Utah English Journal

The high school where I teach houses many vending machines. A vending machine resides in every comer of the school known to me, and I think there are some machines in areas that I don't frequent. It's a big school, after all. Kids can buy candy, hot and spicy chips that tum their tongues red, Pop-Tarts, Pepsi (not Coke, though) and a variety of other so-called foods, none of which have nutritional value. Kids without much money have discovered a machine with a large pastry called a "Big Texas" (as in "I got me my Big Texas") for 65 cents. …

Bullies, Brenda Mcneill

The Utah English Journal

Bob blusters into my room. He's a large boy - square in the way football players often are - stocky legs and broad across the shoulders. He is from all accounts a very talented athlete. English though confuses him; the nuances of language and thought frustrate him and he deals with his frustration through anger. Though he may be agile in his body, he is not agile in his mind - and he is angry about it and uses his size to intimidate other students and short female English teachers. However, he needs English in order to graduate from high …

Socrates Does Shakespeare, Victor Moeller

The Utah English Journal

Robert Benchley once remarked that "There are two kinds of people, those who classify things and those who don't." Since I belong to the first group, I tend to classify teachers according to those who still employ the little-red-school-house model of learning (lecture) and those who daily engage their students in active learning. I do so not only because most of my former teachers assumed that they were the most important part of the learning process but also because the lecture method continues to dominate in too many classrooms even today. In contrast, the genuine Socratic teacher knows that the …

Click, Jayne Marek

The Utah English Journal

"It didn't feel like anything special," Perry said. A fine winter night outside, meaning the frost had sharpened the stars. It was colder in Urbana than it had been in Madison when Sis had left that morning. "But all of a sudden I was flat on the library floor. Face hurt like hell."

"Yeah, well, no surprise, with that face," Sis said.

"Shut up."

"So are seizures hereditary?" Sis asked.

"Nah, it's stress. Studying your ass off. As if you would know."

Getting Students Off To A Good Start, Debbie Davis

The Utah English Journal

I wouldn't want to trade places with a secondary student the first days of school, would you? Can you imagine coping with new schedules and new routines - and higher academic demands? On top of that, don't forget tracking all the information we teachers and administrators deluge them with. I wonder how students can remember expectations, rules, and assignments announced by seven or eight teachers, when all they really want to know is "Will I be accepted by my peers?" and "Can I survive this grade level?" I want my students to feel positively about the answers to both questions, …

From "Freshman Friday" To Interior Design: Inside The First Week Of A Ninth Grade English Class, Robert Petrone

The Utah English Journal

As I prepared for my third year of teaching ninth-grade English, I focused my attention on what I would do with the students during the first week of the year. At that point in my career, I felt, for the first time, comfortable with the content-a short story unit, the personal narrative, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odyssey, and Romeo and Juliet-and so felt at ease to put more energy into some other aspects of my teaching. As I brainstormed ideas of how to go about the first week of the year, an image from my student teaching experience flashed …

Lord Hamlet's Lesson, Harlan Underhill

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

It's Not So Elementary, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To A Fallen Hero, Stacy Miller

The Utah English Journal

No abstract provided.