National Council of Teachers of English Logo

Middle Level

Welcome to the Middle Level of NCTE--- your home in the middle! 

The Votes Are In!
Keith Gilyard was elected Vice President of NCTE.  Elected Middle Level Representative-at-Large is Terry Patrick Bigelow, Rampello Downtown Partnership School, Tampa, Florida.  Elected to the Middle Level Section Steering Committee are Jeffrey N. Golub, Teacher, Author, Consultant, Seattle, Washington and Lori Atkins Goodson, past Hoey Award winner, Wamego High School, Kansas.  Click here for more election results.

Teaching in the Changing World of 21st-Century Literacies

National Day on Writing

Join NCTE as we celebrate the National Day on Writing---October 20, 2009.

The House of Representatives will be considering a resolution declaring October 20, 2009, the National Day on Writing. Please urge your Representative to vote affirmatively for H.Res.524!

Get Involved

Learn what you can do and see what others are doing.  Consider ways to showcase your writing-–great and small, whether text, audio, or video-–in the NCTE National Gallery of Writing.      

Start a Local Gallery

local gallery can be any group, including a family, a few good friends, a club or church group, a class, a school, a workplace group, or an entire city who wants to see their work collected together inside the National Gallery.  

Connect with Us

Share your ideas and connect with others online at the NCTE NING Group, become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Resolution on Scripted Curriculum Leads the Way for Bold Action
This resolution sponsored by the Standing Committee Against Censorship and passed at the Annual Business Meeting in San Antonio calls for NCTE to

  • Continue to conduct research that documents the effects of scripted programs and high-stakes testing on teacher retention and job performance;
  • Oppose policies that require educators to utilze scripted programs and materials;
  • Oppose attempts by state legislatures, other elected or appointed officials, or school administrators to dictate scripted programs, materials, and methods; and
  • Label such mandates as censorship.
Read resolution background

 

Resources

Click here for activities and resourcesSummer Activities to Keep Kids Learning

The Learning Beyond the Classroom website provides activities, resources and lessons for students young and old to use after school, during vacation, and throughout the summer break from school.  Includes a growing collection of podcasts and videos

Technology Toolkit 2.0 - The companion webpage for the Technology Toolkit columns in Voices from the Middle with additional resources, tips, tools, and discussion.
 
Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Research Brief:  This NCTE Policy Research Brief offers updates on research with implications for policy decisions that affect teaching and learning in the area of adolescent literacy.

NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform:  Read how this document delineates the problems of adolescent literacy and outlines reforms NCTE has identified as necessary to address them.

Grammar
Use these resources for ways to teach grammar within the context of your students’ reading, writing, and speaking so they retain what they learn and apply it later on in their own writing and speech.

Poetry
NCTE resources on poetry can be found here.  

What are your students writing?

Most Recent Comments (56 Total Posts)

Posted By: Anonymous User on 6/16/2009 10:12:30 PM

Original Poetry Response journals Original short stories and myths

Posted By: Anonymous User on 6/9/2009 9:11:31 PM

My students are writing "warning letters to next year's students practicing voice and tone. They're completely over the top and a fun, exaggerated trip through memory lane.

Posted By: Anonymous User on 6/7/2009 11:08:33 PM

alphabet poems

Posted By: LizHarrington on 6/6/2009 9:02:38 PM

My eighth graders have just finished writing resumes, cover letters and career brochures as a culimination of a research unit on careers. My seventh graders have been writing multi-genre research papers on controversial issues.

Posted By: Anonymous User on 6/4/2009 5:43:50 PM

My 6th graders are writing their own public service announcements after researching a topic related to environmental destruction. They are then filming those PSAs.

Document and Site Resources

Page Tools:

Related Search Terms

Middle Level Books from NCTE
Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults
Using the Writer's Notebook in Grades 3-8
Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels
You Gotta BE the Book

The view from the classroom

To what extent does scripted or mandated curriculum affect your language arts classroom?






NCTE Pathways
Join us in Philadelphia in November!

Join the research!

Would you say that the No Child Left Behind Act is helping, hurting, or making no difference in the performance of public schools in your community?



Copyright

Copyright © 1998-2009 National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved in all media.

1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 Phone: 217-328-3870 or 877-369-6283

Looking for information? Browse our FAQs, tour our sitemap, or contact NCTE

Read our Privacy Policy Statement and Links Policy. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Use