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

• Abigail Kennedy, 2007 NCTE Media Literacy Award winner, incorporates 21st century literacy skills into her classroom throughout the year.  View how Abigail's classroom was a featured Classroom Spotlight in NCTE's yearlong professional development program, Pathways for 21st Century Literacies. 
• New literacies are fast becoming a large part of the educational landscape, as the 21st-Century Literacies Policy Research Brief released recently tells us.
• Explore the language of electronic messages and how it affects other writing with the ReadWriteThink lesson Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages. 
• To set up online chats and email with students, check out the Voices from the Middle article "Improving Writing: Online Bulletin Boards." 
• These 21st-Century Literacies resources provide some effective strategies for meeting the challenge of this new educational terrain.

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.

Resources

Summer 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.