Heinemann / ISBN 0-325-00817-5 / 978-0-325-00817-2 / 2006 / 336 pp / paperback
Availability: In Stock

This title is recommended for:

• Teaching English/Language Arts--Middle & Secondary

Product Information

Making the Journey is a staple of secondary English methods courses and teacher libraries because it not only provides practical advice on what to do in the classroom and how to act, but also offers a realistic but optimistic sense of what it means to embrace the practice of good teaching. Now, trusted educator, writer, and researcher Leila Christenbury has returned with a remarkable new edition of her classic.

The third edition of Making the Journey will be both refreshingly new and satisfyingly familiar to those who’ve come to rely on Christenbury’s wisdom and uncommon common sense. Every chapter has been revised and updated with new examples, the latest research, and stories from today’s classrooms. Even more important, Christenbury has devoted new sections to discussing instructional and political topics crucial to the contemporary teacher, including:

• supporting English language learners
• developing students’ ability to write on demand
• meeting the challenge of high–stakes standardized testing
• balancing depth of coverage with breadth in standards–based curricular planning
• creating tests and other assessments that align with curricular goals and provide useful information for subsequent instruction
• engaging students’ reading interests through nontraditional, real–world genres like graphic novels
• teaching writing and media literacy through digital–age innovations such as blogs and WebQuests
• navigating the politics of school while remaining an activist professional

With the latest, smartest strategies, techniques, and ideas as well as Leila Christenbury’s trademark pragmatism and know–how, the third edition of Making the Journey will be an indispensable guide for anyone just starting their own journey into teaching or for anyone already on their way.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Using This Book
1.	THE TEACHER, THE STUDENT, THE SCHOOL
	Beginnings
	Teacher, Student, School: The Dance of the Three
	The Teacher/Learner
	The Student/Learner
	The School
	References
2.	WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A TEACHER
	From Expert Learner to Novice Teacher
	What a Teacher Needs to Do
	Beginning Your Life in the Classroom
	The Politics of School
	Discipline
	Classroom Environment, Room Arrangement, Creature Comforts, Food
	A Few Other Things: Getting Started, Openings, Voice, Body, Touch, Dress
	Teaching as Failing
	References
3.	PLANNING FOR YOUR TEACHING
	Five Models of Teaching
	Teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Five Models
	It Didn’t Work
	Creating Activities
	"Central School": From Poem to Plan to Class
	The House on Mango Street: From Chapter to Plan to Class
	A Brief Word on Creating Tests and Test Items
	The Place of Standards in Your Planning
	A Final Caution About Planning
	References
4.	THOSE WHO WE TEACH
	No One Ever Said It Was Going to Be Easy
	The Tough Times of Teaching: Apathy and Violence
	Two Researchers on Students: William Glasser and Linda McNeil
	The Alienated Student: Not Always Who You Think
	Three Students: Marianna, Antoine, and Marc
	One Teacher’s Strategy for Dealing with Alienated Students: "Big Bucks"
	The Average Student: Caught in the Middle
	The Gifted Student: Burdens and Responsibilities
	The Delicate Contract with Students
	Two Students: Tanya and Barry
	References
5.	THE WORLD OF LITERATURE: TEACHING AND SELECTING
	The Fear of Not Knowing Enough
	Literature: The Heart of Language Arts
	Schools of Literary Criticism: Why You Should Care
	The Four Schools: What to Do?
	Transactional Theory/Reader Response
	Organizing Literature
	Looking at Fiction: Novels and Short Stories
	The Lure of Nonfiction: Literary and Informational
	Teaching and Selecting Poetry
	The Power of Drama
	Using Shakespeare
	Building Bridges to Adult Reading: The Place of Young Adult Literature
	New Kid on the Block: The Graphic Novel
	The Specter of Censorship
	Using Literature: Some Teaching Tips
	A Final Note on Choosing Literature
	A Story: Thurman and Architectural Digest
	References
	Resources
6.	WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
	It Ain’t Necessarily So: The English Language Arts Teacher as Language Expert
	Prescriptive Versus Descriptive: The World of Linguistics
	Spelling and Vocabulary
	The Five Grammars
	So What Do We Do About Teaching Grammar?
	English Language Learners
	Language Play/Language Games
	Sentence Combining
	Students’ Right to Their Own Language
	The Language of Hate
	The Glory of Language
	References
7.	WRITING AND REWRITING
	Fifth Period, Wednesday Afternoon
	A Traditional Model of Teaching Writing
	A New Model of Teaching Writing
	When Students Have a Choice: Getting Writing Ideas
	When Students Have No Choice: Writing on Demand
	Writing Groups: Questions, Answers, and Reasons
	Conferencing with Students
	The Place of Correctness and Grammar in Its Place
	Now They’ve Written It–What Do You Do with It?
	Creating and Using Rubrics
	Using a Writing Portfolio
	The Wonderful and Varied Journal
	The Research Paper
	What We Are About as Teachers of Writing
	References
8.	THE CRAFT OF QUESTIONING
	The Power of Talk
	Questions That Teachers Ask
	The Questioning Circle
	Beyond Hierarchies: Questions You Don’t Want to Ask
	Questioning Behaviors
	When Questions Don’t Work
	Questions That Students Ask
	References
9.	MEDIA LITERACY
	Issues in Media Literacy
	Computers
	The Internet
	Television
	Film
	The Popular Culture and Media Literacy
	References
	Resources
10.	A QUESTION OF ETHICS
	English Class as Ethics Arena?
	Ethical Issues for the Classroom Teacher
	Breaking the Rules
	Being and Becoming an Ethical Teacher
	References
11.	TEACHING TODAY
	Things Have Changed/Things Have Stayed the Same
	Four Contemporary Challenges
	Staying in the Classroom
	The End of the Lifetime Teacher?
	Making the Journey
	References
Index

Sample Chapters

• Preview an excerpt from Chapter Five.