Teaching Middle School Language Arts

Anna J. Small Roseboro is a former National Board Certified Teacher with forty years of experience. Anna has been a faculty leader at the NCTE Affiliates Leadership Conference and served as master teacher for the San Francisco Bay Area Teachers Center in an online teaching environment. In 2009, she was honored with the California Association of Teachers of English 2009 Distinguished Service Award.

• Foreword: Amazing GracePreface: Teaching at the Intersection of Old and New LiteraciesIntroductionChapter 1 Networking Socially at the Start of a School YearChapter 2 Unpacking the Story and Understanding the GenreChapter 3 Exploring Traditional and Contemporary GrammarsChapter 4Discussing and Writing Short Stories: Where Story Meets GenreChapter 5 Checking Out a Twentieth Century NovelChapter 6 Teaching Classical Fiction: Where the Ghosts of the Past Speak TodayChapter 7 Taking T.I.M.E. to Teach PoetryChapter 8 Versing Life TogetherChapter 9 Opening the Past Imaginatively: Teaching Historical FictionChapter 10 Playing It Right: Reading, Performing and Writing DramaChapter 11 Speaking of Grammars: Public Speaking and Media ArtsChapter 12 Celebrating Names: A Unit about Community and IdentityChapter 13 Congratulations and Bon Voyage!

If only I had had a mentor like Roseboro to ease my way into the classroom. If only someone had handed me Teaching Middle School Language Arts to help me plan a coherent year of learning for them. . . . Data on teacher attrition demonstrates that we are a profession that eats its young. Between 40 and 50 percent of teachers leave the profession in the first five years. Anna Roseboro's book can help to turn these numbers around by helping new teachers be successful right from the first year. It also provides a much-needed tonic for experienced teachers who may have lost their way and are wondering if there isn't an easier way to make a living.