Telling our stories: Reading and writing engagement in the ELA classroom

: Engaging middle school students in reading and writing can present a challenge for educators. This article describes strategic approaches that may help teachers increase the level of engagement among young adolescents in their English language arts classroom: integrating student voice and choice, centering culturally responsive instruction, and honoring linguistic diversity. To illustrate the effective use of these three approaches, we share a detailed unit plan and explain how its components are designed to boost engagement with both reading and writing. Through these explanations, we provide practical, actionable steps for implementing these strategies in the middle grades language arts classroom.