Includes bibliographical references and index.

English: what to teach -- Appreciating existing literacies -- Teaching reading and writing lives -- Environments for building readers -- Building and inhabiting the world of the text -- Teaching toward interpretive reading -- Teaching thinking devices -- Teaching toward great conversations -- Writing that supports readers' meaning making -- Writers' notebooks: tools for thinking -- What is there to teach about writing to think? -- Pointing students toward audiences -- Empirical inquiry into qualities of good writing -- Teaching toward participation in digital culture -- Making more of grammar: studying language like linguists -- Working toward tests without insulting students' intelligence -- Planning a year.