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Wilson, Blady, Kumar, Moorman, Prior, and Willson | Voices Carry: A Content Analysis oVoices from the Middlepage

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Voices from the Middle, Volume 18 Number 4, May 2011

created, we can only share with you our own sub-

jective meaning making.

The content analysis strategy we chose was

to start resh, with no preconceived notions o

what we would nd. To orm an interpretive

community, we each read the same volume oVoicesand then came together to identiy and de-

ne what we ound to be the most salient themes

or categories. The categories that emerged were:

who is talking (or the authors and their demo-

graphics), who is included in the conversation

(theorists), what is be-

ing said (themes and ap-

proaches), and what is

not being said (underly-

ing world views).

In discovering and

constructing these cat-

egories, we were able to

interpret and transact

with the conversation o

the journal in an orga-

nized ashion in order to

better discuss these various dimensions, each o

which will be discussed at length.

Who Is Talking?In our analysis o the history o Voices from the

Middle (see Figure 1), we examined 340 articles

published in volumes 118 between February,

1995, and March, 2011. O those articles, 93%

were written by people directly in the eldpro-

essionals teaching children or teaching teachers.

We ound 37% were written by classroom teach-

ers, 44% by proessors, and 10% in collaboration

between teachers and proessors. The remaining

9% o the articles were composed by other pro-

essionals, including poets, authors, educational

consultants, literacy coaches, writing project di-

rectors, students, and retired teachers.

O the 127 articles written by classroom

teachers, 85% were credited to a single author

83% o whom were emale, while 17% were

maleand 15% were written by two or more

teachers, most oten two emale teachers working

together. O the 150 articles written by proes-

sors, 7% were written by a single author, 56% o

whom were emale and 44% o whom were male.

Although 33% percent o the articles written by

proessors involved collaboration, notably 90%

o that collaboration occurred in the latter hal

o the journals history, beginning with volume 9in 2001/2002. There have been 33 articles writ-

ten jointly by proessors and teachers working

together, with 82% o the proessors and 85%

o the teachers involved in those collaborations

being emale.

Where Are the Voices Coming from?

While 97% oVoices from the Middle authors live

in the United States, articles have been pub-

lished by authors rom Australia, Canada, China,Jordan, and South Arica. Within the United

States, 43 o the 50 states are represented, with

the highest distribution o authorship being New

York (12%), Texas (10%), and Caliornia (9%),

ollowed by Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, and

Ohio at 5% each; Florida, Georgia, New Hamp-

shire, and Pennsylvania contributed at 4% each.

Voices: Past, Present, and Future

Overall, the journals authorship seems to re-

fect its readershipmostly practitioners, mostlywomen, and mostly American. There is a larger

proportion o authors representing the states

with larger populations, as well as those on the

east and west coasts. Looking at the trends over

time, Voices authors have become increasingly

diverse in terms o gender and proessional roles,

and they have been collaborating with each other

more and more. The hope is that as the Voices

from the Middle conversation continues, there will

be even greater ethnic and geographic diversity,

along with a continued spirit o collaboration.

Resonating Voices

Among the 240 or so theorists reerenced in Voic-

es, the most prominently cited are Nancie Atwell

(6% o all articles) and Louise Rosenblatt (4% o

all articles). The sheer number o authors who

cite Atwell is a testament to her original and last-

ing infuence on literacy educators, or whom her

Looking at the trends over

time, Voicesauthors have

become increasingly diverse

in terms of gender and

professional roles, and they

have been collaborating with

each other more and more.


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Wilson, Blady, Kumar, Moorman, Prior, and Willson | Voices Carry: A Content Analysis oVoices from the Middle

bookIn the Middle (1998) continues to be regard-

ed as a oundation or teaching middle school lan-

guage arts. Not only does she present hundreds

o ideas or implementing reading and writing

workshops, she dispenses practical suggestions

on engaging adolescents in their learning. BothAtwell and Rosenblatt are cited in the frst issue

oVoicesand continue to be cited throughout the

issues. Rosenblatt is cited in more recent issues

oVoices(the most recent reerence is in Vol.18,

No. 2) than Atwell (the most recent reerence is

in Vol. 15, No. 4). This shows the longevity o

the applicability o her theories, especially her

transactional theory o reading (1996).

Donald Graves and Paulo Freire are next

among the theorists most cited (3%). Both are

frst reerenced in Volume 4 (1997) and continue

to be cited through the most recent volume (18).

For decades, Graves studied how students learn

to write, and rom these studies, he was able to

elicit several best practices or writing: choice in

the writing topics, daily writing, and learning the

mechanics o writing in the context o reading

and writing. Freire is most known or his criti-

cal pedagogy and or his bookPedagogy of the Op-

pressed (1970). In Voices, the concepts o social

justice and advocacy are prevalent. Freire is citedin reerence to advocacy or those marginalized

in our society, those who do not commonly have

a voice. In one such article, George (2002) states,

When adolescents gain knowledge that can pro-

vide them with a deeper understanding o those

who are dierent, they are empowered by that

knowledge and can make a dierence in our di-

vided society (p. 40).

Infuences on Voices rom the

MiddleNational Writing Project

Atwell and Graves are highly regarded by the

National Writing Project (NWP), a nationwide

organization that promotes the development o

eective, engaging writing instruction. It em-

ploys a teachers-teaching-teachers model and

promotes research in this area. The NWP also

frmly believes that teachers must model writing;

thereore, teachers should be writers themselves

(Nagin, 2003). This participation allows teach-

ers to better understand

and value the processes

that their students expe-rience. The NWP phi-

losophy permeates the

pages o Voices. Other

NWP researchers who

appear in the journal

are Ralph Fletcher, Je

Wilhelm, and Lucy

Calkins. Wilhelm and Calkins are cited in about

2% o the articles in Voices.

Theories That Guide the Teaching oDiverse Student Populations

A theory that occurs in many Voices articles is

the importance o students unds o knowledge

(Gonzlez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). Teachers

must meet all students where they are, consid-

ering parental involvement and class partici-

pation, rom a cultural perspective (Fu, 2004).

The knowledge that English Language Learners

bring, historically ignored, is championed by this

theory and Voices. This is illustrated in an articleencouraging teachers to allow students to write

in their native languages as a way to show that

their unique experiences are signifcant and wor-

thy o sharing with others (Sumaryono & Ortiz,

2004), Additionally, teachers are encouraged to

work to build respectul relationships in the class-

room and integrate texts that highlight the assets

o our diverse nation (Paige, 2004; Styslinger &

Whisenant, 2004).

New Voices

The turn o the century ushered in a new area o

ocus or educators and or this journal: critical

technology literacy. Voices discusses technology

in practice, like how students can be motivated to

share their written assignments with an audience

by blogging (Read & Fisher, 2006). Many o the

articles exhort the need to use technology as a

Teachers are encouraged to

work to build respectul

relationships in the class-

room and integrate texts

that highlight the assets o

our diverse nation.


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SIDE TRIp: ThE nATIOnAl wRITInG pROjEcT: IMpAcT AnD AcTIOn

The authors in the article look at Voices from the Middle over time and who has inuenced the journal. It

was ound that the National Writing Project was a strong inuence. ReadWriteThink.org oers the ollowing

resources that show additional examples o the National Writing Project and some o their sites and Summer

Institutes. lesso pa weavig te Od ito te ne: pairig The Odysseyit cotemorary works

Ater reading and discussing The Odysseyand a contemporary epic such as Running Out of Summera

story that ollows the protagonists journey rom Atlanta to Santa Monica to attend schoolstudents se-

lect one character rom each work as the basis or a comparisoncontrast graphic organizer. Then, given

a handout with fve hypothetical contemporary situations, students determine which o the options best

suits both characters. Students must justiy the specifc reasoning behind their decisions through their

use o exact quotations and proper documentation. As an alternative or extension, students can com-

plete the same activities with the flm O Brother, Where Art Thou? or another work rom the Contemporary

Epic Booklist. This lesson plan was developed as part o a collaborative proessional writing initiative

sponsored by the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP) at Kennesaw State University. http://www

.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/weaving-into-pairing-odyssey-1041.html

lesso pa Movig toard Aetae troug piturebooksad To-Voie Texts

Connecting literature to students lived experiences in the school and classroom, this lesson provides an

opportunity or students to learn about situations o intolerance and discuss ways to move to a more

ideal world in which acceptance is the norm. Starting with the picturebook Whoever You Are, students

discuss embracing diversity. The class then compares the ideal to realistic situations that they ace in

their own school, as well as those portrayed in the books Weslandia andInsects Are My Life. Students

then study, create, and perorm two-voice texts that show how they can move closer to the ideal o ac-

cepting all types o diversity. This lesson plan was developed as part o a collaborative proessional writ-

ing initiative sponsored by the Illinois State Writing Project (ISWP) at Illinois State University in Normal,

Illinois. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/moving-toward-acceptance-

through-1138.html

lesso pa More ta Oe way to create Vivid Verbs

Ater reviewing specifc nouns, students create a two-column list o nouns and ordinary verbs specifc to

a particular occupation. They then pair a specifc noun rom the frst column with an occupation-related

verb rom the second column to create descriptive lines with vivid verbs being used in a dierent con-

text. The trick lies in the act that the verbs must be used in a new way, having nothing to do with the

occupation. Oten this approach to writing leads to a natural metaphorical passage as a result. Students

refne this writing strategy by rotating through computer stations, each housing a descriptive passage

begun by other students, revising and suggesting improvements or just adding lines to the descriptive

passages. This lesson plan was developed as part o a collaborative proessional writing initiative spon-

sored by the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP) at Kennesaw State University. http://www

.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/more-than-create-vivid-1008.html

Lisa Fink

www.readwritethink.org


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resource to obtain, synthesize, and present inor-

mation and not merely to support conventional

technology standards (Laddo, Place, & Soares,

2010; Oldaker, 2010). Kajder (2004) states that

[I] 15 years pondering the role o technology

in classroom learning has taught us anything,it has to be that knowledge does not lie within

technology; technology is only a tool that helps

to unlock the power and the promise o learning

(p. 6). Teachers must also cover critical techno-

logical literacy (Rowlands, 2003). In Journey

into Cyberspace, J. L. Scott (2000) states that

[S]tudents will need to obtain the skills neces-

sary to decipher and analyze data rom an ever-

growing well o sources (p. 25).

The voices that continue to resonate in this

journal are rom teachers and researchers who

understand the importance o transactional

learning, collaboration, and dierentiated in-

struction. The theorists voices continue to echo

in the classrooms, promoting literacy instruction

that goes ar beyond curriculum mandates. These

educators refect their understanding o many

o the theories previously mentioned. Students

learn when they are engaged, when they work

in collaborative groups, and when their (techno-

logical) unds o knowledge are respected. Voicesbelieves that students should be at the center o

instruction, and although technology is prevalent

in all o our lives, it should be implemented with-

in this academic theoretical ramework.

Approaches to Literacy Learningand Teaching

The approaches in Voiceshave largely been char-

acterized by a desire to help students orm con-

nectionsto their personal interests, to ellow

learners, to other content areas, and to strategies

and rameworks that acilitate literacy engage-

ment across the curriculum. Within that ap-

proach, Voicesauthors have also sought to capture

students interest by helping them to make per-

sonal connections to their own lives and expe-

riences vis--vis classroom instruction, and by

implementing democratic practices, such as sel-

selected reading (Kitagawa, 1994; Shambaugh,

1995; Vreeland, 1998).

By encouraging students to participate in

service projects and literature circles, these ap-

proaches have emphasized the social and re-

lational aspects o learning and have enabledstudents to bond with other learners. In addition

to intrapersonal and interpersonal connections,

there has been a great deal o interest in acilitat-

ing myriad interdisciplinary learning experiences,

including reading circles that incorporate a vari-

ety o visual and ne arts

as well as the writing o

science-related and his-

torically accurate poems

and stories (Rie, 1994).

Finally, the approaches

explored in Voices, such

as writers workshop

and strategy instruction,

have connected students to the skills and abili-

ties needed to achieve excellence in reading and

writing.

Background Noise: The Unsaid Ideasand Underlying Beliefs

In every interesting conversation, there is thesaid, but what makes the talk ascinating is what

is not said, that is, what is implied. Here, we

share with you that background noise. This

noise speaks volumes about what was happen-

ing in our eld over time and has infuenced all

aspects o research and conversations expressed

in this journal through its underlying belies and

assumptions about literacy education.

From the journals onset, its stance has been

decidedly open to new ways o dening literacy.

What constitutes literacy has evolved over the

years, due in part to ever-changing technological

advancements. Voicesalso has historically attend-

ed to the delicate balance o creating democratic

classrooms with more student choice, while, at

the same time, giving the students a teacher-

structured environment. And, o course, there is

the prevalent notion that all children can learn

Theseapproaches haveemphasized the social and

relational aspects of learning

and have enabled students

to bond with other learners.


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Wilson, Blady, Kumar, Moorman, Prior, and Willson | Voices Carry: A Content Analysis oVoices from the Middlepage

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and are capable o high-level thinking given the

right circumstances. This stance is undergirded

by a social constructivist worldview, which was

not always explicitly revealed but rather let un-

said.

The unsaid idea that students need to be ex-ternally motivated can be read in the articles that

include balanced literacy, engagement in reading,

exploration, collaboration, and the negotiation o

new technology. Yet, also included in these is-

sues are the ideas o explicitly teaching grammar

and strategies or reaching the struggling reader.

Across the board, authors seem to refect the ex-

isting paradox in education todaythe notion

that students learn through social interactions,

while school curricula seem to narrow, seeking

those one right answers inherent in skills-

ocused teaching and standardized-testing ac-

countability. In doing so, they draw on post-

positivist assumptions that rely on empirical

evidence and observable measurements. The

tensions between constructivist and post-positiv-

ist stances refect our present political and edu-

cational climate in which there is a struggle tond the middle ground between good teaching

and teaching to the test. One teacher shares this

internal confict in her article, Achieving Stan-

dards without Sacricing My Own (Edwards,

2002). She strives to use authentic literacy activi-

ties or teaching skills that her students need to

pass mandated assessments.

High-Stakes Testing and the InternalStruggles of Educators

From Volume 9 onward, Voices refects this

struggle as the noise we hear seems to be trying

SIDE TRIp: ESSEnTIAl VOIcES In ThE lITERAcy cOnVERSATIOn

As the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) celebrates its 100th anniversary, it is wonderful to

showcase the many resources that are still shaping the literacy conversation. Voices from the Middle has

been one such seminal resource that has given voice to teachers, researchers, students, and others con-

cerned with education at the middle level.

The authors of this article skillfully delineate the wide-ranging topics that have been addressed in the

journal since its inception over 15 years ago. Issues presented through research, practical applications, or

personal experiences have helped to showcase practicing teachers work, prepare preservice teachers, and

help us illuminate the importance of middle level education. The current editors have been visionary in

continuing this tradition as they focus on issues paramount in educating adolescent children.

As the conversation continues, voices such as Nancy Atwell, Louise Rosenblatt, Paulo Freire, Donald Graves,

and many others will be heard again and again. Their work highlights for us that, ultimately, our main focus

is that of educating young minds and striving to help all children learn to their maximum potential; every

child, every teacher has a voice and should be heard.

Teachers and others concerned with educating children in the middle are encouraged to join NCTE, wherethey can have continued access to Voices from the Middle and myriad other valuable resources. Instrumen-

tal in educating our students in 21st century classrooms are the natioa coui of Teaers of Egis

(ncTE), the professional organization of educators in English studies, literacy, and language arts (http://

www.ncte.org/), and Read write Tik, an organization devoted to developing resources for classrooms,

professional development, parents, afterschool programs, and community educational collaborations

(http://www.readwritethink.org/).

Ruth Lowery


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to create a balance between developing student

writers by providing student choice (Chandler-

Olcott & Maher, 2001) with careul eedback

(Jago, 2001), and, at the same time, emphasiz-

ing the importance o developing vocabularies in

writing and teaching spelling skills (Templeton,2002; Richards, 2002; Thibodeau, 2002). As a re-

sult, there is an emphasis on authentic curricu-

lum, with extensive conversation on the teaching

o reading and writing skills. The talk does reveal

a double-sided worldwide assumption refective

o both constructivist and post-positivist views.

Thereore, the high-stakes testing ambiva-

lence experienced by many o our peers can be

traced in Voicesas a restless competition between

authentic learning, good teaching practices, and

making peace with mandated standards.

This ambivalent stance continues in the jux-

taposition o the conversations in Volume 12

which is replete with text celebrating Louise

Rosenblatts view o reading as a lived-through

experience, a pronounced constructivist point o

viewand Volume 13which, or the most part,

moves in the direction o embracing assessment

and encouraging teachers to teach test skills. For

instance, Rasinski & Padak (2005) speak about

the importance o teaching fuency or improv-ing reading skills and, ultimately, or closing the

achievement gap. In addition, Goodman (2005)

discusses ve strategies to help middle school

students triumph and pass tests. This noise ex-

presses the strong push and pull o standardized

testing among us. However, while there is no

clear solution, Voices indeed represents a truce;

uneasy as it may be, it is pragmatic and, at the

same time, hopeul and encouraging.

The Conversation Continues . . .

We have heard in the conversations rom Voices

from the Middlewhat we all believe is important

over time or students o middle school language

arts. The constants are: all children can learn; all

children come to school with their own unds o

knowledge; and all children can be taught lan-

guage arts because o, or in spite o, the ederal

governments scientic ndings. The voices in

Voicesare optimistic, pragmatic, and empathetic

toward students and teachers, providing glim-

mers o hope or a positive evolution in literacy

education.

Ultimately, we are let with voices that tell us

that reading, writing, listening, and speaking arecrucial skills or sel-expression, synthesis o ma-

terial, and understanding o the world around us.

Most important, they tell us that to make learn-

ing meaningul, students voices should always be

heard.

References

Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle. Portsmouth, NH:

Boynton/Cook.

Chandler-Olcott, K., & Maher, D. (2001). A rame-

work or choosing topics or and with adolescent

writers. Voices from the Middle, 9(1), 4047.

Edwards, S. (2002). Achieving standards without

sacrifcing my own. Voices from the Middle, 10(1),

3134.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York:

Continuum.

Fu, D. (2004). Teaching ELL students in regular

classrooms at the secondary level. Voices from the

Middle, 11(4), 815.

George, M. A. (2002). Living on the edge: Conront-

ing social injustices. Voices from the Middle, 9(4),3944.

Gonzlez, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of

knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, com-

munities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence

Erlbaum.

Goodman, A. (2005). The middle school high fve:

Strategies can triumph. Voices from the Middle,

13(2), 1219.

Jago, C. (2001). Responding to student writing: Keep

peddling. Voices from the Middle, 9(1), 5658.

Kajder, S. (2004). Plugging in: What technology brings

to the English/language arts classroom. Voices fromthe Middle, 11(3), 69.

Kitagawa, M. (1994). Its about time to talk. Voices from

the Middle, 1(1), 2936.

Laddo, L., Place, K., & Soares, L. (2010). Fresh per-

spectives on new literacies and technology integra-

tion. Voices from the Middle, 17(3), 918.

Nagin, C. (2003). Because writing matters: Improving

student writing in our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-

Bass.


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Oldaker, A. (2010). Creating video games in a middle

school language arts classroom: A narrative ac-

count. Voices from the Middle, 17(3), 1926.

Paige, M. (2004). Going beyond the book: A multi-

cultural education in the English language arts

classroom. Voices from the Middle, 12(1), 815.

Rasinski, T., & Padak, N. D. (2005). Fluency beyond

the primary grades: Helping adolescent struggling

readers. Voices from the Middle, 13(1), 3441.

Read, S., & Fisher, D. (2006). Tapping into students

motivation: Lessons rom young adolescents blogs.

Voices from the Middle, 14(2), 3846.

Richards, J. (2002). Taking the guesswork out o spell-

ing. Voices from the Middle, 9(3),1518.

Rie, L. (1994). Threads o lie: Reading, writing, and

music. Voices from the Middle, 1(1), 1828.

Robinson, H. A. (1977). Reading and writing instruc-

tion in the United States: Historical trends. Newark,DE: International Reading Association.

Rosenblatt, L. (1996). Literature as exploration. New

York: Modern Language Association.

Rowlands, K. D. (2003). Alice in web wonderland:

Internet resources or middle schoolers and their

teachers. Voices from the Middle, 7(3), 4954.

Scott, J. L. (2000).Journey into cyberspace. Voices from

the Middle, 7(2), 2426.

Shambaugh, K. (1995). Jarreau makes history: Whole

class projects as a context or individual literacy.


Styslinger, M. E., & Whisenant, A. (2004). Crossing

cultures with multi-voiced journals. Voices from the

Middle, 12(1), 2631.

Sumaryono, K., & Ortiz, W. (2004). Preserving the

cultural identity o the English language learner.


Templeton, S. (2002). Eective spelling instruction in

the middle grades: Its a lot more than memoriza-

tion. Voices from the Middle. 9(3), 814.

Thibodeau, G. (2002). Spellbound: Commitment to

correctness. Voices from the Middle, 9(3), 1922.

Vreeland, P. (1998). The amily tree: Nurturing lan-

guage growth through all the parts o me. Voicesfrom the Middle, 6(1), 1722.

White, M. D., & Marsh, E. E. (2006). Content analysis:

A fexible methodology. Library Trends, 55(1),

2245.

Melissa B. Wilson is a lecturer o Early Childhood Education at the University o the West Indies

at Cave Hill, Barbados. She can be reached at [email protected]. Shannon Bladyisa ourth-grade teacher in San Antonio, Texas. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary

Learning and Teaching at UTSA. Tracey Kumar is a doctoral student and adjunct instructor in the

department o Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at UTSA. Honor Moorman is the Dean

o Instruction or English and Social Studies at The International School o the Americas, a doctoral

student in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at The University o Texas at San Antonio, an

adjunct aculty member in the Education Department at Trinity University, a teacher consultant

with the San Antonio Writing Project, a reviewer or ReadWriteThink.org, and the associate edi-

tor or NCTEs Voices from the Middle. Lori Prior has taught in several public school districts in

San Antonio, Texas, and is currently a doctoral student at UTSA, pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplin-

ary Learning and Teaching with a ocus on reading and literacy.Angeli Marie Willson is princi-

pal at Comort Elementary School in Comort, Texas. She is currently also a doctoral candidate inInterdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the University o Texas at San Antonio.

voices carry content analysis of voices may 11

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