Between the Lines: Actively Engaging Readers in the English Classroom

Michael Anthony has taught secondary English students, grades nine through twelve, for the last 20 years. He conceived and implemented a genre-based instructional English language arts curriculum, integrating independent readership and young adult (YA) literature. In 2006, he successfully reversed a ban on Adam Rapp’s YA novel The Buffalo Tree in the Muhlenberg School District, as featured in the New York Times. He has been a featured speaker at college and university symposiums on “Censorship in Schools” and has presented on adapting reading workshop strategies for high school students at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) convention. His research on the teen angst YA literature subgenre has been cited in The Alan Review. Joan F. Kaywell has served as Professor of English Education at the University of South Florida (USF) for nearly three decades. She was appointed the Director of the SunCoast Area Teacher Training & Education Research (SCATTER), USF’s COEDU’s Honors Program summer 2013. She donates her time extensively to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and its Florida affiliate (FCTE): She is Past President of NCTE’s Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), completed two terms serving as ALAN’s Membership Secretary, and was the recipient of the 2012 Hipple Award for outstanding service. Kaywell is a Past-President of FCTE twice and served almost two decades on its Board of Directors. In 2012, FCTE created the “Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award” in her honor. Dr. Kaywell is published in several journals; regularly reviews YA novels, has edited two series of textbooks, and written one trade book. Kaywell fervently believes that teachers and authors are often the unsung heroes of children on the brink of self-destruction. By offering books to children to help them momentarily escape the pain of growing up, teachers offer teenagers a constructive way to survive the crisis, find hope, and know that they are not alone.