CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

The New Jersey English Journal, a yearly publication of the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, provides New Jersey teachers of English with a forum for open discussion of ideas relating to the content and teaching of English language arts while supporting the development and growth of new and experienced New Jersey teaching professionals.

The theme for our 2010 edition is "Reading in a New Light" and asks us to think about how we can support, encourage, and foster a love of reading given all of the other distractions faced by students today. Which novels, poems, short stories or non-fiction have you used in your classrooms that were greeted with enthusiasm by students? What texts help students give "voice" to their particular fears or help them think about the various paths in their future? How do web sites, blogs, fan fiction, films and video games enhance, detract, or interplay with students' reading habits? Can students who "read" film or other digital media be considered readers? How has your own reading changed since you began teaching?

The theme for this edition is meant to be open to interpretation. These quesetions are meant to give you ideas on the wide range of possibilities within this theme. We welcome manuscripts that address the pedagogical as well as the theoretical concerns about this topic and examples of "best practices" in teaching reading strategies at every educational level. Please feel free to submit any manuscript that addresses these ideas from your own unique perspective.

The New Jersey English Journal reserves the right to edit manuscripts, which will not be returned. Submission deadline for the 2010 edition will be on May 15, 2010.

Submission guidelines:

* Please send the manuscript as an attached word document to eweinthal@njcte.org. The document should be numbered and double-spaced throughout (including quotations, endnotes, and works cited).

* Use in-text documentation, following the current edition of the MLA Handbook.

* List your name, address, school affiliation, telephone number, and email address on the title page only.

* Please include a brief bio that we can use if we publish your manuscript.

* We will print articles, poems, short stories, and descriptions of "best practices" as space allows. 

Receipt of manuscripts will be acknowledged by email.

Dr. Edie Weinthal

Mrs. Amanda Crane
Editors, NJ English Journal

Pascack Valley Regional HS District

200 Piermont Road

Hillsdale, NJ 07642

The New Jersey English Journal is mailed to current members each year.

2009 Contributors

Kathleen Barrett	Jonathan T. Bartels	Amanda Crane	Liz deBeer
Maria Mazziotti Gillan	Walter H. Johnson	Sue Kenny	Valerie Mattessich
Emily S. Meixner	Rachel Kreller	Connie Mietlicki, Ph.D.	Bill Rawson
Bonnie Slockett	Edie Weinthal, Ph.D.	Karen A. Wink, Ph.D.

Excerpts from the 2009 New Jersey English Journal

PLAYING WITH DOLLS by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

APOLOGY by Kathleen Barrett

When Jennifer and John were little, John played with GI Joe dolls, Jennifer with Barbie. They'd play together for hours weaving scenarios where GI Joe could meet Barbie and they'd ride in her pink car. Now John's son plays quietly with his GI Joe dolls and I hear him talking to them, making up scenarios for those figures the way the children did when they were little and because I don't see my grandchildren that much, I see them with an outsider's eyes and I am afraid for them -- Jackson in one room playing alone, Caroline in the room with us instant messaging on her laptop and I wonder, looking back, did our children live so much in their own worlds, so much space, so lonely? As a child I played with my brother, using empty plastic M&M boxes and spools of thread as cars and people and making up our own worlds, but mostly, we all played and my father told stories and the house was small and we were together and in all those years between then and now, how did we get so much and lose everything?

Saturday morning the house is quiet no alarm, but awake Reading the week's emails catching up with friends in Seattle and Syracuse Play time... Searching for W. C. W. My doctor friend -- Savoring a favorite poem Hours disappear jumping from site to site finding gems to use for April's classes Remembering how I used to feel -- excited about Monday Renewed