Fostering adolescents' literacy engagements: "Kid's business" and criticalinquiry

This study explores the impact of an inquiry project conducted with sixth-g rade language arts students. The project, Write for Your Life, invited stud ents to conduct their own investigations of social issues that affected the ir lives. In this report, I look specifically at three aspects of the proje ct-how the students defined their inquiry how they pursued their inquiry, a nd how they compared this experience to previous experiences in language ar ts-in relation to the literature on engagement, critical literacy, and the design of language arts curriculum for adolescents.