Our everyday language is full of images drawn from animal life. Looking at such images can provide young people with insights into the creative use of language. (Author/RK)

Discusses a program in which high school students with inferior spelling skills received help through a system that taught them to spell by syllables. (FL)

Notes that contemporary poets are writing sensitive and imaginative poetry that offers children insights into life and fun. (FL)

Provides sample classroom exercises to develop middle school and high school youngsters' sensitivity to language skills, spelling, and grammar. Includes riddles, puns, puzzles, and other games drawn from J. Shipley's "Word Play." (JG)

Argues that teaching for poetic thought develops not only poets and lovers of poetry, but also readers, dreamers, and doers. Offers suggestions on how it is done.(FL)

No language is as varied in history as American English and no language is as rich in word choices. Additions to our language from other cultures are discussed. Four categories of activities involving words are presented. (MT)

Presents a unit on slang to help cultivate in students some positive attitudes toward their language use and to help students respect language differences. (TJ)

How to deal with profanity and other unacceptable language in the classroom is a subject all of us deal with daily. And, if the problem isn't handled sensitively, it can be explosive. Presents a few practices that seem to reduce the incidence of profane language in the classroom. (Author/RK)

Current debate has focused attention on the role of language in learning. This article describes how students' knowledge and interest in their own subject was used to start them thinking through ideas about language. The value of such an approach is discussed, and also the problems inherent in it. (Author/MA)

Discusses four prevalent misconceptions about critical reading and thinking and presents classroom strategies to foster an awareness of each. (EL)

Summarizes recent theory on communicative processes in language use, on the creation and exchange of meaning, and on the negotiation of roles in the classroom. Suggests exercises for activating and developing interactive skills between speakers and hearers in the foreign language. (EKN)

Discusses word games and activities that encourage students to use dictionaries and alternate forms in their writing. (HTH)

This book argues for a deeper, richer view of vocabulary than the standard images conjured up by that word--worksheets, weekly quizzes, and anxieties about standardized test scores. The book invites teachers and students to experience "the music of words," words in isolation and in juxtapositions, and urges them to bring their own life…

Offers suggestions from five contributors dealing with word games, the teacher's role in reading instruction, running and reading comprehension, video games and Rubik's Cube and photoessays. (FL)

Argues that dramatic activity is the basis for learning, and that dramatic activities can help students learn in all subject areas, particularly in the language arts. (RL)