Students from all over the world, from various ethnic and racial communities, make up the student population of the schools in the United States. Each one of them brings to the classroom several unique characteristics. Creative writing and art are both empowering tools that meet the commonality of self-expression. Both are processes "in which…

Explains how a writing course with lyric poetry as its subject matter, when designed according to cognitivist principles, provides an environment in which students can grow as writers and also mature in their ability to respond to literature. (HOD)

Discusses the use of exercises that help students learn to write poetry. (HOD)

Provides step-by-step directions for various creative writing strategies for teachers to use with their students. Illustrates each strategy: the sneak attack; the poetry cafe; videotaping a poem; and choral reading and coloring meaning. (PA)

Describes a poetry writing assignment that teaches students the importance of place and objects in expressing emotions about a childhood memory. (RL)

Insists upon the importance of poetry and provides a procedure for introducing both students and teachers to the writing and appreciation of poems. (JL)

Argues that asking students to write in concrete images about specific events and places serves to emphasize the importance of writing from detailed personal experiences. (RL)

Notes the villanelle is one of English poetry's most demanding forms. Discusses two distinct ways in which a villanelle unfolds - as a satellite or as a snowball. Describes how the meaning of the repeating lines in a snowball villanelle change and increase with each recurrence. Presents exercises for teaching the villanelle. (SG)

Uses poetry and poetic prose to remind readers of the power of poetic language. Discusses the author's experience as a poet and her work with teachers to bring poetry into children's lives. (SR)

Discusses four poems by William Carlos Williams used to teach creative writing to college students. Uses "Portrait of a Woman in Red" and "The Last Words of My English Grandmother" because they contain speakers who are clearly not the poet, which gives undergraduate students opportunities to discuss details Williams uses to…

Emphasizes classroom study of poetic patterns and images to enable students to see how poems work without overwhelming them with terminology. (MS)

A collection of plays, stories, and rhymes are offered in this article to help celebrate Halloween. (DF)

Describes an assignment in which students are taught to develop poetry using the ideas and words found in newspaper or magazine stories. Includes model poems. (HTH)

Describes a poetry writing exercise that used photographs as a stimulus. Presents some poems produced by this exercise. (JL)

Healthy competition and longer writing projects helped to overcome some of the difficulties associated with the long residencies of visiting writers in elementary schools. (RL)