The body biography, a visual and written life-size composition to study characterization, makes use of a variety of materials such as markers, crayons, and found material from wrapping paper to remnants of string and yarn. In this study, three teachers were invited to implement the body biography practice as part of their delivery of the English…

This article describes a teacher's willingness to perform an autobiographical spoken word poem in his classroom, which provided an important model for students as they composed and shared their own slam-style poems.

Learning to read and write starts at a very young age. It is expected that by the time students enter high school, they have developed certain reading and writing skills. However, research has proven many students still struggle with reading and writing skills in high school. Some of these students graduate high school ill-prepared to enter…

After having success with this warm-up activity in his theater classes, the author adapted it for his beginner-level English classes, knowing his students would appreciate the opportunity to move around. The activity allows students to create their own physical interpretation of a vocabulary word, which increases their ability to remember it…

This article explores how policy discourses of creativity have an impact on the way that secondary English teachers construct creativity themselves and the opportunities that they have to enact these constructions in their classrooms. In particular, it focuses on policy around language learning and creativity, identifying significant differences…

Modern secondary courses in English differ from classical tradition in their tendency to avoid direct instruction in the content and style of writing. Such avoidance is partly a function of anxieties about the role of English in students' personal development and a fear of limiting their self expression. Neither of the dominant writing pedagogies…

David E. Kirkland turns our attention to the ways tattoos can represent "human" stories of literacy through the power of inked flesh, the self-portrait it creates, and the words and worlds that surround the body. The body, for Kirkland, is an important site of cultural production that represents the transformative, political, and personal terrains…

This paper describes how adolescent students responded to a poetry workshop in an English classroom where the content was derived from their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of world events. Informed by theories of New Literacy Studies, ethnographic methods of participant-observation were used to document an eighth…

The sort of self-expression that is central to English teaching should be concerned with the whole self, action and sensation, reflection and speculation, and with ideas as well as with emotions. (HOD)

Describes how poetry and teaching poetry is a way to pay attention to the world, to feel connected to other people--a conduit to each student's truest discoveries, offering solace and courage and wisdom and survival. (SR)

Describes the wide variety of personal statements and "mini-poems" on personalized license plates. Suggests that having students collect such statements might be a way of teaching them about the creative potential of language. (EL)

Discusses issues related to the writing of novels, the construction of meaning by readers, and generally about the act of writing from the first person point of view. Outlines the elements of strong fiction. (HB)

Discusses the relationship between individuals and societies, equating human experience and development--particularly language development--with fiction making. Notes the implications this outlook has for English teachers. (RL)

Tells the story of "Jim," a 10th-grade student in "general" English who did nothing in a class until the teacher noticed his creative writing talents. Explains how an assignment to write an autobiography led to the teacher's discovery that Jim is a poet. Notes that Jim went on to complete the course and to complete high school. (TB)

The greatest advantage of teaching English as a humanities subject is in the way it encourages children's natural abilities to express themselves creatively in words and to empathize with others. The history of the creative movement in Great Britain is traced through various literature. (PP)