Discusses an instructional model viewing the role of teachers as gatekeepers or border crossers, with gatekeepers maintaining tight control over learning and border crossers providing students greater freedom to define their own learning experience. Examines the validity of the model in the context of using writing assignments in large lecture…

The classroom setting is a source for daily and creative writing material for teachers as well as students. Teacher and student writing samples help to illustrate classrooms as cultures-in-the-making in which new rules are invented every day and suggest that stories of classroom life must of necessity end in question marks and untied threads.…

Addresses both pedagogical and logistical concerns and objections to writing-across-the-curriculum programs in introductory content-area courses. Explains how instructors may use writing to help students master course content and how instructors can create a classroom structure to ease the pressure on themselves to respond to student drafts. (TB)

Plain talk is the cornerstone for creating a classroom atmosphere in which students want to learn to improve their writing. As much as possible, the jargon and technical terminology of the profession of English should be eliminated. Teachers will know what level of language to use if they determine the nature of their audience. Teachers have to…

The teacher of a law-school course in Legal Imagination discusses the evolution of his personal approach in the classroom, which is designed to discern the gifts of each student rather than to simply identify the gifted. Three crucial elements are explored: use and treatment of writing assignments; the use of silence in the classroom environment;…

Small children are very imaginative, and teachers should provide varied experiences to encourage continued growth of their imaginations. Classroom instructional settings can be full of discovery and learning if teachers provide many prewriting opportunities that allow children to discover opportunities for writing. These experiences should cut…