Parents, educators, and students have criticized the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects for expecting students to regurgitate evidence from assigned texts rather than think for themselves. This article argues that this popular critique is accurate and that…

Imaginative writing is a great vehicle for creative thinking and risk taking as children structure a reality in a story. However, the author believes that American children are untrained for this sort of work and progress. They need connected experiences. This insight intensifies the author's resolution to seek collaboration with artists in other…

Pupils need to express themselves in creative processes and products in the language arts curriculum. Too frequently, teachers require behavior which involves conformity on the part of learners. Specific objectives many times delimit pupils' opportunities to express original ideas that come from within the involved learners. Many activities can…

Argues that literature classes will grow more interesting and more effective if educators coordinate two kinds of emphases: allowing for discovery and moving toward productivity. Offers four principles for developing assignments: respect the process; nourish the participants; aim for a variety of products; and reflect together on process,…

I invite and encourage students to take risks in their writing, to engage innovatively with a wide range of genre, to push limits in order to explore creatively how language and discourse are never ossified, but always organic, how language use is integrally and inextricably connected to identity, knowledge, subjectivity, and living. Informed by…

Writing classes ought to be among the most creative environments imaginable, but sadly, some writing teachers seem to think that their own writing ability, in proximity, is enough to get students started. A good writing teacher must be a constant student of creativity, always searching for new ways to teach, new inspirations, new forms of…

In traditional programming courses assignments usually consist of problems that are somewhat closed in nature. That is, students are usually given a rigidly defined problem statement and are provided with a set of data that they are to use to test their program to produce a unique result. While this approach makes evaluation easy, it discourages…

A principal describes a packet of Christmas letters from high school juniors expressing appreciation for good work habits learned in her eighth-grade English composition class. This former teacher injected relevance into the curriculum by accepting students' world and absorbing it into the learning environment. Students could connect classroom…

Interviews Irene Huschak, a computer teacher at Altoona Area High School in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Explains "A Digital Journey to Altoona's Past," a project which brings the history of Blair County, Pennsylvania alive for young readers by making them the main characters of historically accurate stories about the area's past. Discusses the…