In this article, the author talks about the use of punctuation and describes a study that confirmed her growing sense that all students need exposure to and instruction on the full repertoire of punctuation. In an attempt to assess how much of the eleventh graders know about the way professionals use punctuation, all teachers at Webster Thomas…

Students often attain memorable experiences from cadaver dissections through reflective writing. For many, facing a dissection for the first time elicits a wide range of emotions. These may include thoughts of their own mortality to the sheer admiration of knowing that someone cared enough to help others learn about the body, even in death. Poems…

Like many high school English teachers, I often had a difficult time getting my students to write. I knew the key to getting them to write was to find activities that interested them. What do most students love? They love going out to eat! They love not just the food, but the whole experience of "going out." Cozzy's Restaurant was this teacher's…

Discusses procedures for applying journal writing to learning study skills. Focuses on conditions for learning; offers guidelines for teachers in getting started and providing feedback; discusses typical student reactions; and lists the advantages of using journals for self-monitoring and communication. (DMM)

In order for students to write like authors they need to read like writers. This requires direct instruction in attending to the writing craft through the use of quality adolescent literature and engagement in reading and writing. This article focuses on writing catchy introductions. The author offers the lesson objective and a teacher script…

Suggests a way to stimulate students' interest in writing that involves learning trivia about famous people and integrating it into classroom lectures in the form of anecdotes. (SRT)

Presents opposing views on the wisdom of teaching student writers to write for an "audience." (JL)

Represents an exchange of "official notices" on the uses and misuses of workbooks in the teaching of writing. (MKM)

Relates the self-determination principles underlying the Outward Bound wilderness program to one teacher's writing instruction objectives. Describes two of the writing assignments resulting from this application. (HTH)

Describes writing folders (used to hold children's personal and creative writing efforts for an entire school year) and how they may be used effectively. (FL)

Discusses length and speed, spontaneity, and discipline as the attributes that affect creative writing assignments, students' development as creative writers, and appropriate methods of teaching creative writing. (RL)

Describes an assignment in which students sharpen their punctuation skills by arranging poems without punctuation in a prose form with appropriate punctuation. Suggests using the poetry of a fictional character from Don Marqui's "archy and mehitabel." (TB)

Argues that teachers can address the problem of how to integrate free and structured inquiry in the classical "progymnasmata," exercises designed to train the classical student in the art of "invention." Describes such exercises. (FL)

Advocates using the case approach in college writing classes. Suggests that asking students to play the roles of participants in a situation, whether real or imaginary, helps them learn to address a particular audience with a clear purpose. Offers a case approach with discussion questions and possible assignments. (RL)

Discusses how powerful the letter is as a form and vehicle for writing, particularly because the language of letters is the closest to natural speech and represents casual spontaneity associated with conversation. Suggests practical ways of including letter writing in the classroom and provides sample letters as illustration. (KEH)