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…

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…

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)

Discusses ways to elicit the final project in a high school writing workshop--supplying the opening 20 to 30 pages of a novel. Examines student interests and writing styles in conjunction with the beginning pages of published novels. (RL)

In order to minimize the dread which students and teachers alike often feel toward freshman composition courses, it is important to involve students in reading and writing assignments which are of interest and importance to them. Autobiography, as a subject for study and a focus for writing, can be a great motivator and an expediter of the…

The English courses at Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire) are designed to challenge students in several areas: philosophy, linguistics, psychology, history, aesthetics, mythology, logic, and grammar. Although emphasis may vary from course to course, the goals in each remain the same: to teach reading and writing and the mental processes that…