In the pursuit of fostering vibrant and inclusive learning environments, this article explores how the practice of community-building can be a contemplative practice. Drawing upon personal experiences and pedagogical insights, Muir navigates the rewards of cultivating authentic connections among students while dismantling hierarchies within the…

During this era of high-stakes testing, technology-based instruction, and increased control over students' expression due to school violence, students' right to write must be protected. Censorship of writing not only stifles student voices but denies students important opportunities to grow as both writers and thinkers. Through the often messy…

With the increasing curricular demands on teachers, many educators wonder if students find adequate opportunities to think. While visiting educators and students in Franklin County, Tennessee, a college instructor discovered a successful program designed to help students think in meaningful ways about their lives. The contest, established by Sir…

An award-winning author of children's books discusses her own writing. Among the most important considerations for her are: (1) self-expression; (2) letting the story speak from its own world; and (3) having children who read the book claim it for their own. (PP)

Describes a program of creative writing and describes student objectives and teacher objectives that allow the experience to aid students in producing critical essays. (CRH)

Uses the example of the Women's Journal Group to show how a personal, emotional commitment to a personally connected writing community will change that way a writer thinks, feels, and acts. Describes the beginnings of the Women's Journal Group, the members' differing backgrounds, goals, and expectations. Outlines the principles of multimedia…

Insofar as students gain clarity by writing statements of belief and meaning, the expressive mode is a vehicle for learning. By expressing in writing their reaction to a bewildering experience, a current dilemma, or a troublesome conflict, for example, they are better able to broaden their views on this personal predicament. The expressive mode…

Writing represents the writer's dialog, first, with himself, and later, with the reader. Both processes take part in the communication and influence its shape and content. The successful writer persuades by making present those things which are not in the immediate environment and by balancing the conflicting demands of stability and flexibility.…

Suggests that reading and writing are not only language competencies displayed in literacy or literature but that they are the sites for analysis in emergent literacies. (DF)

Since her Certificates in General Education for Adults class had not achieved the required competencies at writing for self-expression, a teacher felt it would be an appropriate genre for her to model. She drafted, edited, and completed the text on a large-screen computer. When trying to decide whether each text achieved the competencies required…

High school English teacher from Hannahville Indian School (Wilson, Michigan) describes an approach to teaching writing that gives students ownership of the writing process, encourages creativity and self-expression, increases self-esteem, and fosters emotional and spiritual healing. Examples of students' poetry reflect issues facing American…