Teachers participating in an inservice class report their own personal responses to the use of poetry in the classroom.

Teachers should encourage children to write in order to help them understand their feelings of anger, hurt, guilt, and so on.

Recounts a teacher's involvement with students in the spontaneous process of learning to write. Presents the benefits of such an approach as preferable to conventional structured methods of writing instruction. (HTH)

Recommends that teachers look for and value the freshness, naivete, humor, and wisdom in children's writing. Samples of children's writing are provided to illustrate these traits. (AEA)

Suggests adapting teacher-written responses on children's compositions to their individual differences as an effective way to promote educational progress. Written comments can take the form of reaction to the child's ideas, encouragement, correction, or evaluation/instruction. (AEA)

Contributors discuss (1) the role of teacher explanation, (2) packaged teaching programs, and (3) motivating children to write poetry. (FL)

Considers the impact of teacher responses to student writing. Notes the need for a greater identification by the teacher of the overall work that students present for evaluation and feedback. Offers guidelines for responding in more qualitative ways to student writing. (RL)