This article describes an activity using Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" as a supplemental text in an undergraduate group communication course. This book will help stimulate conversation and promote easy avenues for classroom discussion. In addition to weekly quizzes over each chapter to help facilitate rich classroom discussions, the…

This article shares strategies that educators can use to assist students in meeting the challenges of academic writing more effectively. In order to foreground an understanding of struggling writers, the text begins with a brief review of composition theory and history related to basic writers and identity. It goes on to examine classroom…

Several teachers share their ideas for classroom activities. These include: (1) combining science and art on Earth Day; (2) implementing an inexpensive incentive scheme to get students to bring their signed papers back to school on time; (3) involving students in a virtual zoo; (4) planting real grass in Easter Bunny baskets; and (5) creating own…

Defines technical writing, the importance of audience awareness, and the fog index. Analyzes examples of technical writing and tips on developing skills such as writing instructions and assembling a model. Offers assignments and projects as well as class activities. (PRA)

Suggests a prewriting activity that encompasses peer questioning to help basic writing students come up with topics for papers. Contends teachers should explain their expectations to the students and gives a homework assignment to either write a letter to their "future" children or devise a "life tree." Describes questioning in…

Use of group story writing in second language classes is discussed, and specific instructional techniques are outlined. In this activity, students sit in a circle and each begins to write a story. The story beginning is passed to the next student, who adds a portion and passes the story on. This pattern continues until stories are completed and…

This paper suggests that composition instructors must prepare their students for the ways in which the Information Superhighway affects professional and academic communication. Students must now be proficient in techniques of composing such as hypertext and the recursive writing process to perform various writing and research tasks as a…

Intended for teachers of grades 4-8, this book presents a flexible format for reading, designed to be used with students who have different backgrounds and experiences with reading literature. The book's first 3 sections, "Character,""Setting," and "Plot," proceed step-by-step through the recognition of these basic…

This brief report summarizes a longer document with the same title. It reviews literature on the importance of using active learning teaching techniques in the classroom, describes what active learning is, discusses how this technique can be incorporated into the classroom and identifies barriers to the use of this approach. Strategies that…

While literature has often been ignored in the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) curriculum, there are good reasons for including it at all educational levels of ESL instruction. There are universal reasons for exploring literature, including the pleasure and escape it provides. In addition, ESL experts have found that literature encapsulates…

This curriculum unit addresses myths in Western cultures and in other cultures around the world. The three lessons in the unit gives students the opportunity to think critically about how and why myths were first created, and to create their own myths. Specifically, in the unit students read, discuss, and respond in writing to myths from Greek,…

For several years, one educator has taught Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations" to eighth and ninth graders. She recently discovered a woman writer of the 18th century whose novel could be taught using the same format used to teach Dickens's novel. Fanny Burney's "Evelina" is an exceptional book, effective not only for teaching the epistolary…

For an educator who teaches English in a multicultural setting, the best way to accommodate marked features of African-American vernacular English (AAVE) in black students' freshman essays is to preserve these features in teaching students narrative writings and guide African-American students to avoid these features in expository (academic)…

Beginning college writers often approach the writing classroom with attitudes of fear and alienation. Fostering partnerships between instructor and students allows these writers to extend their private selves, affirm their identities, and connect to larger audiences. Letter writing can help establish an authentic connection between instructor and…

This curriculum unit of four lessons introduces students to traditional fables. In the unit, students learn about the qualities that make a tale a fable and read representative selections; they will also engage in storytelling activities and dramatic presentations of traditional and original fables. The following lessons are part of the unit:…