As public relations professions advance toward new media platforms, one traditional tool--the backgrounder/position paper (more technically termed white paper) remains a compelling vehicle to impart enduring professional competencies. Moreover, the skills requisite to produce a white paper can be deployed in a variety of new and traditional media…

Presents a teacher's journal entries for poetry classes she conducted for fourth and fifth graders at Anthony Chabot Elementary School in Oakland, California, located in a middle class neighborhood with an ethnic mix of students. Describes two poetry writing ideas: "What Matters" and "100 Words." (PA)

Explains the guidelines for an exercise based on the poem "The Little Mute Boy" by F. Garcia Lorca. States that students are to: discuss synesthesia, the substitution of senses; explore the surreal senses; think about life without a sense; create a net of surprises; write a poem; and read the poem aloud. (PA)

Pupils need to express themselves in creative processes and products in the language arts curriculum. Too frequently, teachers require behavior which involves conformity on the part of learners. Specific objectives many times delimit pupils' opportunities to express original ideas that come from within the involved learners. Many activities can…

Describes an exercise designed for K-6 grade levels based on books where the characters undergo transformation. Explains that students should write a story in which the main character goes through a transformation, and then act out the story. Emphasizes that younger students may not pay attention to the "why" or "how" of the…

Rural school students need ample opportunities to engage in creative writing, particularly the writing of poetry. A student teacher and a cooperating teacher in a rural fifth-grade classroom (with 12 students) guided the students in the writing of limericks by starting out with couplets, then triplets, and then limericks. The teacher had clearly…

This book offers an entire year of journaling ideas--some serious, some "silly," but all tied to the calendar year. In fact, the book's sections are the months of the year. Each idea in the book comes with a fact-filled introduction and aims to prove that writing does not have to be boring or dull. As a special feature, many entries in…

Presents a dialog among three English teachers concerning teaching performance poetry to ninth graders. (RS)

Pupils should participate in numerous forms and kinds of writing activities involving poetry and should hear, read, and write different forms and kinds of prose. Types of poetry that pupils can write include couplets, triplets, quatrains, limericks, free verse, haiku, and diamante. The ingredients that all types of poetry might have include…

Suggesting combining poetry and science learning, this collection of materials maintains that the natural intersection of science and poetry can be used to stimulate thinking, create interest, and explore new possibilities. The collection includes: (1) the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program's Objectives Reading/Science Match; (2)…

Provides examples of arts infused literary studies, with each example using art experiences (expressive writing, creative movement, visual arts, exploratory music, and informal drama) to relate to the literature text. Notes that the learning outcome is to involve readers in exploring the meaning of the story as it relates to their own life…

Relates a poet's experiences in graduate school, and the poetry he wrote in the 1970s. Discusses methods and techniques for poetry writing in the classroom. Suggests topics for a series of poetry exercises: moebius strip, poetry sights, shadow poems, poetry chair, chopstick quatrains, poetry shirt, poem wrapping the school, word beads, and a haiku…

Argues that one way to learn the art of concise, tightly-structured, focused prose is through the composing of 55-word short stories. Outlines stylistic characteristics of 55-word stories and discusses how its practice can improve journalistic writing. (SR)

For one instructor of eleventh and twelfth grade English, teaching the short story offers the best opportunity to teach fiction writing to students. It contains all the elements novels contain, but students can read many short stories in the same time they need to read a novel. Students can also write their own short stories. Above all, literature…

The principle of empathic learning (involving activities that help students feel what it is to be like someone else) can be used to teach poetry, a material about which students have strong prejudices, and an activity they cannot imagine themselves ever doing or being interested in. First, students are presented with the conception that people…