Teachers can help elementary students cope at the beginning of the school year by assisting them in getting to know one another. Writing is a good tool for bridging the gap between personal and school lives. The article suggests writing activities and explains how to create a good writing environment. (SM)

Disclosing interpretation as a meaning-making process of the active mind to students in all humanities courses, and especially in literature classes, is possible in numerous, phased writing assignments with built-in exercises in recursive and reflective thinking. The exercises are written down in each student's log (journal), a process which…

After a brief discussion of discovery writing, several types of writing activities are suggested that can enhance learning and critical thinking. They include free writes, journals, electronic dialogue, collaborative writing assignments, and class newsletters. (LB)

Journal writing can be used as a tool for the assessment of teaching while allowing students to have an active and expressive voice in their learning. Journal writing provides an excellent interactive format in which students can more freely express their understanding or lack of understanding of the subject matter. The entries also frequently…

Student journal writing can connect reading, writing, and discussing through activities that accommodate diverse learning styles and that further students' linguistic development. The various uses of journal writing can be incorporated into one compact student notebook. A notebook for an English class might consist of a dialogue journal as a…

The classroom setting is a source for daily and creative writing material for teachers as well as students. Teacher and student writing samples help to illustrate classrooms as cultures-in-the-making in which new rules are invented every day and suggest that stories of classroom life must of necessity end in question marks and untied threads.…

The advantages of using journals in the college classroom are their versatility and their transferability to teaching at every level. Three types of journal writing are very effective in engaging students in purposeful, repeated writing: individual journals in which student and teacher maintain a written dialogue throughout the course; class…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to comprehending, interpreting, and evaluating information in fictional…

Four activities for the French language classroom are described, including a comprehension game based on the cow's digestive system, a group journal exercise using current events, an economics vocabulary development activity, and a grammar exercise focusing on the use of determiners in news articles. (MSE)

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to interpret and evaluate complex works of music, dance, theater, visual arts,…

This annotated bibliography provides the educator with pertinent and practical information on the use of student journals in undergraduate courses. The bibliography presents the themes and key points for each of 16 articles (published between 1975 and 1988) located in professional journals and dealing with subjects ranging from teacher application…

The guide, intended as working materials for a teacher workshop, introduces second language teachers to principles and practices of student dialogue journal writing. It begins by outlining nine principles to follow concerning second language writing at all instructional levels. It then offers two sample journal entries with spaces for teachers to…

A two-semester course in English composition offered in a Japanese university is described. The course is designed to transition students from minimal skills in communicative writing at program entry to a course in field-specific technical writing by exposing students to several writing genres. Key activities of the course include pre- and…

This booklet provides practical exploration of the use of narrative in the classroom with students and in teachers' personal and professional development. The various narrative forms are described in boxes throughout the booklet and include letter writing, storytelling, autobiographical accounts and several others. There are four "Your…