In this article, Boldt considers decisions teachers must make about the value of children's writing as a form of play in primary classrooms. She offers a brief history of the framing of this question at 1966 Dartmouth Conference on English, focusing particularly on the perspective of Jimmy Britton. She highlights the relationship between Britton's…

Three educational leaders--Robert Quackenbush, Geraldine Siks, and David A. Sohn--offer reflections on recent developments regarding activities that stimulate children's creativity, their hopes for the 1980s, and recommended books for teachers. (AEA)

Discusses learning how to compose a film as one way children can learn the valuable lesson of how to give form to ideas and shape to thought. Presents the stages of composing a film and a sequence of filmmaking activities for introduction at progressive grade levels. (HTH)

Touches on the cognitive and self-discovery processes and imagination and creativity children experience before their verbal skills are fully developed. (HTH)

Describes a number of nonnarrative films and suggests ways to use them to integrate media into subject areas, to teach production techniques, to critique films and other visual productions, and to develop good visual taste. (DD)

Writing researchers suggest that children should write stories in order to (1) entertain, (2) foster artistic expression, (3) explore the functions and values of writing, (4) stimulate imagination, (5) clarify thinking, (6) search for identity, and (7) learn to read and write. (HTH)