Award-winning author Carolyn Coman has made a career out of writing stories for children and young adults as well as teaching writing to people of all ages. She believes that the essence of good writing, no matter the genre, is the ability to craft a solid story. In this innovative book, Carolyn provides advice, strategies, and inspiration…

An elementary teacher presents suggestions for helping students focus their thinking, find a central theme, and develop story ideas for writing. She describes how to demonstrate focus in writing (via teacher's writing, professional authors, and student's writing) and how to develop focus when conferencing. (SM)

Assignments, grading methods, and classroom techniques for teaching creative writing in the high schools. (RL)

Shares some approaches and suggests poems that can be used to inspire discussion and creative writing in bilingual classes. (RL)

A study investigated the techniques used to generate and select topics for creative writing by professional writers, high school students with a specific interest in writing, high school students in above-average English classes, and students in average English classes. Sex differences are also examined. (MSE)

Inventive activities in the creative writing classroom can generate a great deal of excitement for the writing of poetry. Such activities might begin with improvising ways in which poetry can be written in alternative media, such as haiku on clay tablets that can be glazed and fired, then macramed together into wind chimes. Another activity,…

One approach to introducing students to poetry is to have them write and analyze their own poems. Although this approach has some disadvantages, it does serve to tap students' experiences and expressive potential with creative projects and to give them an immediate and direct relationship with the traditional published works. By writing poems…

Frequently, writing students are so concerned with correct grammar and mechanics that their essays are stilted and dry. Their writing is further hampered by rhetorical formulas that describe what the structure of the essay should be when it is finished but not how to go about writing it. Can poetic invention strategies help produce better essays?…

Intended to help teachers in developing language arts curriculum materials for use with the children of recent Bahamian immigrants to the United States, this paper contains approximately 500 topics for creative and expository writing based on the roots of Bahamian culture. The topics are arranged into areas of interest, including Bahamian pride,…

Outlines a method to help students through the beginning phases of writing that will also show them the vital relationship between observation and creation. (RL)

Intended to help teachers in developing language arts curriculum materials for use with recent Cuban refugees to the United States, this paper contains 300 topics for creative and expository writing based on the roots of the Cuban culture. The topics cover a variety of subjects, including food preparation, memories of Cuba, experiences in a new…

Designed with junior high school students in mind, the activities in this booklet are offered as ways to stimulate interest in writing using as little as ten minutes of class time. The activities are arranged in six sections: (1) developing observation skills and paying attention to details; (2) word play, descriptive words, and word collections…

Use of the writing workshop format to introduce creative writing in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes is discussed. The reasons for including creative writing and using the writing workshop format are outlined, and the author's experience using this format in three very different teaching situations (basic ESL writing, academic ESL, and…

It is proposed that intercultural creative writing exercises can be conducted using the fax machine to communicate between schools, even in different countries. Specific themes and activities for French second-language writing projects are outlined. (MSE)

Culled from ideas contributed by people attending conferences of the National Council of Teachers of English and by readers of "NOTES Plus" and "IDEAS Plus," the activities contained in this booklet are intended to promote the effective teaching of writing and literature. Teaching strategies offered in the first section of the…