To teach students how to write in a contemporary style, a secondary-school English teacher must be able to describe adequately the kind of writing he expects. Since many modern writers frequently ignore the guidelines proffered in traditional writing handbooks, the "new rhetoric"--a descriptive approach to composition that substitutes…

THIS BOOK IS INTENDED FOR USE WITH STUDENTS WHO CAN PROFIT FROM INSTRUCTION IN VIGOROUS AND COLORFUL WRITING. EMPHASIS IS PLACED UPON SHOWING THE STUDENT THAT HIS OWN EXPERIENCE IS RICHER THAN HE MAY SUPPOSE AND UPON HELPING HIM TO DRAW FROM IT. THE FIRST SECTION OF THE BOOK CONSIDERS THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SUBJECT, THEME, OBSERVATION, SENSORY…

Based upon the conviction that children can be taught many of the aspects of writing unique to the preparation of professional writers, this book offers ideas for the teaching of creative writing to children. "Creative" writing is defined and its values for children are discussed. Specific suggestions to promote imaginative writing are proposed in…

Elementary school students can learn to write creatively if the teacher offers stimulation through informative and enriching experiences and provides daily opportunities for writing experiences. Enrichment can involve books, field trips, radio, television, guest speakers, maps, and sense experiences--anything that broadens the knowledge of the…

Fifty disadvantaged urban boys ranging from ages 11 to 16 participated in a 6-week summer writing workshop patterned on the ideas of James Moffett, Donald Murray, and John Dixon. The students were divided into groups of five, were trained in methods of group discussion (aided by video tapes to prepare them for profitable analysis of each others'…

This collection of four papers focuses on the Lancaster and Sussex Projects (England) that place an emphasis on writing outside of school and outside of work by "ordinary" people in their everyday lives. The papers refer to each other; the first is an introduction for the others. "Introduction: Making Writing Visible on the…

Describes BreadNet, a computer network linking Middlebury College English teachers, their associates, and students. Network extends to rural English teachers and their K-8 students. BreadNet used for student pen pal program, teacher teleconferencing, information access. Also describes BreadNet's problems and future possibilities. (TES)

A practicum was conducted to develop critical thinking and improve expression through creative written language utilizing precision teaching as an evaluation of student performance. Six students (grades second through sixth) with low idea generation and few organization skills were trained by three teachers and a teacher advisor using…

A case study was conducted in which a teacher followed the progress of a first grade boy over the course of a semester, collecting samples of his written work and observing his interaction with peers. The teacher came to understand how the boy expressed his uniqueness in his writing, and how important it is for all students to be allowed to use…

A study of children's syntax from a transformational perspective was initiated to explore the following areas: syntactic differences between narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative writing, and the relation of these differences to IQ, sex, and reading comprehension; the relation of syntax content; and the relation of children's…

Ways of introducing children to the pleasures and value of poetry are discussed in this publication. Following a brief survey of various kinds of poems and the needs satisfied by poetry, some of the vocabulary and technical elements of poetic design--meter, stanza, rhyme, figures of speech, and selected verse forms--are explained and illustrated.…

This article describes an undergraduate course in creative writing offered by the Department of English at the University of Hong Kong. Most students in the course have Chinese as a native language and have received their secondary education in English. They have had extensive practice in writing English in connection with their studies. The…

This book presents a program for increasing the student's command of language through the experience of writing poetry. Designed to encourage students to systematically and accurately transform their experiences into brief expression, the program is divided into two sections--introductory and advanced. Each of the sections is composed of units on…

This article discusses methods of teaching poetry and composition to German speaking elementary-school students in Switzerland. One effective device for treating poetry is enactment; children practice acting, declamation, pantomime, and narration while learning the poem. Another device is choral speaking with individually assigned roles, which…

Intended for parents and teachers who are interested in the approximate level at which their primary school-age children should be writing, this document describes the type of writing children at each age can produce and how they go about producing it. An introduction makes this point and offers a set of writing process terms to describe…