This study compares the effects of Spherical Video-Based Virtual Reality (SVVR) and Conventional Video (CV) on students' writing achievement and motivation. A quasi-experimental method was used in a primary school's Chinese Descriptive Article Writing courses. Twenty-eight fourth-grade students were randomly divided into two groups. In the SVVR…

This paper reports on an intervention in a London school with boys with special educational needs and a lack of motivation to write descriptively. They displayed inconsistency in their written outcomes and a repetitive, limited range of vocabulary. While these issues were intertwined, the strategies described in this paper sought firstly to tackle…

Students' ESL writing skills in general are not at a desirable level. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of utilizing the STAD [Student Team Achievement Division] method to enhance descriptive writing skills among students in an international school in Selangor, Malaysia. This study employed an action research design.…

As an amateur photographer, the author seeks surprises amid the mundane. For example, instead of simply photographing a spider's web, she waits until just after it rains and to find the spider's web filled with glistening droplets of water that serve as tiny prisms of light. The mundane suddenly is transformed into something truly amazing. Moments…

The way that the teacher responds to students' writing and talking is most important when developing poetry skills. This article suggests that poetry can not be taught through well-planned lessons but must come from communication and feeling. (DF)

Presents a writing exercise which stimulates college freshmen's imaginations and suits adolescents' interest in a favorite subject for composition--themselves. (JM)

Results indicate that increased cross-sex competition increases fear of success in females. It appears, however, that the motive is largely formed before a girl reaches high school and that females who have not learned to avoid success in the presence of male classmates in elementary school do not fear success. (Author/BJG)

Journal writing can motivate students to write frequently, thereby creating content which can later be properly structured. Students who keep journals tend to write better than those who do not. To help students explore certain ideas in journals further, teachers should ask questions or make statements that relate to the students' ideas. Sometimes…

Suggested topics, beginning sentences, and illustrated ideas can motivate young writers, stimulate their imaginations, and give them reference points for the development of their thoughts on paper. This document offers illustrated questions and seasonal topics as writing ideas for students in the primary grades. Creative ideas for students in the…

Describes a historical approach to English that concentrates on early American literature and historical fiction culminating in a writing project based on incidents taken from local history. (Author/RK)

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 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…