Literary texts offer a rich environment for language learning that teachers can exploit to develop not only students' linguistic (pragmatic, discursive) and cultural skills, but also communication and creative skills. In our study, we have used literature with different writing activities that involved the use of students' imagination and…

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Does poetry have a place in elementary education? Can reading and writing poetry offer elementary learners a way to imagine (and to image) the world through personal insight, to organize and interpret their experience, and to discover meaningful connections to other areas of knowledge? If so, how should these modes of interaction and…

Encouraging children to create imaginary worlds through writing provides them with ways of coping with the world in which they live, gives them the satisfaction of creating order and experiencing success, and prompts their natural inclinations to plan for a better future. In addition, such planning for utopias can both improve the quality of…

The author shows how one child's creativity is destroyed in the pursuit of correct capitalization, neat margins, and good punctuation. (BD)

Three speeches given by prominent authors at regional workshops sponsored by the Joint Liaison Committee of the Association for Childhood Education International and the Children's Book Council are printed here. The author--Lloyd Alexander, Myra Cohn Livingston, and Virginia Hamilton--addressed the subject of "Literature, Creativity and…

Reveals ways to help students learn that writing can be similar to play, in that they can use their imaginations to create new settings and even new worlds. Suggests using toys, imaginary trips, and including friends in stories as inspiration for writing. (SKC)

Shows how a teacher used student curiosity and imagination in helping students to develop lifelike characters and to collaborate on writing short stories. Provides samples of the sketches and stories. (RL)

A study analyzed children's compositions from grades 1-4 in Slovenian schools. Children described real places within the framework of an experientially provable world, which is empirically available to them within the limits of their abilities and possibilities. Irreal places were described inventively without the support of experience, although…

Explores the different demands of scripted and unscripted story writing tasks and the extent to which the task prompted a group of Scottish pupils to adopt different writing behaviors and attitudes. Raises questions about how children are taught to write stories and suggests that a better understanding of the demands of story-writing task could…

Designed to encourage sustained independent writing, this book demonstrates ways that children were stimulated to invent their own Utopias, their own religions, new ways of fighting wars, and different schools. Contents include the following: "Traveling to an Imaginary Place; "Religion"; "Question of Continuity in Writing"; "War"; "Moving Toward a…

Provides examples of student poetry about silence and about sounds that disturb or emphasize silence. Shows how imagination and listening skills can be combined in creative expression. (RL)

This study evaluated the use of guided imagery practice to enhance creative writing with 43 academically gifted students (stratified as either high or low creativity) in grades 3 and 4. Groups receiving the guided imagery practice (regardless of original creativity level) generated more original writing, which contained more sensory descriptions…

This anthology presents a selection of children's writing collected and discussed by ten teachers from Great Britain. Part one presents a variety of different types of children's writing. Part two includes examples of creative writing. Part three includes examples of informative writing. Part four presents the writing of four pupils, ages seven,…