This publication contains a collection of teaching ideas and class activities for organization, journals, dictation, creative writing, outlines, poetry, vocabulary, film review word cards, paragraphing, career research and much more. Some of the materials, listed with their authors, include: (1) "Magazine Board" (Frieda Owen); (2)…

This article presents 15 activities designed to motivate students to engage in creative writing. Also given are ideas on how to reinforce and maintain student interest in writing. (IAH)

Devoted to Greek and Roman mythic contributions to culture and developed to tie in with the 1984 Olympic Games in California, this pamphlet includes exams, discussion topics, vocabulary, and other teaching ideas on the Olympic heritage. Most of the exercises were written by Nathan Reed Mathis, former president of Southland Council of Teachers of…

This publication on fantasy and folklore is a collection of puzzles, games, stories, exercises, activities, and other ideas for teachers. Materials and their authors include: (1) "Once upon a Plot" (Joyce Bennett); (2) "Kennings" (Marjorie Merwin); (3) "Putting a Hex On" (Marilyn Kahl); (4) "What's Your…

Describes three poetry-writing exercises that encourage students to break from linear, normal thinking patterns: answering questions that have no answers; describing impossible objects; and contemplating infinity. (MM)

Describes several exercises to help students change their perspectives when writing poetry. (MM)

Suggests clustering can help students of any ability level draw upon latent images and ideas, generate more original sentences, and experiment with metaphor and simile. (MS)

Offers two expository writing exercises that, machinelike, move from word to idea to arrive at rich and evocative connections. Shows how the first exercise, the four-column association, produces a free-form paragraph or poem following a freewriting warmup. Uses the term "placket" to describe the second exercise, a poem that has a set of…

This teaching guide is built around a method (called the "Caught'ya" method) of teaching grammar and mechanics with humor. The guide contains story ideas and three sets of 100 Caught'ya sentences, as well as a chapter which discusses specific ways to use the Caught'ya at home. Following an introduction, the guide is divided into the…

Offers four activities ("Friendship Concentration," the "Rubberband Journal," a "Cube of Friendship," and the "Electronic Journal"), which give students opportunity to communicate visually and in written form. (MG)

Discusses five writing exercises to improve teachers' and students' writing. Suggests using the exercises once a day. (RS)

Suggests that if students are to become comfortable enough with poetry to freely write about it, they must first discover the poetry in themselves. Offers a composition-poetry method that allows students to experience poetry, analyze their writing processes, and synthesize all the information gained from doing and analyzing. (MS)

Presents the idea of writing in a sixth-grade mathematics classroom in order to enable students to view mathematics not as an isolated subject but as a living part of the world where ideas can be communicated using language. Includes a rubric for assessing a mathematical storybook produced by teacher and students. (ASK)

Describes Readers Theatre, a presentation of prose or poetry that is expressively and emotionally read aloud by several readers. Describes how students work collaboratively to adapt their favorite books, poems, or stories to a Readers Theatre script. (RS)