English teachers have a unique opportunity to expand and develop the way their students think. Too often, students are comfortable in thinking about reading and writing processes in a concrete or linear way. They are used to "right" or "wrong" answers in their other studies and look for the same in their English assignments. While teachers often…

Offers seven effective learning activities for the first day of class. (MS)

Suggests several short, manageable activities for teaching writing, such as writing cereal box copy, characterizations, test items, and obituaries. (JL)

Offers a writing exercise, based on a comic-strip theme, that teachers can use to relieve tensions between them and their students while developing students' expressive writing skills. (RL)

Presents projects which combine creative and expository writing. (DD)

Presents three teachers' suggestions for teaching grammar. Discusses how the first teacher suggests studying active and passive voice, the second teacher has students construct slang dictionaries, and the third teacher uses sentence combining that engages students and encourages carryover to their writing. (SG)

Lists writing exercises based on observations students can make in a shopping mall. Notes that the exercises are intended to become a springboard for study, description, conjecture, evidence, example, and innovation, and can be combined, expanded, or shortened. (EL)

Suggests metaphor is a linguistic tool for discovering meaning and a fundamental form of understanding. Recommends instructing students to produce and analyze extended metaphors by composing biographical portraits. (MS)

Deals with teaching a Walt Whitman unit in a high school American literature course. Discusses ways of making the poet's work relevant to the current generation of students. (RBW)

Recounts how students at Rutgers (New Jersey) Preparatory School used journal writing to explore their feelings about the disruption in their academic life caused by a fire that destroyed much of their school. (RBW)

The article discusses and describes a program for English teachers that will enable them to give more interesting and creative assignments to their students. (Author/LF)

Suggests three teaching techniques for stimulating reading, journal writing, and student involvement in teaching. (MM)

The central concept of a new theory for teaching writing is discussed. The theory states that when students know that the elements in a writing assignment are partly of their own invention, they will be more motivated to produce interesting stories and essays. At the same time, the teacher is able to stress writing skills previously introduced.…

A writing lesson for low ability junior high school students, inspired by the Peanuts" cartoon, gave the teacher insights into his students' lives. (SP)