Suggests the use of parody to deepen students' understanding of how and why poems work. (TJ)

The author describes how her eighth-grade class created food packaging designs parodying actual supermarket products. (SJL)

Explores a set of associated texts linked with the film "Men in Black." States that different materials offer varying reading invitations. Offers a schema of such reading invitations, developed from the "Men in Black" texts that involves seven categories: immersion, recapitulation, second-level engagement, technical analysis, commentary, spin-off,…

Art students made sketches of their subject area teachers and created life-sized caricatures of some of them. They then created biographies for their figures and explored their reasons for the stereotypes they developed. (KC)

Student writers should be encouraged to move beyond a "jargon" or "public discourse" model of writing. This can be accomplished by capitalizing on the students' knack for imitation by turning it into public parody. After being divided into small panels of three, four, or five members, students are assigned a voice and topic and asked to develop a…

Argues that writing parodies of poetry is a productive, nonthreatening introduction to the creative effort of poem making. Provides several suggestions that may help in the parody-writing process. (RS)

Offers a practical demonstration of the conventions of children's literature. Discusses dragon lore and their parodies. Presents class activities related to such lore. (RS)

This book contains more than two dozen reader's theater scripts to entertain and amuse those in the classroom or library. The scripts in the book--all are reproducible--can help nurture student language arts skills and the power of the imagination with their fractured "takes" on fairy tales and their twisted legends. Designed to…

Reports on a "summing up" assignment at the end of a course on the fiction of J. D. Salinger. Notes the way students used parodies to display their knowledge of Salinger's style and recurrent themes. Offers one student-written parody as an example. (RL)

Reviews 18 young adult books chosen for their balanced, realistic view of the meaning of love. (RBW)

Suggests helping students prepare for a test on Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" by having them adapt verses of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with key elements and incidents from the play. (RL)

Relates how parody is useful with third-grade children. Shows how children composed personal and meaningful stories based on selected literature. Compares parody and other writing strategies. Defines the parody process, including listening to literature stories, examining picture books, peer editing, and learning language. Includes comments from…

This paper describes a writing assignment given in an introductory literature class at an open-admissions university. In what can be called "the paper of many parts," students write six short pieces in which they do different things with a poem. The paper begins and ends with response statements: an initial one and one at the end that…

Explains that published parodies frequently give rise to copyright violation litigation. Reviews leading court decisions on the subject. Offers guidelines for using parody in entertainment, social commentary, or advertising. Describes a study unit on parody for a college magazine journalism class. (SG)

Explains how the use of parody can improve students' writing and add more zest, zing, and vigor to their writing style. (HOD)