Offers a method for teaching penmanship whereby the different strokes of a penmanship exercise are used to illustrate the action in a story. Presents some story lines and shows how they may be adapted to imaginative penmanship drills that will hold the children's interest. (HTH)

Represents an exchange of "official notices" on the uses and misuses of workbooks in the teaching of writing. (MKM)

Advertisements can be effective stimuli for creative writing.

Suggests several teaching techniques which encourage creative independent writing by providing needed structure. (DD)

Discusses length and speed, spontaneity, and discipline as the attributes that affect creative writing assignments, students' development as creative writers, and appropriate methods of teaching creative writing. (RL)

A poet relates her personal writing problems, which she resolved by completing some of the assignments she had used in her classes. (RL)

Describes how to initiate research projects by having students work with a grid, or QUAD (questions, answers, details). Notes that this approach helps students learn that research stems from asking clear questions about the world around them. (MG)

An elementary teacher presents suggestions for helping students focus their thinking, find a central theme, and develop story ideas for writing. She describes how to demonstrate focus in writing (via teacher's writing, professional authors, and student's writing) and how to develop focus when conferencing. (SM)

A fifth grader wanted to know what he had to do to get all his ideas the way he wanted them in his story writing "and" have the spelling, punctuation and quotation marks correctly styled. His teacher encouraged him to think about writing as a process and provided the student with three steps as guidelines for effective writing. (Author/RK)

Presents an instructional unit, "Literary Lifeboat," a purposeful writing exercise in which students write character justifications for familiar stories. Describes the unit's implementation in a Year 5 class, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the exercise. (MM)

Presents excerpts of letters written by children to their favorite children's authors, discussing how the letter writing experience parallels authors' experiences. Also presents responses from some of the authors. (HTH)

Outlines how teachers can motivate students and narrow the gap between school and home by using students' anecdotes about their families for reading or writing activities. Notes that this exercise also helps bridge the gap between spoken and written language. (MM)

Describes a writing activity in which students write and perform their own television shows. (MM)