The body biography, a visual and written life-size composition to study characterization, makes use of a variety of materials such as markers, crayons, and found material from wrapping paper to remnants of string and yarn. In this study, three teachers were invited to implement the body biography practice as part of their delivery of the English…

After having success with this warm-up activity in his theater classes, the author adapted it for his beginner-level English classes, knowing his students would appreciate the opportunity to move around. The activity allows students to create their own physical interpretation of a vocabulary word, which increases their ability to remember it…

Modern secondary courses in English differ from classical tradition in their tendency to avoid direct instruction in the content and style of writing. Such avoidance is partly a function of anxieties about the role of English in students' personal development and a fear of limiting their self expression. Neither of the dominant writing pedagogies…

This paper describes how adolescent students responded to a poetry workshop in an English classroom where the content was derived from their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of world events. Informed by theories of New Literacy Studies, ethnographic methods of participant-observation were used to document an eighth…

This paper discusses the shift in recent years from a focus on product and method in teaching college composition to a philosophy that values the individual human experience as popularized by Sartrean existentialism. Such a philosophical orientation is viewed as both inappropriate and potentially dangerous because it values the individual as an…

Describes a way to enhance personal growth and meet humanistic goals through writing. (KS)

This discussion gives a rationale for providing options for extrapolation within the context of composition topics. Whether topics are specified by someone other than the writer or are self-chosen, they "fructify" according to the composer's sense of purpose and audience. Developing such a sense has not been a prominent part of the typical school…

Uses student created collages, instead of written compositions, to motivate students to introduce themselves during the first class meetings. (SW)

An account of an "intensive writing" experiment to stimulate and teach secondary students to write freely and creatively is given in this book. The experimental teaching method which stresses emotion, brevity, simplicity, and honesty is described, as well as the stimulus used for each writing lesson, the results obtained, and the children's…

Describes an elective English course in which modern rock music and contemporary poetry are used to motivate students to learn how to listen, to appreciate the sharp impact of poetry," and to write about their own feelings and responses. (Author/SW)

Although creative expression and drama in the classroom are important in leading education toward a more humanistic approach to learning as well as toward the development of students capable of responding more rationally to the changing world educators have offered few opportunities for creative student expression. Thus, this book focuses on…

The greatest advantage of teaching English as a humanities subject is in the way it encourages children's natural abilities to express themselves creatively in words and to empathize with others. The history of the creative movement in Great Britain is traced through various literature. (PP)

Many students conceive of learning institutions as factories and of writing as the delivery of a predictable product. An excerpt from a typical student theme reflects the fact that much student writing is hardly more than an assemblage of cliches. Teachers can show students the stereotyped nature of typical student writing by constructing a…

Young children use poetic language naturally in that they express themselves through metaphors, colorful images, and unique word choice. Since this ability has often been repressed by the time children reach the middle grades, this article suggests classroom activities intended to stimulate children's natural poetic expression. These activities,…