Provides suggestions and guidelines for creative writing activities. (MKM)

Contends that since Columbine and September 11th, censorship and subtle forms of censure have begun to hinder educators in their efforts to teach creative writing. Explains that in this environment, many teachers feel the need to self-censor to keep administrators happy. Outlines the author's attempt to help students deal with contemporary events…

Details a creative writing project based on "zines," which are independently created and published personal magazines. Notes challenges addressed in the project, such as composing an engaging introduction and choice of language in relation to audience. Concludes that the students were enthusiastic about the project, and were interested…

Shares 12 steps to using found poetry as an introduction to a unit on poetic composition. (MG)

This article discusses recent thoughts and findings concerning the value of creative writing for gifted students and best practices for its instruction. Discussed are a five-step plan for curriculum development, the use of literary models as keys for discussion and emulation, and the complexities of evaluating student work in such a subjective…

Explores the nature of children's poetry. Describes an underlying mechanism activated when children engage deeply, meditate unselfconsciously, and express those meditations through the act of writing. Urges teachers to incorporate into writing instruction children's natural inclination to play. (MM)

Sketches the way one English teacher used silent film to engender creative writing in a school for American Indian students. Advocates the use of humor in cross-cultural educational settings. (HB)

Describes a classroom collaborative activity in which students are asked to write one-act plays based on three characters, two of whom know each other, and a third who affects the other two. Presents details of carrying out the assignment, and evaluates student response. (HB)

Presents suggestions for teaching students about poetry by using pets. The article recommends discussing poems about pets, writing with rhyme to describe pets, writing free-verse sketches about pets, collaboratively describing pets, and studying line breaks by writing one-line descriptions of imaginary pets. A reproducible teacher page offers two…

Discusses providing developmental learners with the opportunity to hear and respond to vignettes (short, descriptive literary sketches such as those in "The House on Mango Street"). Notes that the activity allowed students to experiment with another writing style and to use figurative language in a creative way. (RS)

Advocates that English teachers implement writing group activities as a means of maintaining a writerly lifestyle. Describes how five teachers from various kinds of schools formed a writing group and carried out its activities. Provides sample exercises and actual written responses of group members. (HB)

Provides a method for helping young poets shape their poems by arranging lines and inventing poetic patterns. Shows how using odd geometrical shapes can be used to help students determine the arrangement of words in poems and to encourage a vital interaction between the visual form and the words inside it. (HB)

Notebooks and journals can help interest students in writing. A sample activity suggests that teachers begin the year by reading a poem about notebooks then discussing school supplies and writing. Discussions can examine creative things to write on, creative word choice, creative use of notebooks, and turning favorite words into art. (SM)

This presentation explores how contemplative practices, especially those anchored in an active listening to silence, are integrated into creative writing courses. It pays particular attention to a course taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point and to a course on the poetry of war and peace taught at the University of…

While a wealth of knowledge about the teaching of poetry exists, many teachers are still fearful about teaching it. Others have tried unsuccessfully to write poetry with students and have turned to merely reading poetry on occasion as a means to teach the genre. This article seeks to debunk the mystery surrounding the teaching of poetry through…