Discusses five writing exercises to improve teachers' and students' writing. Suggests using the exercises once a day. (RS)

Shows how the regular reading and discussion of rich literary passages builds a respect and interest among students for imagery. Describes a series of classroom exercises designed to build imagery writing skills. (TB)

Participating in water fitness workouts is one way to benefit one's health at very little cost. If the pool at a school is used only for swimming, then the benefits of having one barely causes a ripple. When the properties of water and how humans react to water are understood and applied to water activity programs, health benefits and enjoyment…

This monograph presents in some detail the ways in which Faculty Institutes--professional development opportunities where instructors immerse themselves in site-specific learning activities exactly as students would, though only for several days--allow participants to acquire the skill to design such adventures elsewhere for their own students.…

Noting that a case-study approach can stimulate student thinking and learning, this paper describes how students in a writing-intensive course on parasitology wrote brief medical case studies of parasites already studied for other students to read, evaluate, and identify the parasite. The paper presents a brief description of the course, an…

Effective informational writing assignments show students that creativity and imagination are essential to the generation of new ideas in all content areas. A collection of these assignments has been arranged into five categories of increasing complexity based on the following criteria: whether the point of view is assigned as self-selected;…

An approach to teaching literary point of view to high school and college composition classes is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): My students demonstrate little understanding of the concept of point of view. They seem unaware that selecting a point of view is an important decision for a writer, because it controls the…

An approach to generating enthusiasm for writing through a writing contest is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): Why would a librarian sponsor a writing contest for more than eleven hundred students in an elementary school? I wanted to provide a writing experience for my students that would be a positive one; I hoped to…

Incorporating creative play in the writing lab or classroom is a unique way to pique students' interest and boost their imagination. Exercises varying from describing Hershey's Kisses®, to using tape recorders for discussing voice, to using magnetic poetry to practice grammar are all ways that stimulate learning through the lens of play. Play…

Intended for use by students, this illustrated Australian classroom unit was designed to encourage young people to develop a lifelong habit of letter writing. The booklet begins with a letter to children from the Australian "Post," and excerpts from two poems about letter writing. A section on how letters can link the world emphasizes…

Instructors often criticize student writing styles in abstract, nebulous terms which further serve to alienate student writers from the concept of style. College instructors should direct students to such concise, recognized discourses on improving writing style as Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." In these manuals, specific, effective…

A study conducted at Central Michigan University examined the effective use of undergraduate teaching assistants as small group leaders by the Journalism Department for its writing across the curriculum program (WAC). The teaching assistants who participated--students with a minor in teaching high school journalism--emerged as an important…

A student's fear of giving oral reports and the instructor's objection to using too much class time on oral reports are often seen as the major barriers that prevent an oral communication unit from being included in a business or management communications course. One approach to easing both concerns is the use of videotaping as a self-discovery…

The act of composition is based on perception, selection, and arrangement in time and space of what is seen. How the world is seen depends on experience, memory, sensibility, discriminative powers, sexual identity, and cultural and historical contexts. Students can learn to understand how their personality affects what they see by maintaining…

Writing across the curriculum, or "writing-as-learning" (WAL), represents one of the most successful developments in writing instruction. WAL is an efficient teaching method for achieving educational goals in today's society because it effectively engages students in both the means and the ends of their education. Research has shown that…