Offers 17 exercises combining writing and painting, each with its own theme and goal, and all designed to show that close observation is fundamental to the effectiveness of both visual and verbal expression. (SR)

Describes a second-grade class project in which students wrote a fictional biography in response to several books read aloud to them. Enumerates the 9 steps in the process, and presents selections (chapters 1 and 10) from the book "The Man in the Walnut Shell." (SR)

Describes how one English teacher used advertising to enhance literature instruction in the classroom. Focuses on the actual methods used in an eighth-grade English class, including analysis of commercials and research on ad agencies. (HB)

A teacher describes use of a three-phase freestyle writing activity to encourage students with disabilities to develop independent expressive written language. Students develop their skills by writing for brief periods, first whatever comes to mind, then a self-selected topic, and subsequently a teacher-selected topic. (DB)

A children's book author describes how to help students blend bookmaking techniques and the writing process to create a classroom hardback library full of unique publications. The project requires inexpensive, easily accessible materials and results in impressive finished products. (SM)

A teacher at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (District of Columbia) recounts how she learned to use the Whole Language approach to writing instruction, to encourage student writing and conduct teacher/student conferences, and to stimulate students' reading interests. (DB)

This commentary on college writing instruction argues that writers' social responsibility should be made a major concern, that too much of creative writing in American academe exists in isolation from intellectual concerns, that realism should be simply one mode of American writing, and that workshops should be replaced with other methods of…

Describes the experiences of the participants in a graduate course called "Research in Written Composition" that nurtured the exchange of writing among teacher and students. Narrates the experience of one student and the instructor as a record of an empowering relationship and presents numerous excerpts of their journal writing. (HB)

Teachers can illustrate the relevance and power of good writing by having students write various kinds of letters throughout the year. The article describes such activities as writing thank-you notes, describing a dream vacation, getting published, and establishing pen pals. A student page is included. (SM)

Provides an account of how one English teacher fosters student appreciation of poetry by using poems dealing consistently with one theme: family relationships. Discusses student response to several poems used, including "A Daughter's House" by Norma Hope Richman. (HB)

Contends that autobiographic writing, specifically copy change poetry, helps developmental students to connect prior experiences with present identity, to become more aware of their feelings, to think about decisions and their consequences, and to construct meaning based upon personal choices. Describes copy change as a simple procedure involving…

Whether referring to psychologist Stanley Milgram's intriguing theory, John Guare's successful play and film, or Kevin Bacon's party game, six degrees of separation may also be used as a way to help students make visual connections. The six degrees of separation is the concept that everyone is connected to everyone else in the world by only six…

In this article, the author talks about her teaching approach which is from a transactional/ constructivist perspective, embracing both the work of Dewey and Vygotsky. She believes that learning is imbedded in social interaction as part of a sociocultural process that begins at birth. Learning does not occur in isolation, but within a network of…

Hypertext software permits students to write non-linear stories which include pictures and words. The characteristics of these stories may be affected by student and teacher understandings of how pictures and words may be combined to produce meanings for the reader. The use of images and words in comic books and children's picture-books contribute…

Gail Carr, a classroom teacher, and Rosalind Flynn, a drama specialist, have found that drama learning strategies can be applicable to many curriculum areas, especially literature. The teacher must take part, according to Carr and Flynn, by maintaining the drama in motion by questioning, challenging, organizing the group's thought, focusing on the…