Teachers teach literature to help students expand and develop their image-making powers, "to imagine, conceive, fancy, picture," to think. To get students involved in literature, especially poetry, Robert Frost's poem, "The Witch of Coos," is particularly useful because it is so immediately accessible. In order to help engage…

Describes the use of "poemakers," sheets of white paper with special drawings pre-printed on them that have blank lines where words go. Describes using these poemakers as springboards for writing in poetry workshops for students from first grade through twelfth, as well as with college students. Includes one finished example, followed by four…

Explains how to involve students in a composition unit that requires them to complete writing assignments from various points of view. (DF)

Suggests giving literature/composition students a set of declarative statements that enable them to define a thematic statement and then write a focused, fully developed analytical essay. Includes such declarative statements from the novel "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" by Anne Tyler. (HTH)

Provides a method for students to involve themselves in the lives of characters from two books, "The Catherine Wheel" and "Love Medicine." Presents writing assignments that actively engage students with these characters who confront emotions in radically different ways. (MS)

Proposes ways of blending the study of literature and the teaching of writing. Suggests assignments that involve writing or rewriting literature, writing about literature, and writing in response to literature. (MM)

Presents exercises combining sentence generation from prescribed conjunctions with analysis of literary characters. (MM)

Describes a unit in which gothic novels are first read and then used by students as models for the writing of an entire "gothic" novel of their own. (JL)

A method of second-language instruction that acknowledges and reinforces the connection between ordinary and artistic uses of language is discussed. The theory, rationale, methods, and some sample activities for the approach are outlined. (MSE)

Describes how "Gulliver's Travels" was used with 11- and 12-year-olds to stimulate writing activities. (SRT)

Suggests a prewriting exercise in characterization using the legend genre as framework. (HTH)

Argues that paragraph form congruent with the patterns and habits of thinking develops from the writer's sensitivity to the impact of visual images on the reader's mind. (MM)

Proposes the newspaper as a source of plots, characters, and motivations that can be used by students for short story material. (FL)

One approach to introducing students to poetry is to have them write and analyze their own poems. Although this approach has some disadvantages, it does serve to tap students' experiences and expressive potential with creative projects and to give them an immediate and direct relationship with the traditional published works. By writing poems…

Notes that syllabus requirements for British secondary school literature courses tacitly create a course in writing as well. Presents ways in which this writing component can be implemented, without isolating it from the literature component. (HTH)