This book contains insights into the writer's craft by 17 leading novelists from Australia and New Zealand. The Novelists were asked ten questions that covered the following topics: what the novel form can uniquely accomplish, the scope of the modern novel in comparison to earlier novel forms, the genesis of their own novels, special problems…

This handbook for teachers and parents discusses approaches for helping elementary and secondary school students understand and write poetry. Chapter 1 discusses various elements of expression such as words, thought, movement, and language. Chapter 2 discusses early poem-making and includes discussions of children's acceptance of language, steps…

This booklet contains ideas on how to save children's writings and suggests various methods of collecting and displaying them. The first section discusses children as writers and argues that most writing can be the result of personal and classroom or school related experiences when children are free to express their own ideas in relation to their…

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how children can consciously examine the composition process and experience a set of problems designed to improve their writing ability. An approach to writing is outlined which is based on the assumption that writing is a skill that can be learned and improved upon. Examined are such topics as the…

Various aspects of 145 representative oral and written compositions of six- and seven-year-old new literates are discussed in this paper. The determination to label these compositions as "primitive fiction" was made primarily on the assumption that children's first attempts at fictive narrative take on the aspects of their cultural literary…

This book provides background information on science fiction for teachers of English at any level who are approaching science fiction for the first time. Contents are: an introduction by W.E. McNelly; "SF in the Classroom" by J. Williamson; "Second Thoughts on the Course in Science Fiction" by M.R. Hillegas; "Flatland and Beyond: Characterization…

This booklet is one of a series developed by the Northern Colorado Educational Board of Cooperative Services to make available to teachers ideas designed and tested by other teachers. Many of the ideas are from educational journals as well as from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). The booklet is divided into eight sections:…

In part a rebuttal to an editorial written by Ronald Regan which appeared in the "Denver Post" stating that English teachers should go "back to the basics," this paper argues that rules without reason, drills without meanings, and writing and reading without imagination are mechanical exercises without expression of self. What English teachers…

An English class at Newtyle Secondary School, Scotland, spent four periods a week for 6 weeks on an anthological project entitled "hotel". Students assumed roles in an imaginary hotel community, wrote advertisements, brochures, and business letters, and participated in interviews, discussions, and dramatizations of specific hotel problems. Besides…

Designed to encourage sustained independent writing, this book demonstrates ways that children were stimulated to invent their own Utopias, their own religions, new ways of fighting wars, and different schools. Contents include the following: "Traveling to an Imaginary Place; "Religion"; "Question of Continuity in Writing"; "War"; "Moving Toward a…

This course guide is intended to help teachers introduce students to poetry as a form of writing and to help them master poetic effects. Performance objectives include interpreting specific selections of poetry, identifying the artistic devices of an author, and classifying the poetry according to type. "Course Content" provides a…

The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine if increasing the number of types of sensory stimulation prior to a writing experience would help children to write more creatively and to write longer stories. The sample for this study consisted of 300 randomly selected fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students from the Silver Bay area, a…

As a means of arguing the conviction that the teaching of imaginative literature in composition classes may prove an invaluable tool for the survival of human dignity, the following remarks were circulated among English department members. Although the relatively intangible benefits of literature and the subtlety of its processes make it more…

According to the author, an experienced editor, teacher, and writer of children's literature, the purpose of this book is threefold: to present a broader view of children's literature, to show the wide range of children's literature, and to reveal the opportunities available for writing children's literature. The chapters discuss: (1) attitudes…

This curriculum bulletin discusses a program teaching creative writing to fifth and sixth grade children in an attempt to improve the quality of written English. These children wrote briefly every day throughout the school year. Every area of the written language curriculum was covered. Each student wrote letters, reports, stories, editorial…