Posing as an avuncular letter writer, the author discusses the problems faced by first-time teachers teaching fourth-grade composition. Proposes exercises to motivate children to write, communication inspiring ways to arrange classroom environment, guided free-writing assignments, and heuristics prompts for writing a fairy tale. (JG)

Offers a variety of practical writing ideas that can help first-grade teachers encourage writing across the curriculum. (FL)

A former editor of "Scholastic Voice" speculates on why one set of writing assignments, based on reader response to writings by a handicapped teenager, produced such outstanding results. Describes the uncommonly high involvement of student readers, who wrote over 3,000 letters to the author, and undertook classroom writing with…

Comments upon the lack of writing skills often exhibited by corporate executives and outlines a plan for a one-day workshop on writing that focuses on the businessperson's needs. (JC)

Describes an assignment sequence using photographs to introduce developmental students to conventions of academic inquiry, and to give them practice analyzing and synthesizing. Reports that students link details observed in the photos to inferences drawn about them. Concentrates on the assignment linking a photo of E. B. White with an essay by him…

Encourages the use of integrated prereading, prewriting, and critical thinking activities in music classes to help students appreciate and understand the process of musical composition. Discusses using freewriting, journal writing, directed reading, and extended activities in music appreciation, performance, and composition classes. (SKC)

Offers suggestions for: (1) using new question strategies for improving students' reading comprehension; (2) using the novel "Clan of the Cave Bear" (by J. Auel) in a college developmental reading course; (3) using "Writing Your Way" (by P. Stillman) to encourage a love of writing in junior high and high school students. (SKC)

Examines the advantages and disadvantages of writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) programs. Concludes that WAC programs help students use, study, and research language more thoughtfully. (MM)

Discusses ways in which poetry and etymology can be used to capture and/or convey scientific principles. (JK)

Suggests teachers can assist students in researching an organization by combining the application letter assignment with an introduction to the career library. (MS)

Describes a campus writing program which has revitalized faculty morale and the quality of education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. (JK)

Explains how peer writing tutors not only help their fellow students, but can also learn a great deal themselves about grammar and mechanics, information processing, marking papers, audience awareness, and problem-solving strategies. (ARH)

Outlines the curriculum used in the nineteenth century in Canada for instructing elementary and secondary students in grammar and composition. Notes that modern teachers of English have continued to rely upon the aims of traditional pedagogy because other programs for writing instruction have not displaced older pedagogical beliefs and…

Illustrates an approach to the study of writing that integrates ethnographic analysis of classroom interaction with linguistic analysis of written texts and teacher/student conversational exchanges, using a case study of writing in a sixth grade classroom during a writing assignment. (MM)

Notes that many students enter higher education without basic skills for understanding texts, and presents three strategies for framing and answering questions about text to enable students to engage actively with the content. (SKC)