Tomas Rivera, the son of migrant farmworkers, became a secondary school teacher, university professor, university administrator, and finally Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He published two novels in Spanish and numerous short stories, poems, and essays in Spanish and English. His and his family's experiences as…

It is a surprising fact that a student of speech can compete in prose, poetry, drama, and program oral interpretation without ever needing to develop two characters, without ever needing to establish two separate focal points in the same piece, and without ever learning to adapt to a new style of writing. This can be done if the student simply…

It is general knowledge that John Milton, when he came to Cambridge, chose not to proceed into the official ministry of the church, but to dedicate his life instead to the calling of literature. If, indeed, Milton rejected the official ministry of the church, after completing the education leading to it, choosing to teach through poetry rather…

John Milton presented a wide spectrum of materials and ideas illuminating the literary landscape like a rainbow which critics and authors have been discussing for centuries. One example of the multiple layers of meaning in Milton's poems is found in Sonnet XIX, which can be useful for both forensic discussion as well as for composition…

This paper contains three parts. Part 1 consists of a poem, "An Apology for Performative Writing." Part 2, "The Traditional Scholar's Game--An Argument," discusses the arguments regarding performative writing. It identifies several key arguments both for and against the works that cluster around such labels as performative…

Written for elementary school teachers who want to help their students delve into poetry, this book grows out of a comparison between gardening and writing poetry. Students at the alternative school founded by the book's author work and play on a plot of land near the school; inside, they work and play with words and imagery. Many examples of…

This collection of some of the critical works of a lauded contemporary poet, Kenneth Koch, gathers together poems, articles and interviews which are about poetry--Koch's critical work has mainly taken the form of poems about poetry (including parodies) and books about teaching the writing of poetry to schoolchildren. Focused on the practical…

Chicana literary authors are sometimes thought to occupy the edges of two "texts," their own culture and the Anglo-American hegemony, where they are oppressed and marginalized by sexism and racism. In these margins, however, Chicana authors can dismantle stereotypes and construct new and empowering images of self. As an example of this…

One professional translator's experiences in teaching a course on the problems of English/Spanish literary translation, using a number of Spanish and Russian poems and short stories and their different kinds of translations for texts are discussed. The process of analyzing the literature for translation difficulties is outlined, as well as…

The background experiences of the rural student provide a wealth of ideas that can be expressed through poetry writing. Poetry forms which can be taught in the language arts class, or throughout the curriculum are: (1) the couplet, which contains two lines with ending words rhyming; (2) the triplet, which contains three lines with all ending words…

Born in 1900, Jacques Prevert was destined to become one of the most popular poets of the twentieth century. After spending his young adulthood with artists linked with the surrealist movement, Prevert became a satirist, social critic, songwriter, writer of children's stories and television programs, and poet. Prevert's interests in the visual…

Valentine's Day activities which include a play, music, poetry, and numerous art and craft projects are presented in this compilation from February issues of "Instructor" magazine. The short and easy projects, suitable for primary and elementary students, use inexpensive and easily found materials such as paper, cloth, yarn, magazine…

An approach to teaching the writing of poetry is presented in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): A poet's purpose is to amuse, to instruct, to embellish truth, or to vitalize dull reality. Poets compress, using the minimum number of words to gain the maximum effect, yoking seemingly disparate ideas into metaphors, creating poetic…

Writing exercises are games that can lead to success in the classroom because they are artificial and have arbitrary rules defined by the instructor. By giving students a starting point, a limited task, and the assurance that the writing is, after all, "just a game," exercises can circumvent students' initial anxieties about self-presentation and…

Defines interpretation as the act and art of becoming, and correlates this concept with studies in the humanities which have as their concern the refining, civilizing and freeing of the human spirit. (MH)