Presents brief reviews of 26 picture books, chapter books, and informational books that deal with families and/or communities. Notes that the picture books and chapter books cover a wide variety of genres including poetry, realistic fiction, and fantasy and that the informational books have a variety of formats, with the "photo essay" dominating.…

Discusses how a secondary school English teacher focuses not on the carefully plotted beginnings and endings of lessons but the middle moments, which surrender first and last things to concentrate on expressions of creative power. (RS)

Explores Singapore poet Edwin Thumboo's aesthetic use of consistent foregrounding, or use of certain linguistic devices to attract attention, in one poem from three perspectives: propositional; textual; and interpersonal. The approach adopted is functional-semantic in orientation and is designed to gain a better appreciation of the poem's texture…

Describes how the author uses a poem by Marge Piercy called "Barbie Doll" to help students discover for themselves the implicit power of gender. Describes how students (1) examine the poem's language and have lively and insightful discussions as they find meanings for themselves; and (2) extend and elaborate on these meanings as they…

Discusses, in poetic form, the writing of the play "Salvador" from the perspective of the author. Explains her thoughts about writing for children, including didactic relationships with children, didactic functions of art, and how adults teachers try to create a sterilized, lifeless, good-thinking, and artificial world for children when they are…

Analyzes spontaneous written expression (sampled from 11 workshops) according to a structured model of Creative Poetry Therapy. Finds similarity in the poetic indicators and in the expression of psychological needs, despite profound differences in the composition of the groups (children, youth, adults). Argues that the healing process of poetry…

Highlights the career and work of James Stevenson, author and illustrator of children's books. Presents suggestions for extension activities. Includes a selected annotated bibliography of his picture books, titles from some of his series, autobiographical picture books, illustrations, poetry, and fiction, as well as books about James Stevenson.…

Contends that an important theme for children in the middle grades to explore is that of identity, the task of self-definition States that good poetry and fiction can lead such students to do writing that helps them along the "slippery path" to self-definition. Describes several writing exercises that address middle school children. (PA)

Describes a class discussion in the author's first-year composition class at a New York City community college, after students read a volume of Sappho's poetry. Discusses issues of reading comprehension, poetry, gender-preference prejudice, and how they were all set straight by one student from Brooklyn. (SR)

Music can be a powerful force in the language arts classroom and an important vehicle for teachers who want to lead students into literature. The paper discusses the power of popular music to first attract students, notes how to use other musical genres, describes guided listening, and explains important parallels between poetry and song. (SM)

Argues that any curriculum of peace must have at its core the teaching (not preaching) of empathy. Recommends ecphrastic poetry (poetic response to works of art) as a teaching tool for empathy, and discusses how the author uses one particular poem written in response to a World War II photograph to stimulate student writing response and…

Describes how some student teachers and cooperating teachers guided pupils in learning phonics through a study of rhyming poetry. Discusses class activities involved in teaching couplets, triplets, imagery in poetry, quatrains, alliteration, limericks, and onomatopoeia, and the rhyme and phonics elements involved. (SR)

Describes how poetry and teaching poetry is a way to pay attention to the world, to feel connected to other people--a conduit to each student's truest discoveries, offering solace and courage and wisdom and survival. (SR)

Suggests ways of bringing poetry into the elementary classroom: matching poems and students; making poetry readings a regular activity; encouraging students to read, recite, or perform poetry; inviting special guests to perform poetry; celebrating holidays, seasons, and special occasions with poems; providing an audience for student poetry; and…

Suggests that helping children to discover that literary works are related to one another by conventions and recurring elements not only gives shape to their individual literary experiences, it also brings a sense of literature as a body of interrelated works. Discusses 10 works of children's literature that aid in children's growth toward…