Presents a personal account of how haiku can be used with primary students not only to explore language arts but also to share a love of the earth and its various peoples. (HTH)

Presents six activities for elementary school students that improve vocabulary, teach poetry, introduce oral rhyming, motivate students, aid substitutes, and tackle the problem of profanity. (PRA)

In the form of a poem, a pregnant mother of a small child tells her experiences during employment interviews with a number of law firms, ranging from the perceived errors of the interviewers to the surprises and the mistakes made by the applicant. (MSE)

Describes how "The Sleeper" was used with third and fourth grade students to inspire them to use a variety of verbs. Shares several examples of poems the students wrote after discussing Whitman's poem. (MG)

Includes the keynote address by Betsy Hearne as well as reports on workshops held as part of the conference on children's literature. Topics discussed include children's poetry, books for children learning how to read, pictures in nonfiction, the child and myth, oral tradition, storytellers, folk motifs, and illustrations and illustrators. Remarks…

Contends that there are far more terms associated with war and conflict than terms about peace in the English language. Asserts that this circumstance is both a product of and a contribution to national values. Recommends using more emotional words and speech to talk about peace. (CFR)

The paintings of Appalachian artist Kenneth Walsh must be examined outside the boundaries of folk art to interpret and appreciate their patriotic themes. Walsh discusses the motivation for his creativity and the influence of his religious and moral beliefs on his paintings and poetry. (LP)

Sets forth the goals and format of a 12-week women's growth group that explored the issues and features common to the mother-daughter connection during the various stages of the lifecycle. Focuses on the ways in which poetry reading and writing activities were incorporated into group experiences. Describes several vignettes. (RS)

Describes a two-week bilingual poetry writing unit that combined a creative writing class and a Spanish class and that compiled a classbook of students' poems in the two languages. (SR)

Describes a technique in which students describe themselves through metaphors or similes and asks them to explain the comparisons they made. Discuses additions and extensions to the basic activity. Discusses a similar exercise in which students sought out poems that had a speaker that the student thought was like him/herself, and then wrote poems…

Describes a four-week poetry workshop for fifth and sixth graders that tied into the school's focus of study of ancient Egypt and Greece. Describes how the author read poems by Keats and Shelley to the students as they drew pictures while listening, and then wrote poems in response to their own art work. Includes 12 poems written by students. (SR)

Describes an assignment used at the beginning of a unit on poetry in which students analyze rhyme scheme, meter, feet per line, lyric quality, and theme of the lyrics to a favorite song. Notes that after this students may move more easily into analyzing poems. (SR)

Discusses a method of teaching math students to conquer their math anxiety. Describes a student assignment to write metaphors describing their frustrations with mathematics. Outlines a method of converting the students' metaphors into poems by programming a computer to select words by scanning a list of metaphors to generate a poem. (CR)

Like today's educators, Japanese haiku poets were caught between standards (like courtly love) and everyday realities. From this tension, they created a remarkable poetic form. Three examples from teachers' professional development work apply simple-and-deep principles to listening tasks, an assessment "deal," and curricular-standards…

Discusses publishing on the Internet by young authors. Describes "fan-fiction" Web sites where fans write passages that link to characters in popular books, television shows, or movies; fan-fiction inspired by the Disney film "Newsies"; posting short stories on Web pages; poetry, book reviews, and other publications; the attraction of the Internet…