The "Wooster Review," a national literary magazine staffed by undergraduates, began in 1983 as an experiment in student publishing. A naturally formed interpretive community emerged as the "Review" developed: as students read, they noticed weaknesses or thought of other options the writer could have chosen; as they discussed,…

Four Native American poets in easy narrative style tell about some of the aesthetic judgments they make in their work and, in the process, shed some light upon the traditions from which their poetry emerges. Joy Harjo discusses how she wrote "The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window," her use of repetition influenced by music…

This guide focuses on literature to understand others, literature to change society, and literature to discover beauty. Designed primarily for independent use by students, several of the literary selections in each section of the guide are followed by the same sequence of questions so that students can develop a pattern for questioning themselves.…

The six chapters in the book comment upon writing and writing instruction. The first chapter describes the major research of the past 15 years and the ways it has altered how teachers regard the teaching of writing. The chapter compares the American research tradition, with its emphasis on system, sequence, and order, and the British tradition,…

The curriculum guide provides lesson plans on the use of music and drama as a means to develop language skills in handicapped children. The approach is based on theories of music educator, C. Orff. Lesson plans list objective, materials, and procedure information along with time requirements and directions. The first section details activities…

This annotated bibliography contains 30 references and provides resources to understand the theoretical foundations of reader response--a literary theory that is currently gaining increasing attention in literature instruction. The bibliography ranges from 1982 to 1989 and is divided into four sections. The first section, "Teaching of…

Beyond providing insights into evoking, evaluating, and encouraging children's poetry, this book may give other poets and writers insights for their own writing. The 17 chapters discuss the following topics: (1) teaching poetry in the schools; (2) relating personal memories in poetry; (3) writing poems about animals; (4) using the chant; (5)…

Based on the idea that even the most barren-looking black-topped schoolyard can be used for regular, brief field trips, this curriculum package of springtime science experiences provides guidelines for conducting kindergarten learning activities outside the classroom. Goals of the field trips are to teach some pre-reading concepts, to begin the…

A handbook designed to explain the educational approach and outcomes of a year-long arts program which integrated art gallery tours with poetry writing is divided into four sections. Section 1, "Abstracts of the Evaluation" presents an overview of the philosophy of the program, background and organization, the participatory gallery tour which…

Student writing performance has not appreciably improved in the past decade. While there is evidence that teachers assign more writing than in the past, performance has not kept pace. Three urban schools that experienced significant improvements in students' writing achievement were studied. To glean ideas and examples, the authors observed…

The poetry unit presented in this paper is designed to teach high school students how to write poetry through personal observation, journal writing, and small group discussion. Using the unit, students progress through the stages of writing according to the following steps: observing a familiar person and noting words and phrases about that…

The four articles in this journal explore various aspects of empathy and its application to oral interpretation of literature. The first article examines the concept of empathy, discusses measures of it, and includes an "accurate empathy exercise" and an empathy scale. The second article discusses the way in which the writings of Dylan…

The teaching of poetry can be used as a language experience approach to develop good writing skills in elementary and high school students. This paper discusses the techniques a "poet-in-residence" employed to help students create poems and, indirectly, to teach the function of such writing skills as parts of speech, punctuation, and…

Seven language arts booklets present samples of student writing, teaching suggestions and resources for an enrichment program for gifted elementary students. Focused on in each of the booklets are the following topics (sample subtopics in parentheses): introductory activities (word and sentence expansion, imagery, and patterns in poetry); short…

Based on the assumption that the content and symbolism of nursery rhymes reflect the particular needs of those who respond to them, this paper analyzes Mother Goose rhymes in relation to the psychological stages of child development. Each basic need of the child, as defined in Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment," is applied to…