"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes can be used as a stimulus for encouraging students to use concrete language and metaphor in writing a poem. Students are asked to imitate the shape and form of the poem and then talk about how it feels to be a poet, find images from other poems they like, imitate other poems, and discuss the difference…

This booklet describes 22 simple verse patterns which may be used with children at all grade levels to encourage imaginative use of language, sense of form, and written self-expression. Among the patterns are the following: concrete or visual poem, found poem, formal cinquain, acrostic verse, haiku, rhymed riddle, impressionistic poem, terse…

Discusses the difficulties to be faced in teaching creative writers and suggests ten techniques of teaching creative writing. (DD)

Presents and analyzes Judy Brown's exercises to increase innovative thinking for fiction writing. (DD)

Stimulating creative writing at the elementary level was the goal of KIDS radio station, which involved student planning and participation in live broadcasts over the school intercom. (STS)

Describes and defends Koch's approach to teaching students how to write poetry. (DD)

Letter poetry is a form of writing which provides audiences points of focus: objects, nonhuman organic things, people who have died, and figures from history. Examples of student writing are provided. (HOD)

Knowing a place well may demand experiencing it from the inside to see it in detail and viewing it from the outside to attain greater perspective. This article suggests elements that contribute to understanding home when away by using the works of American expatriate writers who lived in Paris in the 1920s. (RM)

Recounts the experience of analyzing Maya Angelou's poem "Harlem Hopscotch" and how it helped students see the extended metaphor and the parallels to life experiences. (MS)

Discusses how writing is the combination of two voices, "creator" and "critic," and how writers use these voices to create a recognizable yet variable pattern. Presents two story beginnings by Rachel McCaleb Watts that illustrate the repetitions and variations in one writer's work. (ARH)

Suggests that classroom writing reflect topics that teenagers write about privately, such as powerful events, dreams, or rejected love. Includes a sample student essay on the Challenger disaster. (ARH)

Magazine Mania is a series of seven reproducible self-motivating activities involving magazines such as "National Geographic" and "Ranger Rick." While enjoying the activities pupils will be increasing their self awareness, appreciation of foreign cultures, divergent thinking skills, skimming, research skills, creative writing skills, vocabulary,…

This article describes ways in which the dramatic context can provide children with a purpose for writing. When writing is integrated with drama, children can reflect on a problem by expressing their thoughts and feelings in different forms ranging from the personal and private to the more formal and public. (MT)

Describes Robin McKinley, Newbery Award winner and author of "Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of the Beauty and the Beast,""The Door in the Hedge," and "The Hero and the Crown."(EL)