A class of socially maladjusted, emotionally disturbed innercity adolescents responded enthusiastically to developing individual and group poems. (CL)

Written questions and answers lead to original thinking and writing and to better reading class management than does the "directed reading activity" approach to reading instruction. (JM)

Describes how "Gulliver's Travels" was used with 11- and 12-year-olds to stimulate writing activities. (SRT)

As a project to upgrade their writing, sixth graders wrote and produced books for first-grade students, after reading and analyzing primary-level books. The program and steps to implement it are described. (JL)

States that content area writing is an essential component in social studies in order to develop critical and reflective thinking. Points out ways of encouraging and developing student writing skills. to enhance this type of thinking. Provides five examples of writing assignments. (BSR)

Offers a humorous strategy for enlivening composition courses that involves having the students emulate Andy Rooney's writing style. (NKA)

Argues that reading literature broadens possibilities for the writing of literature, expanding not only the students' range of style but the topics about which it is permissible to write. Posits that teachers should introduce new kinds of writing to students so they will perceive more possibilities and open up as writers. (JC)

Explains the difference between the short story and the novel, noting the novel deals with the development of characters, and the short story deals with the moment at which change occurs. Suggests using a teaching metaphor comparing the short story to a photograph and the novel to a film. (ARH)

An author of children's fiction explains her reasons for dealing with difficult subjects in her stories. (NKA)

Analysis of the creative writing of 180 first- through sixth-graders showed a very strong male predominance in stories and other evidence of stereotypic thinking and gender bias. Suggestions for educators to change such perceptions include: self-examination of gender perceptions and biases; assistance of children in self-examination and…

This study investigated the possibility that direct instruction in story constituents and their interrelations could enhance children's organization in story writing. It also investigated whether the special instruction might affect quality, coherence, use of temporal and casual relations, and creativity in writing. (Author/JAZ)

Sixteen vocabulary and self-expression exercises on the word, sentence, and paragraph levels designed to encourage creativity and free expression in writing in French as a second language are described. (MSE)

Four authors of young adult literature describe a year off from writing, the manner in which a nonfiction author chooses his subject matter, what impelled a journalist to write his first novel 20 years ago, and how a novelist calls her imagination into play in the writing process and why she does not like to discuss it. (NKA)

Suggests that satisfied readers write to the authors whose books they have enjoyed. Discusses Arnold Lobel, a much admired children's author, and proceeds to send him a fan letter. (NKA)

Examines Rosemary Wells's "None of the Above," a young adult novel of despair, whose bitterness arises from the choices young people face in the dreary contemporary world. (NKA)