Describes a school-wide creative writing activity for grades 1-9 in which students wrote about their teacher's (fictional) early life. (SR)

Describes how a first-grade teacher often concludes the study of a topic with a "what we've learned chart" (which adapts paragraph frames to extend the well-known K-W-L chart) to assess student learning and provide opportunities for nonfiction writing. (SR)

Presents a variety of reading, writing, art, and discussion activities to keep students interested in studying "Romeo and Juliet." Describes using the film version of the play as a companion piece to unify the oral reading. (RS)

Considers combining topics in a virtual class as an attempt to assist incoming Master of Science Management students in accomplishing their long list of managerial communication learning objectives in a shorter delivery time and within the virtual environment. Describes the contemporary book review and discussion assignment and considers benefits…

Of 208 Welsh nursing/midwifery lecturers, large numbers corrected referencing, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure in students' written work; many felt this was less appropriate at higher levels. There was a discrepancy between opinions about and actual frequency of meetings with supervisees. Many commented on students' academic ability as a…

Provides six remembrances by teachers and students of the Teachers and Writers Collaborative on the occasion of its 35th anniversary. Discusses the quality of colleagues and the excitement of teaching. Notes the motivating influence of this teaching on students. (PM)

Characterizes academic discourse. Argues for the need for some nonacademic writing in freshman writing courses. Discusses the different styles of academic discourse within the field of composition. Notes stylistic conventions of academic discourse. Discusses implications for the teaching of freshman writing. (RS)

Discusses using a vase of dead roses in a writing class to teach students to deal with emotionally charged subject matter, see beyond the obvious, use language concisely to convey a message, and strike a universal chord in an audience--that is, to communicate intimately with an audience. (SR)

Describes "Project History in the Making" in which students in the class of 1990 read letters written by members of the classes of 1940 and 1965 and write letters to the class of 2015. Notes some of the questions asked by the class of 1990 to invited guests from the classes of 1940 and 1965. (RS)

Describes how a class of 13 academically average high school students, inspired by an earlier article in this journal, collaboratively wrote a story. Notes that the students continued to revise their story even after it came back from the printers. (RS)

Describes several assignments and activities that focus on writing for "real-world" purposes, including writing to pen pals, government agencies, and for children or the elderly. (MM)

Presents five lessons designed to use art to inspire students to write. Notes that students can gain a certain focus from art but that they can also veer toward writing shapeless, rambling stories that fail to create pictures in the reader's mind. (RS)

Presents an approach to teaching various kind of business messages that helps students recognize that different situations call for different rhetorical strategies. Details a memo assignment that blurs the boundaries between message types. (HB)

Advocates the use of a portfolio approach to teaching business writing. Describes how a semester portfolio can be prepared by the student. Gives guidelines for the portfolio, suggestions for portfolio evaluation, and the benefits of such an approach. (HB)

Suggests that, despite the expanding variety of the university population, despite diversity and challenges to the literary canon, writing assignments continue to be uninspired and outdated. Describes an "Alternative Responses to Literature" course whose aim was to open up the communal readings, the forms of response to them, and the…