Describes a multigenre research paper assignment noting how the teacher guided the students with ideas and encouragement. Presents individual students' experiences with the multigenre projects. Discusses the instructor's political agenda, which was based on equality, empathy, and optimism. Concludes that a multigenre research paper takes more time…

Contains an imaginary writing assignment and an imaginary student's response to it that critiques it and the conception of writing it appears to be predicated upon. (TB)

Describes a very successful writing assignment the author uses with his high school English students, in which students write about a letter of the alphabet. Notes that this assignment grants freedom for exploration and voice, the raw material for shaping and can be used to teach everything from the writing of poetry to essays for college…

Looks at first graders enthusiastically writing their autobiographies. Describes an environmental and instructional model called the Center Activity Rotation System. Discusses its three phases and how children rotate through seven centers in the classroom, which allows for a variety of grouping patterns that invite children to work on skills as…

Relates how the author teaches elementary and secondary school students to write nexus poems--poems that use a nexus, or bridge, to persuade the reader, or to show the reader the link between where something originates and where people use it. (SR)

Argues that looking at students' uses of cliche in context can teach instructors about students' struggles to fashion new knowledge from what they already believe to be true. Examines students' most frequently used cliches. Suggests writing instructors who examine their response to cliche can learn how their pedagogical practices can deafen them…

Describes a writing exercise for middle schoolers to college students that encourages students to become more aware of language, especially word choice and audience in their writing, by writing lipograms (compositions from which all words containing a certain letter are omitted). Notes it can be used as a pre-revision activity, part of a poetry…

Notes the relationship between thinking and playfulness. Demonstrates that playful language is a valuable way for adolescents from varied cultural backgrounds to express their thinking. Explores in depth four approaches to writing that encourage linguistic play: choosing playful topics; emphasizing characteristics of linguistic play; selecting…

An English teacher believes that it is necessary for students to know how and why censorship operates in school libraries and classrooms to help them have the tools to speak for themselves. Free-choice reading, mock trails, and writing assignments are used to teach students about the censorship of books that are used in the schools.

High school students can actually write for real audiences and also meet state and national standards. A high school teacher confronts the challenge of helping the students to do so by requiring students to complete a senior project, authentic writing assignment.

One of the best ways for students to become involved in the classroom and engaged in their learning is to write. This article presents a rationale for the use of writing in any curriculum and offers suggestions about how to develop writing-to-learn assignments. Writing-to-learn assignments help students understand, reflect upon, and question…

Developing students' abilities to communicate technical information is increasingly becoming a higher priority. A calculus course is an appropriate setting for the beginning of this development. In particular, this article relates the details behind a letter-writing assignment that the author has created to address this development.

In this article, the author advocates the use of literacy narratives--assignments in which students are asked to describe and reflect upon their experiences with reading and writing. Among their other uses, she believes that they provide a sense of students' prior literacy experiences and of their general feelings toward reading and writing, and…

"Teaching English by Design" is two books in one: a primer for teaching secondary English and a comprehensive guide to creating and using four to six-week instructional units. Peter Smagorinsky shares important insight about students, how they learn, and what kinds of classrooms support their achievement in reading and writing. Then he uses those…

Research indicates that schools do not always provide students with the skills they need for successful transitions to postsecondary education and work. A transition gap is particularly prevalent for "at-risk" students who have difficulty relating learning to future education and career aspirations. A high school counselor, language arts…