Describes three assignments the author uses when teaching Chaucer (suitable for college or college prep high school classes) in which students learn what iambic pentameter is by writing two rhyming couplets, a ten-line conversation in rhyming couplets, and a creative project of at least 25 rhyming couplets, all in iambic pentameter. (SR)

Shares some responses from those involved in an ongoing oral history and writing project that connects members from a senior center writing group with children 9 to 12 years old from a self-contained special education program. Hopes that these comments and insights will serve as a parting testimony to the value of such intergenerational efforts.…

Describes an assignment designed to assist senior English students in rediscovering their genuine selves. Invites students to create an imaginative piece that involves experimentation and intellectual risk. Encourages students to mix genres, devise new structures, collaborate, and incorporate other art forms in which they have some expertise.…

Explains how to use checklists as a tool for developing, implementing, and evaluating business writing assignments. Gives an example of their use with memoranda, short reports, and analytical field reports. (SK)

The debate about what constitutes plagiarism and how it should be dealt with in the academy continues to gain momentum. The response from many higher education institutions is to channel ever-increasing amounts of resources into plagiarism detection technologies, rather than trying to ascertain why plagiarism might be occurring in the first place.…

Describes using the evolution-creation controversy to introduce students to the scientific method by having them write a paper that summarizes arguments used by those who took a viewpoint opposite their own. Results indicate that most students learned about the controversy, focused their views on where they stood, and valued the learning…

This note offers suggestions for using microthemes in diverse classes across the curriculum. Microthemes are short essays (100 to 250 words) that can be used in any class to address any issue. They are so versatile that Ray Smith has called them the "Swiss Army knife of writing assignments" (1) because they have so many applications: they can be…

This article examines how Chicana/o and Latina/o youth employed their political-historical knowledge to "talk back" to the xenophobia and political contradictions that underlie the (im)migration "debate." A literacy unit that honed bilingual students' everyday translating created opportunities for students to utilize this political-historical…

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

In this article, the author discusses how her sixth-grade students gained writing skills and learned to "dream big dreams." She wanted to celebrate literacy, and also create something that could raise funds to support literacy projects, so she challenged her students to write to their favorite authors and ask each for a recipe. The end result of…

A case study on the teaching of writing, this paper discusses what motivates students in a freshman writing course to complete increasingly difficult writing assignments. The study provides a glimpse into how one class of freshman students developed positive expectations for writing a paper about a difficult poem by helping each other map…

Reading several documents from the early history of Francis W. Parker School and an essay by John Dewey entitled "The Need for a Philosophy of Education" helps the author's students gain some precision in defining what otherwise remain rather loosely held opinions about the core values of the school. For most of the students, these…

The aim of the study was to look at the effectiveness of combining a variety of teaching and learning methods in an attempt to facilitate students' understanding of assessment criteria. Fifty-three psychology students were asked to complete the mismatch exercise (Norton et al., 2002), and a booklet entitled "Your Assignment results and how to…

In a College Composition II (ENG 112) class offered during the spring of 2005 at John Tyler Community College (JTCC), the author implemented an information-literacy curriculum whose salient features include: students collaborated on a semester-long, original-research project. The Metro Richmond Supermarket Price Comparison provided a focused,…

Teaching students to think critically while integrating their personal experiences with feminist scholarship has become a very important objective in the Introduction to Women's Studies course. Women's studies introductory courses are designed to introduce students to feminist inquiry, using gender as the center of analysis while examining its…