A writing instructor's quest in a screenwriting course was to convince her students to get in touch with their inner voices. Her male students are mostly Tarantino clones who write scripts that could star Robert DeNiro or Harvey Keitel. The instructor wanted them to create characters that are believable and that the audience can attach to in a…

This book is a guide for encouraging critical television viewing skills in children, allowing them to make up their own minds about the power and influence of television. The introduction addresses the importance of television in North America and compares viewing patterns with those in other countries. The text throughout is accompanied by…

Through the guide's 39 chapters, a person can learn how to write his or her life, and how to prepare, submit, and sell the story. The guide offers advice on: ideas--how to spot them, enjoy them, and jot them down; first drafts and the value in simply telling the story and revising later; establishing a writing routine and keeping it; the hows and…

This paper reports on the analysis of an instructional text on the basis of M. Bakhtin's (1986) notion of speech genres, which is used to theorize the different influences on the writing of an instructional text. Speech genres are used to reveal the multiple voices inherent in any text: the writer's, the reader's, and the text's. The…

The study of discourse genres as social action has steadily displaced more traditional views of genre, proposing the organic and ecological model that any consistent pattern of response to a recurrent rhetorical situation might constitute a genre. Observation of the life cycles of genres as transient social events can occur in a classroom using…

The 1974 book, "The Uses of Mass Communication: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research" introduced the concept of a "division of labor"--that certain media work better than others in meeting audience gratifications. Since the division of labor concept has not been subjected to empirical testing, a study elaborated an…

This paper describes an activity that is not only effective for teaching audience analysis to introductory public speaking students, but also serves as an instructor feedback tool. The activity outlined in the paper takes students through every step of the audience analysis process, from selecting question types to tallying and formulating…

This paper reports on a study as one aspect of research being conducted to document ways the Arts Connections Program (Cincinnati, Ohio) makes a difference in student learning. The study examines the effects of Arts Connections on higher order thinking and learning to learn skills of sixth-grade students (n=27) in 2 classrooms. One classroom, the…

Filled with time-tested techniques and relevant examples, this user-friendly guide aims to empower educators with the confidence and tools necessary to communicate effectively, efficiently, and honestly in all situations. The resource guide uses clear-cut language, to-the-point insights, and pertinent advice--reflecting the many suggestions found…

The V-chip is an electronic filtering device that parents can use to block the reception of sensitive or potentially harmful television programming they do not want their children to see. Given that the revised V-chip rating framework including content descriptors has been in effect for a full year, it becomes essential to examine how the array of…

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of "Sundiata: Lion King of Mali," adapted by Kim Hines and featuring Griot Alhaji Papa Susso. The guide, called a "Cuesheet," contains seven activity sheets for use in class, addressing: (1) Sundiata: Man & Myth (discusses…

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a shadow play performance of "Turtle Island Tales" by Hobey Ford and His Golden Rod Puppets. The guide, called a "Cuesheet," contains seven activity sheets for use in class, addressing: (1) The Tales (offering brief outlines of the three tales…

Observation of human behavior increasingly suggests there is a chasm between "what you do" (leadership, skill, behavior) and "what you know" (intellect, cognition, aptitude). To examine the gap between what is done and what is known regarding the teaching of children, a project first reviewed the literature on school-life…

Family Message journals, notebooks in which first-graders write a message to their families and receive a family reply each day, provide a fertile context for instruction and practice in writing for real-world functions and authentic audiences. Observation of classroom instruction, qualitative analysis of case-study children's and families'…

An annotated list, by topic, of 27 books about broadcast television. (CH)