"Helikon Corner" is an intercommunity newspaper for children in public and private schools in central New Jersey which integrates class work with reading, writing, and publishing. Learning projects and self esteem are an outgrowth of the paper. Based on writing contributions, class questionnaires, and observation, a five-point project…

Explains how a teacher attempted to mediate between her own aesthetic and that of her students while teaching them to write poetry. (JL)

Presents poetry written by children to illustrate the valuable qualities that result from children's lack of sophistication and their inherent freshness of vision. (JL)

A four-week writer-in-residence program designed to stimulate the creativity of K-5 students was held in the Briar Glen Library Media Center, Wheaton, Illinois, with poet Joan Colby. This description of the program includes information on planning, funding, and future plans. (CHC)

Describes a method of evaluating writing that encourages students to become writers and that rewards their compositions. Notes how the evaluation method examines four major characteristics of good writing: surprise, truth, detail, and depth. (RL)

Provides advice on producing a student-written magazine, one that shows students what "real" writing is like. (RL)

Seventy-six Fort Lauderdale third, fourth, and fifth graders spent an entire day researching, measuring, comparing, and creating fantasies about feet. This article describes "Foot Day" and presents the activity sheets used by the students. (Author/SJL)

Discusses the historical pedagogical controversy between advocates of the personal, expressive functions of school-based creative writing and defenders of its utilitarian functions. Concludes that the merits of creative written expression must be defended during the current "back to basics" movement because of its therapeutic, functional, and…

First impressions of the well-behaved students in a fourth/fifth grade classroom located in Harlem, New York City. (RL)

Uses a model of the writing process to analyze the writing of a 13-year-old boy and to shed further light on writing as process rather than product. (RL)

This article presents 16 language arts and writing activities based on secret codes and mystery stories designed to intrigue and motivate students. (SJL)

Recommends that teachers look for and value the freshness, naivete, humor, and wisdom in children's writing. Samples of children's writing are provided to illustrate these traits. (AEA)

The author suggests that the preconscious is the true locus of significant prose because of its greater amount of freedom to gather, compare, and rearrange ideas, and that the ultimate challenge to teachers of composition is to give freedom to their students' preconscious processes. (KC)

Reports of one poet's efforts in elementary classrooms to counteract the misconception of the syllabic nature of haiku. (RL)

Asserting that the mind of the creative reader operates precisely like the mind of the creative writer, the author examines theories of the psychology of poetic composition, in order to draw implications for the teaching of literature. (SJL)