This article describes a venture which resulted in publication of an anthology of poems and illustrations by elementary-level gifted students. The book was copyrighted, printed, and sold by a legal publishing company run by students as a professional enterprise. Guidelines for organizing such projects are offered, and experiences from this and…

Provides guidelines to help teachers set up publication programs for young writers. Whether or not they get published, students benefit from that goal because they are more motivated to be creative. Steps to motivate students toward publication include assessing the market; shaping writing sessions; editing; and preparing for submission. (SM)

A second grade teacher describes how a difficult student with learning disabilities blossomed over the course of the school year. The article examines her whole class approach and presents strategies for including such a student in creative writing activities. (SM)

Hands-on activities that use water, candles, powders found in the kitchen, and bubbles to provide a lesson on chemical change are presented. Directions for conducting the activities and a list of needed supplies are provided. (KR)

Describes a project that introduced eighth graders to a wide range of classics (including Aesop, Confucius, Ovid, and Jean de La Fontaine). Shows how the author used these works to inspire the kids to write their own poems and stories. (SR)

Describes the Hot Chocolate House Web site that was created for elementary school students to engage in a variety of activities centered on reading and creative writing. Students can submit their own writing or book reviews, read other writing or book reviews, share authors' letters, and find recipes for snacks. (LRW)

Uses current research and theory to frame the peer interactions of "Emily Dickinson," a 16-year-old with oral-language problems and social isolation. Classroom-based assessment revealed an interaction pattern in which Emily used her strong literacy interests and skills to initiate and mediate social interaction with peers, including another gifted…

Describes how one eighth-grade teacher creates a safe, playful, literate environment for a four-week poetry unit which immerses students in the thoughtful, energetic, productive experience of poetry. Describes introducing poetry, setting up the unit, class activities, a wide range of requirements and assignments, and students' enthusiastic…

Discusses the complicated role of the published writer in academics. Suggests that the writer teaching in a university setting has a similar goal to the academic: to illuminate the human experience. Asserts that the writer undertakes this mission in a creative, unstructured way, whereas the academic does it traditionally and often as a critic.…

Before 1980, academic-freedom litigation favored teachers over school boards. As a 1998 case involving termination of a popular creative-writing teacher shows, today's judges rely on decision makers' judgement. Courts view academic freedom as the province of school boards and administrators, who determine how it is exercised. (MLH)

Introduces the special issue on children's writing which contains seven articles that offer analytic portraits of the teaching and learning of writing from prekindergarten through seventh grade. Highlights the collective themes of a social perspective on writing, of children's diverse resources, and of the links between those resources and…

An abandoned downtown shopping mall in Burnsville, Minnesota, was transformed into an innovative senior campus that also relieved overcrowding at the main facility. Seniors pursued "community-connections" experiences via programs involving mass media, the transit authority, the battered women's shelter, public affairs, creative writing, and…

This article describes how a mathematics teacher uses literature and creative writing in her ninth-grade classes to motivate, instruct, and assess her students. (Contains 4 figures.)

Teachers have been under pressure in the United Kingdom to devise pedagogic strategies to raise boys' achievement. This article reviews the emergence of the concept of a "setting" from within the sociocultural literature as the basis for considering the interaction between gender and learning. The second section reports findings from an…

Since instruction in writing theory and pedagogy for preservice teachers is often limited, it is essential that teacher educators provide learning experiences that are supported by research in effective teacher preparation and make maximum impact in the time available. One of the experiences that has been identified as holding promise for…