Presents tips on leading poetry sessions, organized around the actual classroom "hour": preparation; manner of presentation; the session itself; afterwards; and remarks on the poetry of it. (RS)

Surveys a number of standards and assessment projects currently underway at the national level. Places these projects in historical context. Describes and distinguishes the particular foci and methods of each of the projects. (HB)

Presents a poem inspired by the experience of a course in language across the curriculum for teachers in training in which students were offered the opportunity to take risks with their writing, to "bungee-jump" with pen and paper. (SR)

Expresses gratitude and respect to James Gray, retiring Director of the National Writing Project, and lists assignments Gray has outlined for the National Writing Project. (SR)

Discusses Mikhail Bakhtin's interest in ethical action and response, or "answerability," and its relevance for composition studies. Examines how Bakhtin has been used to authorize various research in composition studies. Shows how composition instruction might be undertaken as influenced by answerability. (HB)

Describes a method of teaching writing that asks students to locate a proper epigraph for their completed essays. Discusses the function of epigraphs, especially as poetic expression. Shows how some students revised their work according to the content of their epigraphs. (HB)

Discusses the ways language shapes meaning and knowledge. Considers how writing instruction is vitally linked to the concepts of social constructionism. Outlines a class exercise in which the teacher shares an essay-in-progress with students and discusses the idea of writing and revision as "conversation." (HB)

Discusses one teacher's approach to "advanced" English instruction. Reflects on such topics as the undigested transmission of the canon and the problems of the "common sense" style of teaching. Includes comments by two students who participated in the course being described. (HB)

Questions the use of the first-person "I" as a mode of expression by academic writers in scholarly journals. Describes the author's experience in this regard as editor of the journal "College English." Considers the editorial difficulties presented by various forms of first-person writing. (HB)

Explains the new conception of literary genre as it is being devised in the fields of literary studies, linguistics, and rhetoric. Suggests how this new conception has affected the thinking of teachers on writing and writing instruction. (HB)

Presents an interview with Richard Ohmann. Addresses a number of questions about political contestation within the study and teaching of writing and the current attacks on political correctness in the academy. (RS)

Discusses useful ideas about the teaching of writing found in the "Institutes of Oratory" by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (A.D. 95) which emphasizes the interrelationship of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Counters 12 current fallacies that militate against reviving such a plan. (NH)

Describes a simple writing process to help students become more effective writers in which students, by writing one sentence at a time on a single strip of paper, learn how to write a paragraph. (SR)

Presents a framework for third-grade writers and their partners called L.A.M.P. (Listening, Asking questions, Making suggestions, and Positive comments). Notes that the author uses this collaborative planning exercise periodically, not for every writing piece. (RS)

Presents instructional strategies that integrate syntax instruction with literacy instruction, while maintaining the integrity of language and the literacy process. Discusses using authentic texts and keeping the literacy process whole, manipulating sentence structures in context, and revising linguistic priorities. (SR)