Intended to serve as a general model for the teaching of poetry writing, and written from the perspective of one individual teacher's thinking and experience, this guide, although originally written for teachers of seventh and eighth graders, is adaptable to other levels--elementary, high school, and college. Chapter 1, "Students and…

A case study traces the evolution of "once-upon-a-time" in a child's classroom story writing, drawing upon data collected in a three-year study of writing development in an urban magnet school. The subject, Mitzi, is observed from kindergarten through second grade. The study assumes that stories are cultural discourse forms that serve…

Because audio-visual information is pervasive in contemporary cultural communications, this study looked at the importance of audio-visual information and how it can be used for educational purposes. Specifically, the study compared the effectiveness of audio-pictorial slide-tape presentations and printed verbal language selections as stimuli for…

Gifted students' writing may exhibit stylistic dissonance--a mixture of basic writing features may coexist with features indicative of much higher levels of rhetorical control. A case study of an 11-year-old sixth grade student who attended a freshman composition course at an Arkansas university illustrates this dissonance. The poems and short…

The associations among cognitive automatization, abstract problem solving, and educational performance were studied using 127 fourth to ninth grade students. A number of measures of fast, automatic, and fluent performance (FAF measures) were used: writing the alphabet; reading from a word list; and mentally performing arithmetic operations. The…

Designed in a flexible format for use by college instructors, high school teachers, and community education workers, this curriculum packet serves as an introduction to the life and works of black poet Langston Hughes. The major component of the packet is a critical essay that explores the thematic highlights of Hughes's career. The remaining…

Focusing on both the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching children and adolescents to write effectively, the papers in this report originated as speeches delivered at a conference on English and language arts instruction. The 12 papers deal with the following topics: the composing process as communication, the cognitive and biological…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: the use of audiovisual media in teaching composition; the historical development of the Conference on College Composition and Communication; collaborative methods for teaching college…

ADDRESSED TO THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FACED WITH A POETRY-WRITING ASSIGNMENT, THIS BOOK PRESENTS THE ARGUMENT THAT "POETRY IS FOR YOU." INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS TREAT (1) THE EXPRESSION OF SENSORY IMPRESSIONS, (2) RHYTHM, (3) THE PICTORIAL NATURE OF POETRY, (4) HUMOROUS POETRY, (5) REVISION, AND (6) VARIOUS DEFINITIONS OF POETRY. A "KINDLE KIT"…

Thirteen articles on effective classroom teaching of poetry are collected in this bulletin. The relationships of poetry to emotion and to experience are discussed by Barbara Hardy and Donald Thomas. Effective techniques for the British Junior Schools are explored in three articles: Peter Searby and Geoffrey Summerfield create a hypothetical…

The first of a two-part discussion of an experimental program involving small group teaching in a mixed-ability secondary English class in Scotland, this report outlines the class organization and management techniques used during the program. It also contains an account of the culminating class activity, a group novel-writing project. Six…

The second of a two-part discussion of an experimental program involving small group teaching in a mixed-ability secondary English class in Scotland, this report extends and investigates more deeply some of the problems not dealt with in the first part of the report. Specifically, it analyzes the modes of assessment possible in this form of class…

This collection of more than 30 activities is designed to provide the second language teacher with practical ideas for creating a more person-centered, communicative environment in the classroom. Any environment that human beings create is a product of their expectations. The expectations that students and teachers have for each other in many…

The 59 readings in this collection are grouped into eight chapters: (1) introduction, (2) language learning and linguistics, (3) listening and speaking, (4) literature and creative writing, (5) words and their use, (6) spelling and handwriting, (7) curriculum topics and resources, and (8) evaluation of language learnings. Final readings were…

This assessment of the current state of preparation of teachers of composition points out deficiencies in programs and suggests ways to improve them. It defines composition as both oral and written discourse; describes the actual job of teaching composition; defends John Dixon's thesis that experience should be the focus for teaching composition;…