A student was able to overcome flatness in his writing when he focused on the process of writing rather than the product. The student's draft of an essay about a symbol the student found meaningful contained spelling and grammatical errors and was also "flat." The essay had no apparent thesis, demonstrated lack of success in issues of…

Explains that students in introductory college history courses were assigned to keep journals and write short, informal pieces on reading assignments. Argues that students found themselves thinking about history in new ways. Includes portions of student writings. Concludes that students grew into active learners, who came to appreciate history as…

Describes two techniques that use poetry written by foreign language students to help them gain a greater understanding of poetry. The first technique elicits students' reactions to their own poetry, while the second approach uses students' poetry to teach about poetry. (CB)

The situational approach is one effective way of presenting students with technical writing assignments that represent "a close approximation of the writing chores which befall the gainfully employed technical writer in industry." The approach includes elements of both simulation and game playing, with some significant differences. The situational…

To explain the nature of the response process in journal writing, a simplified version of the theory of speech genres proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin is applied to excerpts from a journal by a college junior. Bakhtin's model of communication is continually interactive and dialogic, as though all voices from the speaker/writer's past are poised at the…

A review of over 1,000 student poems reveals the wide variety of forms taken by concrete poetry. Although not exhaustive, the list includes (1) figured verse, which uses poetry or poetic language to shape images; (2) letter/word images, created by the arrangement of letters of words in nonsentence form; (3) letter/word compounds, in which words…

The historical bases for "text appropriation" in native English speaker (NES) and English-as-a-Second-Language writing classrooms are reviewed, along with the effect of the exclusion of the social context in writing. Suggestions are offered for encouraging teachers to use their roles as writing experts and cultural informants to empower students…

This compilation presents material related to a Library Literacy program, which was designed to collect, publish, and distribute the writing of new adult readers and whose target audience was students, teachers, tutors and librarians involved in library-based literacy programs in Massachusetts. The first part of the compilation presents the final…

Discusses the "Adopt a Country" project, in which high school social studies students each prepared a first person narrative about a developing nation. Reports that students examined conflicts in their chosen countries in a follow-up assignment. Argues that the project increased student understanding of the global village. (SG)

Describes high school English courses which use a seminar approach, emphasizing discussion and writing, to promote a cooperative, student-centered critical and analytical method of teaching literature. (CM)

Children can create pantomimes that will motivate and enhance their story writing. The "Writing through Mime" program has been introduced to some 4500 children, grades kindergarten through 5, in 29 New York City elementary schools, under the auspices of the Learning through an Expanded Arts Program. A step-by-step blueprint was developed…

One teacher's conference method of teaching a freshman English-as-a-second-language (ESL) composition course uses a system of periodic fifteen-minute student-teacher conferences instead of written comments on compositions. The conferences are followed by student revision and resubmission of the composition as many times as necessary. During the…

This volume consists of nine conference papers and journal articles concerned with microcomputer applications in the teaching of writing. After a general introduction entitled "Computer-Assisted Composition Instruction: The State of the Art," by Robert Shostak, four papers are devoted to how computers may help with the writing process. In…

Encourages the use of imaginative writing about scientific phenomena and/or principles. Offers samples of student writings on the concept of succession. Includes a listing of topics which could be used for creative writing exercises and provides suggestions for classroom implementation. (ML)

A fourth-grade teacher developed a unit on writing designed to help his students go from oral to written text after finding that only 4 of the 22 in his classroom had the organizational and writing skills to get their ideas on paper. The basis of the unit was a unique problem which the teacher himself was trying to solve in real life; namely, how…