Offers a method for teaching penmanship whereby the different strokes of a penmanship exercise are used to illustrate the action in a story. Presents some story lines and shows how they may be adapted to imaginative penmanship drills that will hold the children's interest. (HTH)

Lists several classroom writing activities, including writing in sand, using letters cut from magazines and newspapers, and baking letter cookies. (HTH)

Describes a "directed writing activity" that teachers can use in developing writing sessions that consistently produce good results. Outlines six steps in the writing activity: prewriting, framing the writing assignment, writing the assignment, revising the draft, editing, and writing the final draft. (AEA)

Suggests writing activities in eight categories that provide remedial readers with the exposure to language that they need in order to improve their reading. (DD)

Recounts a teacher's involvement with students in the spontaneous process of learning to write. Presents the benefits of such an approach as preferable to conventional structured methods of writing instruction. (HTH)

Writing researchers suggest that children should write stories in order to (1) entertain, (2) foster artistic expression, (3) explore the functions and values of writing, (4) stimulate imagination, (5) clarify thinking, (6) search for identity, and (7) learn to read and write. (HTH)

Reports on successfully using letter writing and dialogue journals in a classroom where the children's writing tended to be remarkable similar because they did not insert their personalities into their writing. Their writing grew individualistic, and their vocabularies improved through invented spelling. (SKC)