Describes the use in the classroom of students' phone messages and casual notes to illustrate the relationship between composition class and writing in students' daily lives, that writing defines itself according to the purpose and audience of each task, and that they already know a great deal about writing. (SR)

Notes that some students invent their own styles of poetry, and regularly use them in their writing. Recommends that teachers encourage this. Presents several examples of students' styles. (RS)

Describes a teaching method which can be used in college level sociology classes to improve student writing. The teacher provides students with concrete examples of well-written work by other students in the class to compare with their own. The example clearly illustrates what the teacher expects from the students. (AM)

Discusses back-to-basics emphasis on writing skills and describes thematic approach of a five-week session for high school seniors with little writing experience. Student pre- and posttest essays are appended. (KC)

Tells how students in a journalism class learn copyreading skills through reading and editing each other's work. (GT)

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. Introductory sections discuss writing fluency and the goals and procedures of a high school writing workshop for noncollege preparatory students. The work of three…

Presents an instructional unit, "Literary Lifeboat," a purposeful writing exercise in which students write character justifications for familiar stories. Describes the unit's implementation in a Year 5 class, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the exercise. (MM)

Discusses how powerful the letter is as a form and vehicle for writing, particularly because the language of letters is the closest to natural speech and represents casual spontaneity associated with conversation. Suggests practical ways of including letter writing in the classroom and provides sample letters as illustration. (KEH)

Uses Theodore Roethke's poem "The Old Florist" to illustrate the model, or structural, approach to teaching poetry writing (where students discover the operating structure of a poem in order to write their own). Discusses the student poems it inspired to show the potential of this approach. (SR)

Describes a unit for a basic writing course using broadcast journalism to strengthen students' critical thinking skills and improve their writing facility. (MM)

Distinguishes between monitoring and evaluating student writing, discusses the rationale for monitoring, demonstrates monitoring procedures, and summarizes major considerations to remember when monitoring writing. (JAD)

Describes a writing assignment in which students rewrite literary classics or fairy tales from a new perspective (i.e. making an originally minor character the protagonist, or putting the original story into a different century). (MM)

Notes that, although many composition teachers talk about the need to find "organic" forms in composing, students are often content to organize their writing in formulaic ways. Discusses the difficulties in teaching form arising from students focusing on a particular form's requirements instead of its functions. Discusses using the counterpoint…

Presents 11 strategies writing teachers can use to alleviate writing apprehension and to encourage student writers to feel confident about revealing their thoughts in writing. (SR)

For teachers of speech-oriented basic writers, the choices of what to teach--and what to count as learning--ought to be guided by those requirements of academic culture that are indispensable for basic writers to know, specifically the use of written language, a discourse specialized in both form and function and differing substantially from…