Describes the approach used with high school advanced placement English classes to a nature-writing project based on the work of Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard. (SR)

Describes the "shrinklit," a rhyming summary of a literary work which serves as an alternative to student book reporting. Suggests that shrinklits are enjoyable because they contain relatively sophisticated humor and are easy for secondary students to mimic. Provides examples of shrinklits written by students. (SG)

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…

Describes how students in a sixth-grade class connected reading and writing in the context of a project on traditional stories and new transformations of those old tales. Includes a 20-item annotated bibliography of transformations of traditional stories. (SR)

Discusses why two high school teachers in Kentucky teach the novel "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, discussing their beginnings, their experiences, their approach, and their goals and criteria. Discusses prereading, reading, and postreading activities. Discusses concerns raised by teachers regarding student maturity and parental approval, and…

Chronicling a year-long project to study fantasy literature, this book presents essays, teaching units, student writing, and "jack tales." The project chronicled in the book consisted of a 3-week intensive study program for librarians and teachers of grades 2 through 7 throughout the Appalachian region, followed up by two more meetings…

Chronicling a year-long project to study fantasy literature, this book presents essays, teaching units, student writing models, and "jack tales." The project chronicled in the book consisted of a 4-week intensive study program for librarians and teachers of grades 2 through 7 throughout the Appalachian region, followed up by two more…

Argues that children are as deep as the ocean, with secret places inside of them waiting to be opened. Notes that it is powerful for students to learn they can make sense of the world through words, and describes inviting them into poetry as they read poetry, create poetry packets, and write and revise poems. (SR)

Describes a study of tolerance (in a fifth-grade bilingual classroom) organized around literature about the Holocaust. Identifies specific classroom practices that enabled students to interact with texts and to construct and revise meanings of tolerance. Traces steps taken by one student, Matthew, as he moved from limited responses to a proactive…

Proposes a novel approach to the teaching of writing for advanced language classes. This approach leads students working in pairs through various exercises that enable them to produce a text with given style characteristics. Students' texts are then discussed in class and finally compared with suitable literary models. (MES)

Describes a project that introduced eighth graders to a wide range of classics (including Aesop, Confucius, Ovid, and Jean de La Fontaine). Shows how the author used these works to inspire the kids to write their own poems and stories. (SR)

Describes a writing assignment in which students study and imitate the language of a minority author. Discusses how the assignment helps negotiate conflicts when students resist multicultural literature, as their creative responses mediate between themselves and works they might otherwise find foreign and antagonistic. (SR)