Rurality is rarely considered or oftentimes completely neglected in conversations about culturally relevant pedagogy. Yet, without a relevant curriculum, students both in and out of rural communities are left with dominant and deficiently positioned narratives about rural people. School librarians must provide counter and critical narratives for…

This article describes an instructional lesson the author developed to help students use parody to read and write original poetry. The author begins this article with an introduction to parody and a rationale for using it as an instructional strategy. Then, he describes materials and procedures he used and he shares samples of student writing. He…

If we listen to them, the words of our students can provide a road map for instructional responses that meet their diverse literacy needs. In this article, Cara Gutzmer, a middle school literacy coach, and Phil Wilder, a teacher collaborator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discuss how a responsive teaching framework guided their…

Writing poems about sports is a way to incorporate writing skills in a language experience approach to poetry. (JH)

Discusses the role of poetry writing in prisons. Provides examples of poetry written by inmates from several institutions during the author's experiences as National Education Association's Writer-in-the-Prisons. (SR)

Describes an activity in which students in a creative writing class write and revise poems, and then bake pastries, offering both to an audience of around 50 which assembles to enjoy the event. (SR)

This anthology presents the creative writing of students in grades 7-12 discussing "Arizona treasures" and celebrating Arizona Statehood Day in 1994. The 36 poems and short descriptive pieces were chosen from over 1,000 entries from students in schools around Arizona. Entries in the anthology are grouped by grade level--grades 7-8, 9-10,…

Rock music's lyrics have excited high school students' interest in poetry. Several poems written by the author's students show that writing poetry can be a means of developing students' awareness of language and of teaching them to express themselves in writing. (JB)

Looks at the interaction of the professional writer, the teacher, and the child that leads to the development of voice which informs poetry. Discusses poems shared with children and shares examples of children's poems written in response to poems by adult writers. Analyzes the connections between the sociocultural contexts of the professional poet…

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 how a group of adults with autism, mental retardation, and other disabilities has accessed a means of communication and formed a bridge to the community through poetry. (SR)

Inexpensive collections of student writing for use in public school classrooms could do more to stimulate interest in writing and literature than all the adult- written anthologies and stories published to date. (Author/NH)

Describes using self-reflective synesthetic writing exercises (which prompt students to think metaphorically about crossed senses--taste of clouds, smell of anger, etc.) in creative writing with high school students. Notes how such writing allows a reader/teacher insights into students' lives and personalities. Includes student sample poems. (SR)