An individual folk anthology unit covering eight topics is described in this paper. The eight topics include (1) I have an identity, (2) my interesting name, (3) mandalas and sentences, (4) rhythms and rhymes of old times, (5) myths of my childhood, (6) folk legends/old and new, (7) aspects of folklore, and (8) slang. The activities accompanying…

The expressive reading journal aims to break through student passivity by asking students to write extensively and expressively about what they read, each time they read, and to make discoveries and take possession of what they read. This type of journal in the academic course depends for its usefulness on the nature of expressive language, the…

The rhetorical cycle is a step-by-step approach that provides classroom experience before students actually write, thereby making the writing process less frustrating for them. This approach consists of six sequential steps: reading, thinking, speaking, listening, discussing, and finally writing. Readings serve not only as models of rhetorical…

Intended for writing teachers, the activities in this issue blend right/left brain lessons--kinesthetic, spatial, and playful--to provide students with prewriting experience. The activities include the following: (1) creativity olympics, such as finding criteria by which large groups of students may subdivide themselves into successively smaller…

The teaching of writing as a process can be accomplished through an eight-step "prewriting process" approach. The eight steps include planning, organizing, establishing assumptions and premises, obtaining data, evaluating data, electing a course of action, control, and implementation. In the planning stage, students are asked to complete an…

Prewriting involves the entire period of time (and necessary activities) which extends between knowing that one is going to write on something and knowing that one has found something specific and substantial to say about it. In classical rhetoric, prewriting is expressed by such terms as "inventio" (whereby the writer discovers ideas to…

One does not teach writing, one learns writing which is to say that the role of the teacher is to help the student learn by actually writing. However, crucial to writing is the preparatory step with which the teacher can help: motivation. That is, students who know why they are writing and to whom they are writing can write with an intensity not…

Shows how an unstructured writing period at the beginning of each class became a motivational and learning tool for adults in a composition course, helping them to transform thoughts and words or phrases into more formalized works. (RL)

Explores various prewriting techniques that can be used to teach thinking skills (e.g., keeping a metaphor journal to teach students to think and write metaphorically; free-writing and focused free-writing; and Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) and Alternative Ways of Looking (AWOL) techniques, which teach students to consider both sides of an…

Suggests a prewriting exercise in characterization using the legend genre as framework. (HTH)

Explains how journal writing, taught with some direction, can guide students' writing and provide them with a sense of self-discovery. (HOD)

Reviews what researchers have found out about prewriting, and postulates how this information can help teachers promote growth in writing. (CRH)

Describes the advantages of using computers during the invention stage of composition. Discusses programs designed for that purpose and explores characteristics of an ideal prewriting computer program. (HTH)

Describes a unit in which high school students research and write about the folklore of their youth. Discusses day-by-day steps including brainstorming, choosing a topic, writing a first draft, revising, conducting an interview, and writing an analytical essay. (MS)

Describes an activity in which students write guided-imagery scripts that are related to works of literature. (MM)