In this article, the author focuses on her experiences with genre analysis. This is not a new idea or assignment. But gearing the analysis specifically toward thinking about purpose significantly narrows the focus of a typical "here's what this genre is and who uses it" essay. Genre analysis asks students to think in-depth about one particular…

Describes using the pastiche as the basis for a writing workshop with secondary students. Shows how students are afforded opportunities to explore and enter a rich tradition of imaginative invention and literary formulation as they probe, consider, select, and blend the works of various master writers and Mother Goose rhymes. (SR)

Describes the author's teaching of satire as it evolved from a small part of a literature course to a semester-length course, valuing written and oral literature. Explains how technique has become central, and analysis has become a meaningful preliminary to students writing their own satires. (SR)

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 two techniques that use poetry written by foreign language students to help them gain a greater understanding of poetry. The first technique elicits students' reactions to their own poetry, while the second approach uses students' poetry to teach about poetry. (CB)

Four principles are presented for teaching children, across age and grade levels, to write and enjoy writing: interrelating literature and writing, teaching writing as an intellectual rather than a mechanical process, emphasizing process over product, and teaching writing as a holistic process rather than a set of isolated skills. (PB)

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…

Outlines a course which uses dominant metaphors to connect the arts (particularly art, music, and literature) and which features discussions and student response journals ("thought-logs") to tap the pattern-perceiving potential of the right brain. (MM)

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)

Discusses the lives and poetry of two female writers from Greek antiquity, Sappho and Praxilla. Describes using Sappho's poems with sixth graders and includes some student poems written in response. Describes using Praxilla as a writing model in conjunction with Sappho while teaching American high school students. (SR)

Pupils in the middle school can be motivated to enjoy and write haiku poetry. A student teacher taught two lessons to a sixth grade class in haiku writing. First, the student teacher read three haikus aloud to students. After discovering the characteristics of a haiku from two models, the class as a whole wrote a haiku based on slides from their…

Outlines the importance of a literature-based curriculum that encourages higher-order thinking skills. Discusses the reader-response approach to language arts teaching as a valuable instructional process, that emphasizes the connections between what is in a text and the reader's previous knowledge and experience, thus fostering higher-order…

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)

Offering activities for secondary school students and amateur creative writers, this book demonstrates how teachers can break out of "high culture" stereotypes that make students think poetry has no connection with real life. Part one discusses the essentials of poetry and the roles of poets from ancient oral cultures to the present. The…

Written in narrative form, a study examined the impact of using writing as a learning tool in an upper-division college course in Seventeenth Century literature. The study investigated: (1) student writing samples of both informal and transactional writing forms; (2) the impact of writing-to-learn on course objectives; (3) the impact of informal…