"Doodlefunking" is a useful method for motivating students to produce creative language products: "doodle" suggests aimless drawing directed by the unconscious while the conscious is attending to other matters, and "funking" connotes moving into a mental state in which the conscious mind is shut off while the…

The theories of cognitive development put forth by William Perry and by Jean Piaget are helpful in understanding the writing choices students made in responding to an assignment involving writing a persuasive essay. Some students were looking for the "Right Answer" and when they found it, they assumed that everyone would agree with them.…

This book is a sample of what actually happens when the professional teaching poet sits down with the student poem. It allows the reader to observe the poets in their roles as teachers. The collection of student workshop poems and the teachers' essays about the poems--their analysis, specific criticisms, teaching techniques and procedures--are…

This book contains a collection of "model" poems by adults and by children and ways to use the poems in children's poetry writing workshops and activities. After an introduction to the text and its subject matter, several chapters discuss ways to write poems, focusing on acrostics, the sound or shape of a poem, poems from memories or dreams,…

A teaching strategy has been devised to teach students how to value their own thoughts and experiences. Secondary purposes of the strategy are to help students deal with their own identities, to improve their general language and essay writing abilities, and to heighten their appreciation of the writing of others. The seven steps of the teaching…

Empirical and theoretical research and a teacher's own writing experience provide equally valuable resources in the composition classroom. Current research on the composing process suggests a conceptual change from that of a rigid sequence of clearly demarcated stages to a more recursive, hierarchically structured model. Until recently, the role…

This document is a guide that a science teacher might prepare for students with the help of an English teacher. The first section provides a rationale for the guide and discusses types of writing done in science classes and the ways this booklet might help students. Guidelines are delineated for answering study guide questions, writing essays, and…

A method for stimulating and facilitating organizational writing in the secondary school is described in this paper. Pictorial sequences are coordinated and arranged to typify the four major styles of writing: narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive. These sequences both portray a meaningful event in keeping with the writing style and…

The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to teaching a creative writing sequence for high school students. During the first 45-day course, over 30 papers are to be written. Students begin with a paper titled "I Am" and proceed through a series of self-discovery papers. The papers give the students a chance to understand…

Various approaches to teaching creative writing to children are described. The book contains many examples of children's writing and stresses the need to listen to the child, to praise, to make suggestions gently, and to encourage the child to use his own senses for firsthand impressions and to say what he truly feels. Some of the chapters discuss…

Common approaches to composition teaching are satirized. (JH)

Describes an approach to literacy instruction for immigrant students based on two novels. Focuses on the immigrant experience and teaches both cultural and "school" literacy. (MM)

Discusses how writing response groups improve students' writing even when the students resist extensive between-draft revision. (MM)