Discusses 10 brief lessons using the daily newspaper that can add a variety of interesting and worthwhile activities to the English classroom. (RS)

Reviews and critiques a new writing textbook by LaRene Despain: "Writing: A Workshop Approach." Considers especially the types of writing assignments advocated and the kinds of skills needed for researched argumentative essays. (HB)

Describes five poetry assignments and presents examples of students' poetry written in response to the assignments. (RS)

Describes a project in which kindergarten students used maps and computers to create a history on their own community. (SR)

Provides 10 guidelines to help librarians meet young adults' needs based on experiences at the Berkeley (California) Public Library. Highlights include providing bibliographies on popular topics, advertising techniques, teen advisory councils, anticipating needs from homework assignments, setting aside space for teens, and encouraging teens to…

Describes a major portfolio project in a business-communication class which both develops students' critical-thinking skills (as they prepare five analyses of different business-communication situations chosen from a list of 10 options) and provides opportunities for their development as writers. (SR)

Reports observations of two courses of Community Service Writing wherein the teacher incorporated community-based writing assignments in order to help students writing outside the university. Finds that the curriculum did not support students' transitions to nonacademic settings. Calls for a model of rhetorically focused composition instruction…

Describes a process used for group assignments in a business communication course which holds all group members accountable by using a structure of rotating responsibility. Discusses selecting assignments and implementing the process, noting how this structure requires equivalent advance preparation from all members and provides opportunities for…

Four child-crafted book projects help promote students' holiday spirit. The projects, all based on a simple accordion fold, resemble cards but open to reveal more than just a greeting, allowing students to think and write about what the holiday means to them. Projects include a poetry book, a rhyming book, and a memory book. (SM)

Discusses the importance of a good caption for action/reaction photographs in newspapers and yearbooks. Describes how to write a caption; gives sample captions; discusses the four parts of a good caption; and presents a caption-writing assignment, complete with pictures. (SR)

Teachers and students can use color to identify different types of writing. This article describes using color to highlight annotations, identity, topic sentences, thoughts and emotions, logical arguments, advertising and selling, showing and telling, and looking and seeing. Includes sample assignments for identifying emotional content, topic…

Describes a series of miniature writing assignments for college students, including reflections on freedom, writing down ideas in a notebook, writing postcards or letters, a gathering page, and doing a first draft in 20 minutes. Provides examples of each assignment. (PA)

Reports on the uncontrolled, spontaneous talk generated by one self-contained class of 22 first graders as they worked together in groups to compose written assignments. Describes the types of task-specific, task-related, and unrelated conversation that the children engaged in, and the implications of such conversation for the early childhood…

Provides an outline for an exercise for junior high and high school students that encourages them to develop a philosophy of life in the form of resolutions, similar to those written by Jonathan Swift, Benjamin Franklin, and Jonathan Edwards. Cites examples of resolutions written by students. (PA)

Describes how the author and her high school English students begin their study of Thoreau's "Walden" by mining the text for quotations to inspire their own writing and discussion on the topic, "How does Thoreau speak to you or how could he speak to someone you know?" (SR)