Five arguments supporting creative writing programs in the language arts curriculum are presented.

Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of concentrating on skill development in English instruction; presents the merits and limitations of the educational system proposed by James Moffett. (MAI)

Discusses ten ERIC documents which offer suggestions for integrating writing activities with oral language, ongoing classroom experiences, and literature. (DD)

Describes an early-practice approach to research skills using activity work sheets, a technique that yields an immediate bonus because once they've been mastered most students can apply the skills smoothly to many areas of the curriculum. (Author/RK)

Demonstrates how fourth grade students can help one another to improve the rough drafts of their compositions. (DD)

Children should be exposed to a rich linguistic environment, but language learning tasks cannot and should not be optimally ordered. (DD)

Too much attention is given to drill on the component skills of language and literacy and too little attention to their significant use. Component skills must be used in contexts that require their integration into some larger act that has a personal purpose that binds the parts into the whole. (Author/IRT)

Suggests ways to help students avoid miscues caused by eye dialects in their reading. (DD)

Criticizes the Poets in the Schools program and similar undertakings for praising students' writing excessively and thus failing to acquaint students with the discipline required to produce outstanding poetry. (DD)

Illustrates how to use a sound poem to recreate the mood of a children's book. (DD)

Describes 55 places from which materials can be ordered to enrich the classroom instruction of language arts in elementary and middle school. (DD)

Describes a technique for getting students acquainted which involves having them coin words based on each other's first names. (DD)

Urges that children be taught the range of language uses as they occur in society and that they be taught to cope with the communications media. (DD)

Evaluates Neville Bennett's study of "Teaching Styles and Pupil Progress" which is being used to support a return to formal methods of instruction. (DD)

Reviews research on the association between children's oral language and their writing which, taken as a whole, raises doubts as to the existence of the very close and highly positive relationship some experts say exist between these two aspects of linguistic expression. More than 50 references are cited. (BR)