Eighth-grade students normally turned off by poetry became enthusiastic and skilled writers of the cinquain, haiku, tanka and Korean sijo forms after teacher explained their structure and showed films for inspiration. (PD)

Describes a correspondence exchange between New England and California high school students. (RD)

Special issue devoted to teaching Level II French. (DS)

Parents can help their children become better writers by reinforcing the importance of writing and by giving children plenty of opportunities to write. Twenty-three specific suggestions for improving children's writing at home are listed. (PP)

Existing and potential applications of the computer to writing instruction are outlined, including choosing and developing a subject, text analysis, simulation, and motivation. Some concerns about computer use in writing instruction are also discussed. (MSE)

An experiment in which students were required to keep journals during a civil engineering course is described. Student benefits (journals as problem-solving tools and forums for personal comments), faculty benefits (sources of background information and use as evaluation/recordkeeping tools), and five major conclusions are discussed. (JN)

Authors of "For the Love of Writing" suggest projects that will teach pupils how to write letters that will get responses, thus stimulating interest. Techniques for writing complimentary letters, mystery letters, animal letters, book report letters, bottle and balloon messages, and sending electronic mail are discussed. (PP)

Describes how a Wisconsin agricultural journalism course for nonmajors achieves success, despite large enrollments, through a heavy diet of writing exercises, review questions, out-of-class help, and student presentations. (HOD)

Ways to make historical figures come to life through classroom simulations are described. They include: (1) teacher impersonations of time-machine visitors; (2) public-address-system voices from the past; (3) writing about historical personages from different perspectives; (4) mock trials; and (5) role playing by students. (PP)

Suggests a possible unified theory of reading, interpretation, and composition based on recent research in composition combined with the theoretical contributions of reader response critics in literature. Describes a pedagogical program based on this theoretical model that uses students' responses to texts as the center of the course. (JL)

Writing researchers suggest that children should write stories in order to (1) entertain, (2) foster artistic expression, (3) explore the functions and values of writing, (4) stimulate imagination, (5) clarify thinking, (6) search for identity, and (7) learn to read and write. (HTH)