This paper presents 111 specific activities to help elementary students develop their creative writing skills. For each activity, suggestions are given for ways to begin and to develop the activity and for follow-up. Other sections of the paper discuss the type of classroom climate which is conducive to the development of creative writing skills,…

Argues in favor of teaching writing in the FL class. The following specifics are discussed: 1) When should writing begin? 2) When should written work occur in a largely oral lesson? 3) How is writing introduced? 4) Which written exercises are worth doing? 5) When can creative writing begin? 6) Writing as a response to reality. (KM)

The purpose of the proposed study was to examine relationships between instructional characteristics in required high school composition classrooms and quality of writing in one of the four domains included in the curriculum, the imaginative/narrative domain. Questionnaire data were collected on objectives, writing activities, and specific writing…

The most important consideration with regard to classroom use of films in an English as a second language (ESL) class is that it should be previewed by the teacher and selected according to criteria such as those suggested here. In example, short silent films that are uncluttered in appearance are good vehicles for teaching vocabulary. Some…

Intended to help teachers in developing language arts curriculum materials for use with the children of recent Bahamian immigrants to the United States, this paper contains approximately 500 topics for creative and expository writing based on the roots of Bahamian culture. The topics are arranged into areas of interest, including Bahamian pride,…

As part of a series of documents providing language arts materials adapted for use by children in refugee populations, this list offers 200 topics for creative and expository writing based on the Haitian culture. These topics, which can also be used as stimuli for writing activities by children from the Antilles and students interested in…

As a follow-up to the Central Wisconsin Writing Project, a writing survey was prepared to (1) introduce the concept of writing across the curriculum to high school faculty in the district, (2) determine the district's need for inservice in writing across the curriculum, (3) establish the validity of the data, (4) collect information about writing…

A two-week writing workshop has been designed and conducted for gifted students in grades three through five. Specific activities have been planned to enable learners to write for a variety of purposes, to learn about many categories of writing, and to come into contact with different kinds of information through listening, discussion, and reading…

The findings from a study of five students undertaken to determine how unskilled college writers compose, whether their writing processes can be analyzed in a systematic manner, and what an increased understanding of those processes suggests about the nature of composing and about the manner in which writing is taught are presented in this paper.…

Skilled and unskilled writers were given detailed information about an urban planning project and then read a letter from an influential, interested, and potentially hostile writer requesting information about the project. Each writer was next asked to generate all the ideas needed to answer the letter, organize a framework for the letter from a…

An approach to teaching reading and writing through the use of children's books, poetry, and songs are described. It is suggested that reading be taught by presenting in chart form the words that already have been remembered orally in song, rhyme, or story, such as "Polly Put the Kettle On" or sections from the "Little Red…

The case study described in this paper supports the premise that sentence combining exercises do more to improve student writing than simply producing longer sentences. Following a brief description of a longitudinal study that involved college freshmen in 15 weeks of sentence combining exercises, the paper focuses on the changing characteristics…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. The basic principles of literary cohesion (the way a text hangs together) are discussed and exercises are suggested to help students increase their sensitivity to…

THE SCOPE OF THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM CENTER'S RESEARCH PROGRAM IN TEACHING COMPOSITION TO THE BEGINNING WRITER IS DEFINED IN THE EIGHT PAPERS COMPRISING THIS COLLECTION. THE TOPICS FOR THE PAPERS ARE--(1) LIMITING THE AIMS OF TEACHING COMPOSITION IN THE SEVENTH- AND EIGHTH-GRADES TO INCLUDE ONLY NARRATIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITING AND…

AN OUTLINE IS PROVIDED FOR A TEXTLESS RHETORIC 101 COURSE TAUGHT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. BECAUSE THE IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE IS TO PROMOTE THE STUDENTS' AWARENESS OF THEIR OWN WRITING, THE SEMESTER IS ORGANIZED AROUND WHAT THE STUDENTS WRITE, NOT WHAT THEY READ OR MODELS WHICH THEY OUGHT TO IMITATE. AN INTRODUCTION, A SET OF ASSIGNMENTS ON…