Uses examples of children's poetry to illustrate both the power of metaphor and the possibilities of poetry in the development of metaphor. Traces children's development in creation of metaphor from kindergarten through eighth grade. Looks at early demonstration of metaphor use and the expanded use of metaphor to describe complex concepts and…

Describes a two-day interdisciplinary field trip for a group of 63 ninth graders that was followed up in the classroom with related units in history, art, biology, English, and drama. Describes how the students were challenged to use nature to discover who they were, observing closely and then letting go in order to think and connect. (SR)

Demonstrates the usefulness of ability grouping in a "media, writing, and information gathering" course to improve students' writing skills. Notes students improved to the point where the gap in skills between ability groups was eliminated. Finds objective tests of mechanical skills did not predict students' writing ability. Suggests writing…

Describes a first-year college composition course and the daily preparatory writing assignments, "inquiry response papers," that form its core. Describes how these assignments, in which students respond to their homework reading, have led to a collaborative, dialogic classroom where students realize and express their own voices, and have fostered…

Uses illustrations from a graduate seminar in the teaching of writing, a high school classroom, and a seventh-grade classroom to show the value of teacher-student dialog over teacher monologue, and to show teacher responses that resist the impulse to launch into the teacher's monologue, and instead invite dialog and turn the work of meaning-making…

Provides a rationale for using sustained content study (studying one area over time) to improve the reading and writing skills of college-bound ESL students. Describes a course (and course materials) on "Film & Society." Offers excerpts from student discussion and writing. Examines students' progress as shown in their portfolio writing. Notes…

Resounding with passion for teaching, learning, and writing as well as for the personal influences in a life of teaching, learning, and writing, this book encourages high school and higher education teachers to look beyond the tried and accepted. At the same time it offers concrete ideas to attempt with students--alternate style maneuvers,…

Dialogue journals serve as a site where students may discover their own voices and learn to interact with each other and respond to ideas in a way that prepares them for their role as responsible citizens. Within the context of the dialogue journal, roles and role relationships are negotiated. The classroom community is decentralized; traditional…

Part of a series of books written and illustrated by the students of Northland School Division, Alberta, Canada, this anthology of junior-high-school student writing honors the spirit and authentic voice of young people. The writing selections in the book are made accessible to educators so that a bridge of understanding can continue to be built…

Calling for a radical reexamination of the traditional foundation of composition instruction--the thesis/support form, this book argues that the essay, with its informality, conversational tone, meditative mood, and integration of form and content, is better suited to developmental, epistemological, ideological, and feminist rhetorical…

A practicum was designed to determine board-wide standards for assessing student achievement in reading and writing in kindergarten through grade 8 by creating analyzed exemplars of student work. Reading and writing indicators were developed to be used as the basis for analyzing the reading and writing exemplars. Teachers collected writing…

Guided story invention is a strategy for whole language instruction. The strategy stimulates construction of story and storylike passages, and incorporates: (1) student knowledge of story structure; (2) the reading and writing of meaningful text; (3) a focus on meaning as a function of teacher coaching; and (4) encouragement of self-monitoring of…

In July 1992, American College Testing convened a 5-day meeting to set achievement levels in writing for grades 4, 8, and 12 to be recommended for use in reporting the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Sixty-six panelists (teachers, non-teacher educators, and non-educators) attended the meeting and participated in the…

An assignment that has proven successful in teaching "Communication Theories" (a senior-level capstone course at Northern Kentucky University) is "The Application Folder." The goal of the assignment is for students to apply concepts from the course in their everyday life. Students monitor and analyze what they watch, read, and…

A project examined the ways in which college freshmen constructed a gendered cultural identity in their narratives of events during their acquisition of literacy, and the ways in which teachers constructed the gendered, literate identity of their student authors. Three female teacher-readers were asked to: (1) evaluate the quality of each of 13…