The nine teaching activities presented in these six extracted journal columns focus on writing assignments. The first assignment (by Gail Parson) presents a unit in which students compare the techniques used by four respected authors to evoke the world of dreams, and then--using what they learn from reading and talking about these stories--they write an original story built on dreams. The second assignment (by Mary Burman) combines new fiction for junior high students with topics for library investigation by assigning a novel to read along with an investigation of the social or personal problem dealt with in the novel. The third assignment (by John Bushman) suggests activities for prewriting before a writing unit and before specific assignments. The fourth assignment (by L. D. Groski) offers students an opportunity to explore the effects of clothes in people's lives and literature through writing, classroom discussion, and reading short stories. The fifth assignment (by Kristen Leedom) involves having students from Edgar Lee Master's "Spoon River Anthology," do research on ancestors and write a poem about them, write a poem about themselves, and publish a booklet. The sixth assignment (by James Upton) presents a list of writing guidelines and related activites. The seventh assignment (by Amy Levin) discusses teaching students how to write vivid descriptions of ordinary objects. The eighth and ninth assignments, (by Duane Pitts and Joseph Foley, respectively) based on Maurice Sagoff's "Shrinklits," require that students use their own words and imagination to paraphrase a poem, story, chapter, or novel in several short rhymed verses. (EL)