Maintaining that the arts are composing activities and--like talking and writing--powerful ways of making meaning, this book discusses teaching English through the arts. The book provides a brief theoretical and historical basis for its fundamental approach and presents 29 instructional strategies that classroom teachers who do not have special equipment, materials, or preparation in the arts can incorporate into their teaching. The book is intended as a compact supplement--a "starter kit"--to be creatively adapted to specific classrooms to help students make stimulating connections between English and some of the arts they know best--popular music, film, photography, design, drawing and painting, and drama. Following a brief discussion of the theoretical and research-based support for their ideas, the book presents 15 activities that focus on language (dialects, usage and structure, semantics, and etymology), nine that focus on literature, and five that focus on writing. A 50-item bibliography concludes the book. (SR)