The traditional approach to education has placed more importance on the role of the teacher in the teacher-student relationship. Such an approach has produced a nation of passive learners who can regurgitate facts but have little ability to reason, solve problems, or think critically or creatively. A junior high school language arts teacher who sought to help students develop as thoughtful decision makers identified time, curriculum, students' willingness to take risks, and students' self direction as areas of tension. The teacher developed a "decisive writer's model" to promote student risk taking and self direction. It became apparent that for the model to work successfully, learning conditions had to include: (1) teaching by facilitating; (2) structuring project guidelines; (3) reading the genre; (4) writing in the genre; (5) promoting student ownership of projects; (6) establishing specific evaluation criteria; and (7) assessing projects according to the criteria. Resulting student projects appeared in many forms, but writing was at the heart of each. Students wrote songs and newspaper style articles, drew posters and dioramas, or reenacted text scenes on videotape. Development of the model clarified the teacher's thinking about the role of decision making for students. Freedom to choose how they expressed themselves helped liberate their imaginations. (Four appendixes containing project ideas, a personal inventory, and evaluation sheets are attached.) (SG)