The 26 teaching strategies in this collection originally appeared in IDEAS PLUS, a special publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. The teaching strategies are entitled: (1) "A Dream House" (Thomas M. Cobb); (2) "A Journal-Writing Pot of Gold" (Irina Markova); (3) "Adopt-a-Word" (Annette Matherne); (4) "Contrasting Moods" (Don Shultz); (5) "Describe That Face" (Dorothy A. Winson); (6) "Descriptive Portraits" (Judy Mednick); (7) "How To Beat 'Page Fright'" (Ellen Turlington Johnston-Hale); (8) "Natural Writing--Three Ways" (Jo-Ellen S. Wood); (9) "Noun Poetry" (Peggy Reynolds); (10) "Novel Dialogue" (Ken Spurlock); (11) "Obtaining an Honest Writing Sample" (Jeffrey Golub); (12) "One, Two, Three--Testing" (Clifford Milo); (13) "Poetry a la Emily Dickinson" (Sarah Sherman-Siegel); (14) "Portraits in Poetry" (Marybeth Mason); (15) "Quote for the Day" (Cathie M. Brown); (16) "Search for Identity; Or, What's in a Name?" (Edna L. Neely); (17) "Sentence Combining as a Prereading Activity" (Gary L. McLaughlin); (18) "Speaking Precisely" (Sandra Hochel); (19) "Take This Word and Use It" (Beverly Haley); (20) "Teaching Inferential Thinking" (Mary Bozik); (21) "Tell-and-Show Dictionary" (Kathleen Lask); (22) "Ten Little Letters Standing in a Row" (Robin Hamilton); (23) "The Door" (Thomas Lavassi and Laura Mitchell); (24) "Using Pictures To Teach Poetry" (Grace Cooper); (25) "Write Your Way Out of This One" (Terry Cooper); and (26) "Writing for an Audience" (Shirley Vaux). Appendixes contain a key descriptors index, contributors' comments, and a map of the United States indicating the geographic location of contributors. (RS)