Fifteen writing instructors report their favorite ways of getting students to write. (RL)

Describes a high school biology assignment that had students read a self-selected book where the main character experiences nature and is changed by it. Evaluation was based on journal entries and a formal paper. Seventy percent of the students indicated they greatly enjoyed the assignment. (PR)

Presents a four-day lesson plan for secondary U.S. literature or Bible-and-literature classes, using the Garden of Eden story and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter." Identifies objectives, materials, procedure, and evaluation measures. Develops students' ability to discover analogies and irony in literary texts. Lists teacher…

A flexible, point contract system is described which maximizes the advantages of a criterion-referenced contract system while eliminating some of the disadvantages of standard grade contracts. This model has been used by the author in a variety of high school and college courses. (Author/SJL)

Argues that the use of editing in the classroom involves the students in restructuring, revision, and rethinking as well as correction, extension, and deletion. (HOD)

A Dutch teacher presents reading, film viewing, and writing activities for "Empire of the Sun," J. G. Ballard's autobiographical account of life as a boy in Shanghai and in a Japanese internment camp during World War II (the subject of Steven Spielberg's film of the same name). Includes objectives, procedures, and several literature,…

Inviting students to look, explore, and think, this booklet offers practical ways for teachers to use museums--in particular, the artworks, artifacts, collections, and other materials they contain--as a basis for secondary students' writing. If taking students on field trips is not feasible, educators can adapt most of the activities in the…

Argues that asking students to write in concrete images about specific events and places serves to emphasize the importance of writing from detailed personal experiences. (RL)

Offers four evaluative questions for revising writing assignments into vehicles that steadily move students toward writing fluency. (RL)

Describes a student project which illustrates interrelationships among the topics of random sampling, relative frequency concept of probability, design of experiments, and computer generation of data and which involves determining the configurations of numbers and letters on license plates through a microcomputer program. The computer program is…

A program to improve student ability to perform intellectually demanding tasks might reasonably focus on four types of objectives: abilities, methods, knowledge, and attitudes. (Author/MLF)

Teaching suggestions and questions on which to build a class discussion are presented regarding concrete poetry. An example of a poem about a bird's feather in which the words are arranged in the shape of a feather is included and is intended as a student handout. In addition to suggestions for student assignments, five sources of concrete poetry…

Describes a teaching method in which high school sophomores (1) read A. Munro's "Connection," a short story connecting the author to her family origins; (2) interview relatives about their personal history; and (3) compose vignettes based on the notes collected during a three-week period. Provides numerous questions and prompts used to help the…

Describes a two-week English project in which ninth graders read "La Boheme" in translation, studied it as a drama, listened to arias, and finally watched a videotaped performance of the opera. (JG)

Describes the use of literary models, exemplified by scientific discourse and popular folk music, in a composition program. (AEA)