A teacher describes how a cardboard box tunnel was used to capitalize on children's fascination with boxes. The finished tunnel offers opportunities for honing math and writing skills. Layouts for tunnels and related activities are suggested. (MT)

A relaxation program uses breathing control, brief muscle relaxation, and visual imagery to alter the student's internal condition. The program was successfully applied to writing skill instruction with 36 junior high students. (CL)

Guidelines for prospective conference proposal writers offer techniques that may help in having papers accepted at academic meetings. (DF)

Describes a special American Studies program that combines literature and history to teach American history. (MD)

Suggestions are given to teachers of learning disabled students regarding writing instruction. Six pointers concern techniques to avoid (such as overemphasis on grammatical errors) as well as approaches to provide appropriate feedback (such as offering individualized feedback, preferably at the prewriting stage). (CL)

The process/conference model of writing instruction is described for intermediate-level learning disabled students. Students proceed through several stages of writing (rehearsal, drafting, revising, editing, and rewriting) during which they have conferences with the teacher and eventually publish their writing. (CL)

Attention should be focused on the importance of developing writing skills in gifted students. Four approaches to the thinking-writing process are briefly contrasted, and learning activities such as community problem solving, seminars, and community-based mentorships are considered. (CL)

The writing of learning disabled students can help teachers diagnose reasons for spelling errors and view spelling performance in terms of developmental factors. Further, practice in writing can provide opportunities for self-correction via modeling adult spelling. (CL)

Presents writing as a form of dialog and the paragraph as a unit of implied dialog. (MM)

Substantially updated for today's world, this second edition offers chapters on 12 different categories of writing, each of which is briefly introduced with a definition, notes on appropriate writing strategies, and suggestions for using the book to locate topics. Types of writing covered include description, comparison/contrast, process,…

A highly structured six-step strategy to teach paragraph organization skills to learning disabled secondary students revealed that the students, who were beginning rather than remedial writers, could profit from a formula writing approach that focused on one writing component at a time with maximum practice. (CL)

Exercises are described to help junior high students understand the scope of non-fiction creative expository writing. The communication of attitude and context through language is demonstrated by an exercise based on "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." (CL)

Procedures are outlined for teaching writing as a step-by-step process. (MJL)

Story writing helps handicapped and normal students to develop a thoughtful approach to daily experiences through fantasy production. Benefits of such an approach with emotionally disturbed adolescents have included increased abilities of students to examine problem situations, conceptualize alternatives, and understand potential consequences. (CL)

Presented is a simple and effective formula for aiding low ability, nonmotivated secondary students to construct an essay. It avoids the particulars of composition, like syntax, and concentrates on organization. (KC)