The way that the teacher responds to students' writing and talking is most important when developing poetry skills. This article suggests that poetry can not be taught through well-planned lessons but must come from communication and feeling. (DF)

Describes methods developed for a fourth- through sixth- grade writers' workshop designed to teach children to write within certain common structures. Separate workshop sessions dealt with descriptive writing, mood, characterization, adventure stories, tall tales, plays, autobiography, and reporting. (AEA)

Describes a class writing exercise for high school and college English classes (which functions well early in the first semester), which emphasizes a basic idea (that close inspection of a subject will reveal that there is a lot to say about it) by having students describe in detail a person's face, first as a class and then individually. (SR)

Description of a writing project for sixth graders includes hearing excerpts read from Brent Staples' memoirs, then creating their own multimedia memoirs drawn from their life experiences. Project topics include observing the decay of a neighborhood or death of a relative or neighbor. A list of 17 memoirs written by ethnic minorities for use with…