As teachers consider ethics, they find that it may often look like a student issue. It may be discussions of plagiarism, social justice, honesty, bullying, privacy, child labor, free speech, inequity. However, even as teachers struggle with ways to model ethics or "teach" ethics, they find that their teaching practices may warrant reflection. One…

Self-directed writing is an opportunity for teachers to write with their students, and it is writing that ultimately ends up in the student's portfolio at mid-term and end of term. It is one component of a structured writing class in which students also do other writing assignments. It is important for teachers to communicate their expectations of…

Presents a conception of writing assignments as a navigation through five writing "events" that students experience through individually imposed writing tasks. Describes the five events within each assignment. Concludes with positive student evaluations. (HB)

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

Offers a pedagogy that invites students to know firsthand how traditional poetic forms are both historic artifacts and living practices. (RS)

Describes the development of a writing assignment using the four discourse types to write about a single, physical object. Reviews specifically how this assignment was carried out to completion by students. Defends the assignment as a framework for the study of writing. (HB)

Describes the results of a questionnaire survey of the faculty of American University to determine their perceptions of student literacy and to discovery what kind of writing, and how much of it, is being assigned. (DD)

Argues that a prevalent mistake made by teachers preparing writing curricula and assignments is dividing writing into classes or modes. Suggests alternatives to classifying writing. Envisions writing as a discourse act and assignments as performance of such acts. (HB)

Describes a senior-year requirement of a high school in Oregon consisting of a prescribed research paper. Demonstrates the benefits of this requirement among those in college writing courses. Argues that freeing students to choose a topic may be the key. (HB)

Describes the experience of helping a student revise a personal, expressive piece of writing into a transactional essay. Discusses the pros and cons of such guidance. Concludes with a strong defense of conferencing. (HB)

Describes writing assignments that other teachers may wish to present in their classes on women's issues. (CRH)

Describes how students are able to empathize with women writers and each other by reading and writing autobiography. (CRH)

The process of creating a canto in imitation of Dante's "The Inferno" not only enables students to gain a sense of medieval morality and history but also allows them to have an imaginative understanding of their own lives and times. (RL)

Discusses the issue of students buying papers on the Internet. Considers how educators reconcile their ability to teach effectively with their students' ability to cheat and steal without the teacher's knowledge. Suggests a solution by assigning essays that cannot be bought. (SG)

Describes and illustrates a writing assignment in which students assume the role and the voice of someone they perceive as different from themselves, requiring attention to appropriate--not necessarily "correct"--language styles. (RL)