Whether novice or experienced, writers must come to terms with the daunting task of filling up a blank page, or screen, in an effort to produce writing. Student writers are no different. They enter teachers' classes having confronted similar difficulties with discovering what it is they want to say. In seeking to help students, they devote…

Urges teachers to keep reading and writing alive in the classroom by assigning a variety of books, including the classics, and by integrating written responses with the reading assignments. (DD)

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

Describes how to formulate writing assignments that are purposeful, audience-aware, and cumulatively structured. (DD)

Presents the responses of five professional leaders in young-adult literature in response to Edwin Greenlee's problem with recommending books which may contain sexually explicit text. (PRA)

Presents three brief essays that discuss approaching traditional literature (Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," Mark Twain "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales") in imaginative ways in high school English and vocational/technical classrooms. (RS)

Explores how asking students to abstract a theme statement from a literary text as a main reading objective can actually disempower students' reading experience. Bases the claims on original research on how 288 readers read a short story. Considers how teachers might more profitably talk about theme. (HB)

Discusses the absence of adolescent literature in Advanced Placement (AP) English classes. Describes how a class of AP students and their teacher benefited from reading Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War." (PRA)

Argues that, after students are familiar with the characteristics of the five paragraph essay and the expectations of that genre, they can learn to play with those expectations to create lively writing that reveals more individual voice by mixing in other genres. Argues that such a strategy can teach students to engage in academic writing more…

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

Defines the boundaries between "realist" literature and science fiction and fantasy. Describes science fiction writing assignments. Mentions science fiction and fantasy books suitable for the uninitiated reader. (RS)

Discusses a writing assignment in which students write biographies comprised of literary genres such as dialogues, poems, newspaper articles, obituaries, songs, and letters. (RS)

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

Asserts that contemporary women novelists from the Caribbean are writing a new chapter in the literature of adolescence--a study of connections. Discusses the works of Carol Gilligan, and the idea of measuring women's development against a different truth than the male standard. Presents a 10-item annotated reading list. (PRA)

Describes a writing assignment that uses metaphors to encourage students to rethink their assumptions about writing and about themselves as writers. Discusses metaphors of process and speed, fear and courage, control, silence, and metaphors as invitations. (PRA)