Describes an approach to teaching narrative poetry writing to tenth-grade students. (RL)

Describes how allowing students to follow their creative impulses led to a unit in the author's tenth grade English class that rekindled an appreciation for imaginative, even whimsical, thinking. Discusses her experiences with this project. Considers why it is important to imagine. (SG)

Notes that "Julius Caesar" is required in nearly every high school curriculum, but that making the play accessible to students is not easy. Tries new teaching ideas to see whether students would more readily take to "Julius Caesar" using a more interdisciplinary approach. Describes three of these ideas that were particularly…

Argues the relative merits of using in-process and retrospective journals, during and after the writing process, to empower students to explore and use their own ways of constructing knowledge to make connections as they write. (KEH)

Individualizing takes much more time and energy than classroom teaching--and is worth it.

Discusses a reader-response approach to teaching Nathaniel Hawthorne's RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER. (MM)

Describes how a tenth-grade English teacher changed her role from that of a leader always on center stage to that of a prober, guide, problem poser, resource person, and strategist. Advises teachers to help students find, shape, and revise their own questions and then explore and evaluate responses to these questions. (RS)

Describes one high school English teacher's experiment with assigning stories instead of analytical essays. Argues for retelling and storytelling as a valuable resource in the high school curriculum. (RAE)

Compares Richard Adams's "Watership Down" to the "The Odyssey," and offers a selection of classroom activities for students that use Adams's novel to study classic literature. (NKA)

Describes how a teacher-as-researcher project led the author to create more opportunities for remedial high school students to "talk out" their writing as a prewriting exercise. (MM)

Details the use and appeal of Web logs to enhance classroom discussion and allow for outside involvement in the classroom. Defines a Web log, addresses discussing literature in a Web log, and describes the author's first attempts at using Web-log technology. Presents considerations for using Web logs as part of classroom instruction. (SG)

Examines taped small-group student discussions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in two tenth grade classes. Explores various discussion skills, including getting started, overcoming tension, deciding who begins, keeping the discussion moving, supporting one another in groups, and dealing with conflict. (MM)

Describes a group investigation unit in a tenth grade English class that focused on the Middle East. Outlines six stages used for the investigation. Discusses the use of a steering committee as well as the problems and frustrations experienced during the project. Lists 10 areas in which the students' skills were expanded. (PRA)

Describes the success of a unit for tenth-grade students wherein they created a book of poetry. Provides guidelines for the unit and evaluation criteria. Claims the "books" turned out to be far superior to the "flat pro forma" poetry papers assigned in the past. (NH)

Describes how the popular TV show "X-Files" was used as a model to develop an in-depth semester-length project, in which 10th graders integrated history, math, science, and English as they worked in investigative teams to develop evidence dossiers, memos, and presentations following stringent requirements yet allowing students…