Describes a writing exercise and discussion to help students broaden their concept of what constitutes comedy so that they may better appreciate Moliere's "The Misanthrope." (HTH)

Suggests using poetry's short short forms for a methodical and rapid series of writing assignments that emphasize both careful writing at the sentence level and overall planning and respect for form. (HTH)

Suggests having students write short summaries using the principles of the journalistic news "lead" to help them sharpen their abstraction skills. Includes samples of data blocks from which students would compose their summaries, kernel sentences from the samples, "kernel" kernel sentences, first draft summaries, and 30-word…

Explains how students can be introduced to the delights and problems of lyric poetry by reading A.E. Housman's "Lovliest of Trees, the Cherry Now." (HOD)

Describes using the novel and television adaptation of Harriet Arnow's "The Dollmaker" in a cross-media approach to teach a unit on the problems of translating literature into film. Includes approaches for generating discussion of rural and urban values and weekly discussion and reading assignments. (HTH)

Provides a rationale for allowing students to write in journals that the teacher will never read. Suggests requiring students to write responses to their journal writing at the end of the semester, which would be shared with the teacher and the rest of the class. Includes a sample response. (HTH)

Presents an exercise that guides basic writing students in their choices, requiring them to make evaluative annotations of each sentence in the draft of a paragraph. Includes (1) a set of questions that incorporate criteria for a sound paragraph and serve heuristically for the revision of the draft, and (2) a student example of the procedure. (HTH)

Describes a "hands-on" thinking and writing activity, in which the class takes a walk and writes responses to nature as a whole and to one small aspect of nature. Includes class discussion assignments. (HTH)

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: LEVEL: High school and college. AUTHOR'S COMMENT: Many would like to abandon the distinction between "lay" and "lie," but I still receive enough questions about it to continue teaching it. Finding that students did not believe me when I taught them to substitute…

Presents activities for a thematic unit of literature exploring humankind's relationship to the land, as inspired by Robert Frost's poem. Activities include planting flowers, examining travel brochures, viewing a transparency exhibit of images of nature, and journal writing on topics dealing with owning and working land. (HTH)

During a visit to a local library archives, many old photographs were discovered which turned out to be useful teaching tools for an English class. Copies of a few of them were brought to class where students were asked to choose one and write about it. The responses were exceptional. Students were writing about their town; some of them were…

Summarizes readings for a unit of literature on traveling. Includes a prereading travel heuristic based on the students' own travels and a projected trip and other follow-up activities. (HTH)