Describes how the author developed an approach to teaching writing and to grading student writing that gets students themselves to understand their technical mistakes in using language, but also lets them know the strengths in their writing upon which they can build. Notes that this approach unexpectedly cut down on the time she spent reading and…

Suggests a prewriting activity that encompasses peer questioning to help basic writing students come up with topics for papers. Contends teachers should explain their expectations to the students and gives a homework assignment to either write a letter to their "future" children or devise a "life tree." Describes questioning in…

Expresses appreciation to Charlie Duke, long-time editor of this journal, and the author's mentor, for his insistent focus on: how theory might be applied in the classroom; that a teacher foregrounds the student, and not his or herself; and that to be a teacher is to embark on a life-long process of questioning and learning. (SR)

Suggests a six-step exercise that can be used in one 50-minute session to help students (or teachers at a workshop) experience the writing process of prewriting, writing, and rewriting with response from a peer. (TJ)

Advocates allowing students to suggest topics for courses and to take an active role in planning the objectives and outline for a course's activities. Provides a writing exercise in which students are asked at the start of a course to select one reading from the anthology for inclusion in the course. (HB)

Describes how students in a course on adolescent literature read one book each week from an adolescent series related to a particular theme or time period. Shows how, by reading through a historical and cultural perspective, students learn about changing cultural attitudes and expectations toward adolescents. (SR)

Presents three activities designed motivate student journal writing as a way to help students confront personal fears and open dialogue between troubled students and teachers. (HTH)

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)

Provides a "blueprint" of a curriculum-wide program in reading and writing for high school. Includes a combined reading list for all subject areas, and an assessment of the program as implemented in the author's school. (HTH)

Outlines exercises for high school and college students that use student-written poems, published adult poems, and synectics (a game-like forced comparison between dissimilar objects) to help students understand the writer's most powerful comparison device: metaphor. (SR)

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)

Describes a unit which offers high school students a broader perspective on African American history in general and African American writers in particular. Describes how students choose a book (from a list with synopses) to read and then choose at least one activity (again from a list) to complete. (SR)

Describes the use of peer grouping and the puzzle-solving format of a popular television game show to help students explore literary themes and compose a paper. (HTH)