Describes an eight-stage activity sequence that draws upon students' writing experiences, requires them to examine dramatic texts in "writerly" ways, and gives them the chance to be playwrights in a limited fashion. Shows how this teaches students basic critical elements of drama as they write conversations for randomly paired characters…

Describes three assignments the author uses when teaching Chaucer (suitable for college or college prep high school classes) in which students learn what iambic pentameter is by writing two rhyming couplets, a ten-line conversation in rhyming couplets, and a creative project of at least 25 rhyming couplets, all in iambic pentameter. (SR)

Describes a test for a chronologically organized, issue-centered, multidisciplinary composition course in American civilization. (RB)

Lists words students commonly find difficult to understand when reading Shakespeare's drama and suggests a solution to the problem. (RB)

Suggests several techniques for teaching grammar and making students aware of style at the same time. (RB)

Describes a method for analyzing "Tom Jones," emphasizing an historical approach which also reveals much about the culture of eighteenth century England. (RB)

Describes an activity which successfully gets all students in a class (including those with reading disabilities) involved in constructing sentences and learning grammar and punctuation. (JM)

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)

Presents a series of questions designed to help students recognize and appreciate the character dimension in modern fiction. (FL)

Suggests a method for helping students eliminate trite expressions from their writing and examine values that have been passed on to them by authority figures. (TJ)

Discusses the use of an advertising symbol to demonstrate levels of meaning a symbol may have. (TJ)

Presents a method for helping students learn to evaluate data, draw conclusions, and state a most probable hypothesis in writing essays. (TJ)

Presents an assignment to help students understand the necessity of "seeing" a dramatic text as they read it and the necessity of considering that meaning in the theater is created on many different levels that often vary from one play to the next. (SR)

Presents a five-step series of lessons which introduce seventh-grade language arts students to literary criticism and analysis as they progress through a text, moving from surface evaluation to thoughtful analysis. (SR)

Describes how the author and her high school English students begin their study of Thoreau's "Walden" by mining the text for quotations to inspire their own writing and discussion on the topic, "How does Thoreau speak to you or how could he speak to someone you know?" (SR)