Describes several assignments and activities that focus on writing for "real-world" purposes, including writing to pen pals, government agencies, and for children or the elderly. (MM)

Explores the concept worksheet, which can help students identify and analyze important mathematical concepts and is a simple assignment that can be completed by students overnight. Four types of exercises are included: definition, web of attributes, examples, and nonexamples. (MKR)

Describes a method of including students into a community of readers through which they are encouraged to respond individually to literary texts. Shows how writing prompts can be used in the classroom to foster reader response and the integrity of each reader's interpretation of a text. (HB)

Presents an initial minicollaboration exercise with which to begin collaborative projects. Notes that students discuss how to respond to a range of comments and concerns of prior students to collaboration, thus shifting learning and discovery to students from the very first step. (SR)

Describes an activity in which parents and students write together about their childhoods. States that parents and students offered positive comments about the activity. Notes that the parents were supportive of their students' writing for the rest of the school year. (RS)

Describes the use of reading sheets--a single piece of paper where the student notes pages read, date, and a three-line summary of that day's reading--in conjunction with sustained silent reading. (SR)

Criticizes teaching formal, impersonal writing and argues for teaching that encourages students to write about what they know and love as they discover who they are and why words matter. (PRA)

Describes a collaborative writing assignment devised for a first-year composition class. Outlines how the assignment was undertaken and carried out by the students. Provides background on the theoretical literature concerning collaborative writing. (HB)

Provides the responses of 10 practicing English teachers to the questions, "What is your most successful writing assignment? Or, what is your favorite stimulus for writing?" (HB)

Describes a writing assignment (useful for junior high through college age students) that seeks to improve students' descriptive writing through a set of class writing assignments using visual and concrete objects. Allows students to gain awareness, gain knowledge and discuss it, and ask questions as a body of learners rather than in isolation.…

Describes an assignment in which students read a travelogue excerpt and then must determine specified aspects of the writer's character based on evidence from the text. Notes how this exercise shapes students' awareness of how character influences writing, and how biases and assumptions influence reading. (SR)

Discusses the failure of students with learning disabilities to complete their homework assignments, lists criteria for planning assignments to motivate secondary students, and offers suggestions on procedures and outcomes for inviting students to participate in the assignment completion process. An Assignment Idea Chart is provided. (CR)

Presents 13 short descriptions from 13 different English teachers describing the most effective writing assignment they have ever given. (SR)

Demonstrates how students' metacognitive skill may be enhanced through writing learning statements. Uses a framework of multiple intelligences and learning style theories to describe how teachers can guide students through reflective writing exercises to help them understand how they learn. (SR)

Lists 24 writing lesson plans or teaching approaches designed to keep students engaged toward the end of the school year, including list making, ABC stories, fractured fairy tales, cut word stories, "bummer behavior" letter writing, and using children's books as a stimulus. (TB)