Argues that good directors are not as autocratic and individualistic as they are often portrayed. Suggests that theater is much more of an ensemble effort. States that good theater grows out of the performers' desire to reach the audience. Articulates guidelines for the teacher or theater director who wishes to change "I" to…

Presents a lesson that might be useful early on teaching a play writing class. Considers how audiences care about things that a character cares about. Explains that in a story the higher the stakes are for the character, the more an audience will invest in the story. Presents a seven question quiz with answers including a discussion of each…

Explains how a teacher used tape--pieces hanging from her hair, her desk, and student desks--to help students remember some of the principles of writing represented in the acronym TAPE: topic, audience, purpose, and elaboration. (TB)

Examines the place creative writing might logically take in the study of literature. Contends that rather than supplanting conventional literary criticism in the classroom, such writing--what the author terms "imaginative response"--can readily complement and ultimately enrich formal analysis. Defines "imaginative response" broadly as responding…

Presents a brief quiz designed to focus on facts often forgotten or about which misperceptions typically swirl, and to concentrate attention on the lives of children and young adults during the Renaissance. Notes that the answers to the quiz are followed by explanations arranged, like the quiz, in three sections that provide some information about…

Defines the concept of "audience" as a theoretical concept for writing instructors and readers. Discusses its relationship to the teaching of English. (HB)

Discusses ways to use the author awareness approach (a sense of who wrote the story, how, and why) to teach writing. Notes that this approach improves students' reading as well as writing. (SR)

Describes how a high school newspaper, in response to a large-scale readership survey, used the concept of "packaging" news (breaking story ideas down into smaller pieces to entice readers) to rethink and redesign the paper. Offers hints and staff goals based on their experience. (SR)

Discusses how earlier in his career the author did nothing to make nonfiction an integral part of his curriculum, nothing to help students critically read it or, more important, use it to inform the nonfiction he was asking them to write. Discusses a series of writing assignments using nonfiction. (SG)

Three pieces of writing were collected from 36 adolescent girls in each of three years to test writing-development scales measuring idea development, language use, and audience awareness. The scales were easy to apply in the classroom and capable of assessing students of varied disabilities. (SK)

This collection of monologues describes women's roles in theater in 1994 as being "ripe with possibility." The collection includes work from playwrights Gloria Naylor, Harold Prince, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, and Harold Pinter, among others. The collection contains 57 brief audition pieces for women to perform from the 1994…

A stylistic device that has been used by many authors over the years is to alternate the point of view between two or more characters. Authors of young adult novels choose this technique of multiple narrative voices for a variety of reasons. Multiple voices offer a challenge to many young adult readers because the point of view is much more…

Suggests that educators need to accept that the young adult audience is unique and find a way to deal with it in order to create a literature from which teenagers can expect to gain a satisfying "sense of comradeship among equals." (SG)

Details a creative writing project based on "zines," which are independently created and published personal magazines. Notes challenges addressed in the project, such as composing an engaging introduction and choice of language in relation to audience. Concludes that the students were enthusiastic about the project, and were interested…

Challenges some problematic issues of grammar instruction. Transforms inconsequential discussion of nouns, adverbs, and past participles to more significant discussion about writing, access, and improving the world. Explores four activities to do with student writing other than correct grammar. (SG)