Asking students to describe an unrecognizable portion of an artifact sharpened their powers of observation.

Sequent occupance'' is one of the fundamental geographical concepts explored in the American High School Geography Project. Its investigation involved the use of a variety of local source materials, often historical in their nature but significant in their geographical implications. One method of approach for school use is here illustrated by the…

Describes methods developed for a fourth- through sixth- grade writers' workshop designed to teach children to write within certain common structures. Separate workshop sessions dealt with descriptive writing, mood, characterization, adventure stories, tall tales, plays, autobiography, and reporting. (AEA)

Displays student work in "portrait exercises"--writing designed to give students a feel for characterization and to prepare them for future writing. (RL)

Seven methods for helping students find theme topics are presented in this document. The methods include the following: setting up a library browsing table of records, books, and criticism related to the work of literature that is being studied; permitting students to choose topics based on observation of the surrounding community or reactions to…

There is a logical sequence in the steps of a freshman English course, the goal of which is the comprehension of the writing process and a readiness to move forward with that process. Students must first learn prewriting--an outpouring on paper of every thought connected with a given topic. This is followed by selecting ideas, formulating a…

This paper examines technical writing at the high school level and suggests methods of teaching technical writing to students. Such topics are discussed as demonstration, mechanism description, causal analysis, detail, spatial order, and chronological order. It is argued that writing about objects can sharpen a writer's powers of observation and…

Teaching students to use specific details is perhaps the college writing teacher's most troublesome job. Much time and effort is wasted by marking students' papers with comments such as "specify,""details,""illustrate," or "demonstrate." Significant concrete details should occur to a writer before the generalization does, since the best kind of…

Describes how the four traditional kinds of writing (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are used in advertising and suggests ways that advertising and the four modes may be used to teach composition. (DD)

Brief individual conferences between teacher and student during the course of writing a composition helps the student to clarify his or her thinking on the topic, thus improving writing skills and developing enthusiasm and pleasure in written communication. (JD)

Presents a writing exercise which stimulates college freshmen's imaginations and suits adolescents' interest in a favorite subject for composition--themselves. (JM)

Describes reviewing the basics of descriptive writing by having students compare the images described in E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake," with those in the film "On Golden Pond." Students then write a descriptive paragraph, from an internal or external perspective, about a magazine advertisement chosen for its sensory appeal. (HTH)

Discusses the preperation necessary for children's poetic expression of creativity, the teachers role and the process by which the children can be aided to write poetry. (RB)

Suggests ways to help students revise their written compositions by teaching them to "see" their work again. (DF)

Presents suggestions for teaching students about poetry by using pets. The article recommends discussing poems about pets, writing with rhyme to describe pets, writing free-verse sketches about pets, collaboratively describing pets, and studying line breaks by writing one-line descriptions of imaginary pets. A reproducible teacher page offers two…