Notes that when composition instruction engages students in collaborative inquiry and problem solving, it engages students in rehearsing the active processes of writing arguments, and moves from teacher-led work to group work to independent production. Describes several classroom strategies and procedures that will enable them to be productive…

Discusses the writing of poetry in middle school content classrooms as a link between content area concepts and writing to learn. Describes several poem types, includes poetry samples, and discusses special concerns in implementing poetry writing. (JPB)

Suggests that despite culturally induced aversions, aromas do have a role to play in writing instruction. Suggest there are many examples in literature of authors' treatment of the olfactory sense. Argues that emphasizing smell as a writing stimulant and encouraging olfactory analyses of literary works can serve as valid ways of introducing…

Popcorn story frames from a multicultural perspective are holistic outlines that in the reading/writing process facilitate comprehension for all cultures learning to read and write stories. Popcorn story frames are structured and modeled in a horizontal fashion just like popcorn pops in a horizontal fashion. The frames are designed for learners…

To become writers, students must see themselves as writers and be treated as writers by their teachers. Students need to find the motivation to go beyond formulas, to grapple with messy, often inchoate ideas, to find their own particular angle of vision. What rhetoricians call "invention" or "discovery" is difficult to pin…

Freewriting, according to Peter Elbow, is based on an equal affirmation of the student's experience, and his or her right to ground behaviors and writing in those experiences. Insofar as the term "free" in freewriting can be linked to a notion that expression is an event which occurs between a socially and culturally autonomous subject…

In this article, the author notes that it is not an uncommon scenario for a student assigned an argumentative paper in the composition classroom to appropriate a "hot" topic from the currency of public discourse, one for which they often already have a pre-formed opinion that becomes codified simultaneously with the need to formulate a…

A course in speech writing (preparing speeches for delivery by another person) is critical to the development of public speaking skills for college students. Unlike the traditional public speaking course, speech writing classes emphasize the preparation of the content of a speech over the delivery of the message. Students develop the ability to…

This article suggests one way of categorizing types of factual writing and introduces a teaching strategy for developing students' awareness of structural and language features of many factual genres. It is based on genre theory and the idea that generic structures of texts are determined by the purpose of the text. Six nonfiction genres are…

States that persuasion as a discourse mode in composition classrooms tends to emphasize conflict and polarize students' positions. Proposes a "negotiative" mode of writing, focusing on the reader to achieve a cooperative settlement to opposing argument positions. Uses strategies including dialogic styles and structures that address issues of…

Describes how the author asks students to turn off their monitors (literally and figuratively) and key into their "processors." Describes a tactile writing exercise to emphasize the sensation, the feel, that "writing with flow" generates. Notes that this experience of flow is vital to his vocation as a writer and as a writing instructor. (SG)

Describes an introductory creative writing lesson in which students gave low grades to passages they later learned were written by William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Reports that the students graded mainly on mechanics and grammar (and very little on content). Notes that students began to learn to manipulate the various aspects of writing. (RS)

Reports on teaching strategies that strengthen students' reading skills in identifying how autobiographical writers signal specific purposes. Notes that students benefit from making stronger links between their reading and writing. (SR)

Describes a first-day assignment for writing courses called a "writing autobiography" in which the student is asked to identify and assess their own strengths and weaknesses as writers. Argues for the value of having students consider their processes as writers. (HB)

Describes a research project which studied how spoken and written language interweave and overlap and the teacher's power to promote literacy through talk. Describes the entire process, including the original interest in the subject, the formulation of the research question, the collection of data, and writing and teaching strategies that resulted…