Advocates the analysis of student writing and improvisations as texts offering images, stories, and information about their different backgrounds, languages, histories, and cultures. Outlines how teachers can develop strategies for generating such student writing, especially through the use of improvisation. (HB)

Describes the available video resources that might be used for preservice and inservice education on literacy issues. Presents an annotated bibliography of 14 videos or video series, all of which are designed for educators and center on teaching literacy. (HB)

Describes the Nebraska Literacy Project, a 5-week workshop for K-12 teachers modeled after the Nebraska Writing Project. Shows how teachers can encourage students to look closely at their own literacy histories and their daily practices as readers and writers. Presents the literacy histories as recorded by some participants. (HB)

Describes the way one teacher created in her English classroom an environment similar to a coffeehouse. Claims that using the coffeehouse model, a class meeting devoted to students reading aloud their own creative writing provided inspiration for the students to write. (HB)

Reviews the scholarship on the connections between meditation and writing. Analyzes objections to the use of meditation in the writing classroom. Relates experiences using meditation techniques with various writing students. Suggests that writing teachers use meditation techniques with apprehensive or blocked writers. (HB)

Presents a transcript of the electronic discourse in response to Lester Faigley's recent book, "Fragments of Rationality," produced by a networked graduate seminar in composition studies. Discusses the impact of postmodernism on the composition classroom and the potential usefulness of similar networked attempts to write collaboratively.…

Describes how one English teacher developed an "I-Search Project" for high school classes that integrated literary research with peer support to create a community of writers. Shows how such a project encourages collaboration both inside and outside of the English classroom. Provides student response to the project. (HB)

Describes recent critical and theoretical works dealing with the topic of narrative and storytelling. Provides citations and brief annotations of 13 works. (HB)

Discusses the recent efforts to expand literary studies into numerous allied fields and the possible effects that such attempts toward interdisciplinarity and internationalism might have. Warns against possible negative consequences of interdisciplinary approaches. Calls for an expanded view of English as a field of study. (HB)

Advocates providing students more control in the writing assessment process of English classrooms. Describes how two teachers developed methods allowing students participation, individually and in peer groups, in writing assessment. Compares student criteria with Pennsylvania Department of Education criteria. (HB)

Provides description and analysis of numerous adolescent novels that all deal with human rights issues in a variety of cultures and national settings. Focuses on works by James Watson and Rachel Anderson. Claims that using such works honestly will foster in students a hopeful sense of motivation. (HB)

Studies the currently influential theories about the nature and development of the child. Questions whether these theories usefully inform educational work with specific children in particular locations. Considers how these theories affect writing instruction for children and criticizes their effects on real children. (HB)

Describes how the English department at Roger Williams University set out to revise and revive the English major under difficult circumstances during the 1988-89 school year. Shows how the faculty redesigned the curriculum, recruited new majors, and established support programs. (HB)

Considers the profound impact of severe budget cuts on the English department at Portland State University. Describes some of the surprising and peculiar types of behavior among faculty members resulting from intense departmental changes. Provides advice for chairs facing similar budget restrictions. (HB)

Discusses the seemingly contradictory nature of chairing an English department by highlighting the opposing impulses faced, especially as related to funding. Presents the situation in the form of a parable similar to a work by Franz Kafka. (HB)