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Presented as a conversation rather than as a single-voiced academic paper, this paper describes the three people's experiences with experimental academic writing as students and as teachers. It describes such writing (or autobiographical scholarship) as a hybrid blend of autobiographical bits and scholarship, writing and reading, public and private, accessibility and specificity which is inspired by or collaborates with feminist, anti-elitist, multi-ethnic, reader-response, ecocritical, and postmodern theories. The paper then describes teaching experimental kinds of writing alongside more traditional forms, and notes that experimental writing helps students who have felt less engaged with standard academic writing to discover voices they had closeted and enables them to enter the conversation where conformity to standard approaches had left them mute. According to the paper, the writing teachers have also noted that experimental writing draws students into what they are writing about in interesting ways. It is then noted that experimental writing raises new questions about evaluating writing--evaluating experimental writing requires more dialogue with the writer to understand the experiment. The paper concludes that although experimental writing requires more dialogue with students, teachers think of their students more as writers and the students respond more as writers--with skills, knowledge, intention, and an ability and desire to learn and to use writers' tools. (RS)

A technique for teaching writing in academic English as a second language (ESL) to students bound for college-level courses focuses on one essential reading and writing skill: using multiple sources as input for writing. The program is designed for any level and consists of a series of readings and a number of questions, the answers to which become successive paragraphs or sections in a final paper. The procedure for developing such a unit includes: selection of a topic of interest to the class; location of three sources of appropriate difficulty from among ESL reading texts; narrowing the topic to one that can be covered through use of the sources; deciding on the procedure to be followed in organizing the topic (what questions can or should be answered and in what order); reviewing the resources to assure that at least two contain information relevant to each question; distributing the questions to the students in sequential order; giving each student access to all sources; having the students take notes from the sources; having students write a first draft essay answer to each question, using only their notes; and having students put the pieces together to form a whole essay from the revised and edited sections. (MSE)

The teaching activities presented in this paper focus on expanding children's language. The paper describes (1) a "community journal" activity in which students recorded observations about events occurring in various parts of the classroom, (2) a poetry assignment using Richard Wilbur's book of poetry, "Opposites," (3) an exercise to assemble individual book pages into a proper story, using group interaction, (4) a descriptive exercise involving observations of everyday objects, such as fruits and vegetables, and (5) a poetry exercise using verbs to describe an unnamed object. (HTH)

This collection of 10 essays argues that portfolios in the writing classroom are worth exploring and that such exploration opens up new opportunities: new ways to learn to write, to think about teaching writing, to understand students, teachers, and curricula, and to describe and report on what is found. The collection makes this argument by sharing the stories of teachers in various situations: teachers alone, teachers as team members, and teachers concerned with administration as well as learning. Three key points are made: that portfolios should be designed locally by teachers and students; that they require periodic review; and that through such reviews more can be learned about writing and its teaching. The articles and authors are as follows: (1) Introduction: Writing Portfolios--Changes and Challenges (Catharine Lucas); (2) Teacher's Stories: Notes toward a Portfolio Pedagogy (Kathleen Blake Yancey); (3) Increasing Student Autonomy through Portfolios (Sue Ellen Gold); (4) Portfolio Practice in the Middle School: One Teacher's Story (James E. Newkirk); (5) Portfolios: Process for Students and Teachers (Catherine D'Aoust); (6) Looking into Portfolios (Sandra Murphy and Mary Ann Smith); (7) Portfolio Reflections in Middle and Secondary School Classrooms (Roberta Camp); (8) Writing Portfolios in Secondary Schools (David Kneeshaw); (9) Portfolio Practice and Assessment for Collegiate Basic Writers (Irwin Weiser); and (10) Portfolios in the Writing Classroom: A Final Reflection (Kathleen Blake Yancey). A 39-item annotated bibliography of resources on portfolios for teaching and assessment concludes the volume. (SR)

Contributed by English teachers across the United States, the activities contained in this booklet are intended to promote the effective teaching of writing and literature. Teaching strategies offered in the first section of the booklet are designed to stimulate language exploration and include activities in which students write family newspapers that include the proper journalistic components; use clustering to write poetry; and use a variety of artistic media to illustrate the landscape of Dante's "Inferno." Activities in the second section, which are designed to stimulate an appreciation and understanding of literature, include discussions in which students cast actors to star in novels the class is studying; select a dozen powerful quotations from Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" and then investigate how Stephen Spielberg treated these passages in his film of the novel; and adopt journalistic roles that enable them to produce a historical newspaper from a time and place depicted in a novel. Teaching ideas in the third section provide the means for students to learn about various stages of the writing process. These include activities in which students become consumer reporters; engage in mocked-up conversations for practice in writing dialogue; and make "poetry earrings" by writing pithy metaphoric statements or haikus on small, rectangular pieces of paper. (SAM)

In 1990, Moraine Valley Community College conducted a study of writing centers at community colleges belonging to the League for Innovation in the Community College. The survey was designed to gather information on the staffing, facilities, services, operations, budget, and evaluation of writing centers. Questionnaires were sent to and returned by 15 colleges, with 2 college districts returning more than one survey. Major findings of the survey were as follows: (1) 13 colleges reported that their campus had a writing center; (2) directors of writing centers were faculty members at six and administrators at two institutions; (3) more than half of the writing centers employed full-time faculty (69%) and student tutors (62%), while less than half were staffed by part-time faculty (46%) and para-professional tutors (39%); (4) all writing centers offered assistance with writing or revising term papers or research projects, and the majority offered help with word processing (63%) or computer usage (54%); (5) writing centers served an average of 47 students daily; (6) the average salary for a writing center director was $25,823 a year, while para-professional staff earned an average of $8.26 per hour and tutors earned an average of $4.73 per hour; (7) all writing centers notified instructors if a student used a writing center to complete a writing assignment; (8) respondents reported that the availability of a writing center did improve the quality of student writing; and (9) plans to improve writing centers included moving to a larger or better location; increasing the number of staff, computers, or equipment; and the development of a writing across the curriculum program. A directory of writing centers and the questionnaire are attached. (JMC)

All content areas utilize the four basic skills--reading, writing, arithmetic, and oral communication. Children's literature can be used to teach these skills for four reasons: (1) there is a children's book for every concept to be taught; (2) children enjoy reading; (3) children's literature can be used to teach content, process, values, and attitudes; and (4) children's literature can be used to explore and clarify a child's subjective personal values and attitudes. Wordless picture books, drama, enjoyable series books, and books about language and words can be used to teach reading. Children's books can also be used in a variety of ways to provide a stimulus for writing. Many children's books can motivate students to explore math in new and practical ways. Finally, to understand the newest basic skill, oral communication, we must realize that we communicate for a variety of functions--informing, feeling, ritualizing, and imagining--and that communication competence involves four abilities: repertoire of experiences, selecting strategies, implementing strategies, and evaluating performances. Children's literature can aid the child in developing oral communication competence through listening to stories, telling stories, creative drama experiences, use of puppets, discussing the story with peers, and answering questions about the story in class discussions. (Suggested titles are included.) (JL)

To teach creative writing effectively, teachers must be writers themselves and be willing to pass on their tricks of the trade to students. Conducted to determine what structures existed to help teachers pass on their skills, a survey of creative writing in high schools in the Chicago suburban area revealed a continuum, with only one school having no emphasis at all on creative writing, and no school matching the large, structured program of the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. Most schools did teach creative writing, in regular English classes, creative writing courses, or both. Enrichment programs included media programs, guest speakers, and writer workshops. A majority of the schools published a literary magazine at least once a year and took part in writing contests. Funding usually came from English departments or from sales of literary magazines. To improve existing creative writing programs, talented writers need to be identified early and then encouraged to gain as much creative writing experience as possible, perhaps in formal creative writing or honors courses or through participation in contests. In this way, upper level creative writing courses will serve as advanced courses. Given the favorable attitudes revealed in a departmental poll, the necessary nucleus of committed teachers for such a writing program could be found. Enrichment activities that build a good writing tradition by involving and rewarding students are the final component of an improved creative writing structure. (Includes questionnaires and charts of results.) (JL)

The writing assignments developed for a course in expository writing intended for gifted eighth grade students are described in this paper. The first assignment described is a causal analysis essay that required the students to examine events from their lives or from newspaper articles and analyze the causes of the actions involved. The paper details the prewriting activities that accompanied this assignment, including "content helpers," which were designed to help the students discover errors in causal reasoning, and "writing stimulators," which asked the students to examine their past behavior, present condition, or future choices and to make connections among experiences and ideas. The second assignment described in the paper is a research project that required the students to interview someone and closely observe and analyze the responses. The last assignment described required the students to locate and analyze a problem and to offer solutions to that problem. Copies of student essays illustrating each assignment are included. (FL)

A response to the educator's confusion over how to teach critical thinking skills through writing, the writing process model described in this paper underlines the close ties among cognitive, language, and writing skills. Guiding writing assignments in all content areas, the model involves students in reflection and discussion as they move from prewriting strategies to first draft, revision, proof reading and final paper. Based on this model, a writing assignment would establish a purpose and an audience (other than the teacher/editor) and would use warmup games as part of brainstorming activities; interactive discussions of paper topics and sample essays to help students refine and organize their ideas; and peer and teacher reactions to rough drafts to encourage self-assessment and to help students generate their own thoughtful questions about their writing. (MM)

Representing fresh, useful ideas for teaching English gathered at several annual conventions of the National Council of Teachers of English, the 11 chapters of this book contain 200 activities in the following categories: (1) getting ready to write; (2) expressive writing, including autobiographical and journal writing; (3) informative writing, including writing for readers other than the teacher, and research and the research paper; (4) tricks of the writing teacher's trade; (5) revision, review, and evaluation; (6) word study, vocabulary development, and spelling; (7) punctuation and grammar; (8) speaking and listening; (9) newspapers, magazines, and the visual arts; (10) talking and writing about literature; and (11) classroom management, including organizing the classroom--the students, bulletin boards, and the first five minutes as well as the last. (JL)

The teaching activities presented in this document focus on motivating students in the classroom. The paper describes (1) using stick figures to teach the use of adjectives, (2) using pen names in a covert letter writing project to teach writing skills, (3) increasing creativity in composition topics by brainstorming about ways to use bricks, and (4) testing powers of observation and knowledge of how people act by listing five specific actions observed in pantomine. (EL)

Reflecting current practices in the teaching of writing, the exercises in this compilation were drawn from the journal "Exercise Exchange." The articles are arranged into six sections: sources for writing; prewriting; modes for writing; writing and reading; language, mechanics, and style; and revising, responding, and evaluating. Among the topics covered in the more than 75 exercises are the following: (1) using the Tarot in the composition class; (2) writing for a real audience; (3) writing and career development; (4) teaching the thesis statement through description; (5) sense exploration and descriptive writing; (6) composition and adult students; (7) free writing; (8) in-class essays; (9) moving from prewriting into composing; (10) writing as thinking; (11) values clarification through writing; (12) persuasive writing; (13) the relationship of subject, writer, and audience; (14) business writing; (15) teaching the research paper; (16) writing in the content areas; (17) writing from literature; (18) responding to literature via inquiry; (19) precision in language usage; (20) grammar instruction; (21) topic sentences; (22) generating paragraphs; (23) writing style; (24) peer evaluation; and (25) writing-course final examinations. (FL)

The teaching activities presented in the four journal columns extracted here focus on understanding and writing poetry. The first column (by Carol Case) presents an introduction to poetry unit containing five preliminary steps designed to help students develop an understanding of poetry. The second column (by Carol Anderson) describes a week of poetry writing and revision, which includes writing a "beautiful words" poem, a "group" poem, a "first line" poem, and a "creature" poem. The third column (by Sandra Fisher) presents three poetry writing assignments: (1) writing a rhymed acrostic poem in which the first letter of each line, reading vertically downward, spells the student's name; (2) writing a couplet advertising a favorite food, place, or product; and (3) writing "paper bag" poetry (a game using a random collection of words). The fourth column (by Collette Luscombe) presents two poetry writing formulas that any students, regardless of grade level, can use. (EL)

Observation and investigation indicate that academic writing tasks are generally quite different from those required in standard English composition courses, with respect to both process and product. Writing instruction in English as a second language should prepare students for subject-matter writing tasks, focusing less on pure composition. Academic writing tasks require little generating of ideas, but do require selecting, organizing, and expressing specific information, either in response to an essay question or in an informative paper where there is little room for personal opinion. Classroom writing exercises found to be effective in producing transferable writing skills in students include: (1) sentence combining exercises of a paragraph that provide a check on reading comprehension, elicit specific grammar points, convey information, and model suitable information and organization types; (2) writing from data in non-prose form; (3) sentence forming from lists of bits of information; (4) reading selections in preparation for answering questions; and (5) writing from lectures, with or without accompanying readings. (MSE)