Describes a writing assignment designed to help students with the frequently strange and foreboding job of writing a poem. Discusses how one student and the teacher worked through the assignment. (RS)

Argues that through poetry students can give voices to people whose voices usually do not find their ways into their classrooms or textbooks. Discusses poetry and literature, poetry in history, and personalizing poetry. (RS)

Discusses a women's literature course designed to explore the connections between the narratives that students read and discuss and the narratives that they live and write. Examines a variety of sources, including fiction, biography, autobiography, literary criticism, history, psychology, sociology, and popular culture. (RS)

Discusses the use of testimonials (edited oral narratives collected from people who by their circumstances cannot write about their experiences firsthand) in the English classroom. States that teaching testimonial narratives leads students to ask challenging questions about priorities in literature classes and their everyday experiences. (RS)

Describes an autobiography writing assignment. State that the resulting texts are entertaining, enlightening, and contain facts and anecdotes that reflect the personalities of the authors. (RS)

Discusses a writing assignment in which students write biographies comprised of literary genres such as dialogues, poems, newspaper articles, obituaries, songs, and letters. (RS)

Describes a class activity in which students research and then impersonate famous people (living or dead) for an interview conducted by the teacher in front of the class. (RS)

Describes a class activity designed to play up the blurred boundary between fiction and nonfiction. Notes that students filled out Internal Revenue Service tax forms for people who might exist and that other students created biographies and autobiographies from the fictitious tax forms. (RS)

Describes an activity in which parents and students write together about their childhoods. States that parents and students offered positive comments about the activity. Notes that the parents were supportive of their students' writing for the rest of the school year. (RS)

Offers eight rules for minimizing the danger of writing teachers "showing off" their writing to students during in-class analysis. (RS)

Discusses 10 reasons to end the senior year of high school with Bernard Malamud's novel "The Natural." (RS)

Advocates inclusion of Marianne Wiggins' novel "John Dollar" in high school reading lists and literature classes. Notes that the novel is an allegory rich in poetic suggestion, metaphorical language, and symbolic meaning. (RS)

Argues that excerpts from the literary canon and from contemporary nonfiction should be included in secondary education textbooks of the future, contrary to the opinion of militant whole language supporters. (RS)

Discusses a role-playing scenario designed to introduce the concepts of audience and purpose to business and technical communication students. Notes that, although the scenario has reduced the frequency of the question "Did I miss anything important?" from absentee students, the scenario has not helped the instructor to understand why the students…

Presents eight teachers' accounts of professional growth activities designed to empower teachers to make choices for professional renewal according to their individual needs and interests. (RS)