Describes a conferenced writing program in a suburban St. Louis high school. Asserts that this kind of instruction is not merely the utopian ideal of writing teachers but a method that can and should be implemented in all schools. (PRA)

Describes how students can help evaluate each other in discussion groups and how this improves their writing. Asserts that students appreciate the scrutiny of the conferences and take their own writing much more seriously as a result. Describes this technique in the context of a high school writing workshop. (PRA)

Describes a course in which students learn to write rich, accurate, precise, objective description, develop a sensitivity to honest, uninflated language, and demonstrate these skills by producing an action proposal. Describes the three sections of the course: objective description, lessons in language, and grand proposals. (PRA)

Defines technical writing, the importance of audience awareness, and the fog index. Analyzes examples of technical writing and tips on developing skills such as writing instructions and assembling a model. Offers assignments and projects as well as class activities. (PRA)

Describes four essay assignments in a sequence on experts that deal with sharing expertise, defining expertise, interviewing an expert, and seeing teachers as experts. Asserts that these assignments result in writing that is no longer the recapitulation of information received from experts but is communication notable for the quality of its…

Describes a research paper assignment that emphasizes the process and involves three kinds of research: reflecting, interviewing, and reading. Outlines the four stages of the process--introspection, modeling synthesis, brainstorm outlining, and peer critiquing. (PRA)

Describes a teacher's experience with a research paper assignment in which the project remained in the students' hands from start to finish. Notes the students' reactions to the project, and the teacher's struggle to redefine her role. Discusses the students' follow-up journals and some of the surprises along the way. (PRA)

Provides the responses of five teachers to the problem of providing a variety of recent short stories, poems, essays and other shorter works for students without violating copyright restrictions. Offers such solutions as using home-grown literature, other students' stories, favorite classroom magazines, old copies of venerable magazines, and…

Reviews 24 books for youthful readers by several authors. Stresses Gary Paulsen's idea that the richness of the "poem" which readers create as they read text is largely a product of the information that they bring to it. (PRA)

Provides 14 high school teachers' responses the question, "Who is your favorite writer of detective fiction?" Finds that Tony Hillerman is the most popular. Features other favorites such as Ellis Peters, Dorothy Sayers, Janwillem van de Wettering, James Melville, K. C. Constantine, Amanda Cross, Jane Langton, Ross MacDonald, Robert B. Parker, Sue…

Shares a unit on modern Chinese literature for high school students which was planned with the goal of students being able to read Chinese literature with something more than Western eyes. (MG)

Shares an African tale about crossing cultural boundaries which the author shares with his eighth grade class at the beginning of each year. (MG)

Explores how students (through an awareness of literary archetypes and journal writing) can use African stories to cross cultures, time, and continents, making connections between their worlds and the worlds of others. (MG)

Argues that the polarized nature of the apartheid system requires that students must encounter and examine South African literature which represents viewpoints from different racial perspectives. Recommends several pairs of books which can be studied successfully in conjunction. (MG)

Suggests using Mtutuzeli Matshoba's "Call Me Not a Man" as the central text in a unit on oppression to help students understand and make them better able to respond to oppression. Provides key questions for structuring the unit to help students consider aspects of oppression that they might otherwise neglect. (MG)