"Daily Journal Writing" Sandy Scarborough: Teacher, Grade 2

"My kids write in their journals the first thing each morning. After a few weeks of teacher-selected topics, I began to solicit ideas from my students. This has generated a lot of enthusiasm for writing. I gave each of my 22 students a plain index card and told them to think of a topic and write it on the card. The cards are placed in a small pocket chart in a stack. Each morning when we come in, I pick a card from the stack and write the journal topic of the day on the board. Students write about the topic (if they want, they also have the option of choosing a different topic, especially if they aren't familiar with the idea.) My students share their writing in class, with the child who submitted the day's topic going first. They have really enjoyed doing this, and have learned how to pick appropriate kinds of topics for writing. They've also learned about lots of different concepts from the various topics. Students are asked to choose a topic about once a month, and they look forward to thinking of something that nobody else had thought of."

"Creating Photo Essays" Kim L., High School Language Arts: Hackensack, NJ

"Photo essays are a special type of writing; they tell stories with a group of photographs that are connected to a theme. One activity using photo essays as a type of writing includes having students pick a topic (in any content area) that they would like to "write" about. Tell them that they have to collect photographs or pictures that represent the topic. Once they have their collections and you gave them a chance to discuss the relevance of the photos to the topic, ask them to arrange the photos in such a way (sequentially, etc.) that tell a story or relay the message related to the topic they chose. Students love to express their thoughts about topics using this medium. If you have technology to complete this activity, you can have students cut and paste their story using photos or images that they find on the Internet. This is a great activity for group work."

"How to Make a Big Book" Sean, Primary Grade Teacher: Pittsburgh, PA

"Pick a book with illustration, short story, rhyme, song, or poem to enlarge. Have materials like large pieces of paper or posterboard, plenty of crayons, markers, paints, or other art materials. Divide the text of the writing leaving half of the page for the illustrations (can be copied or done freehand by the children). Include an author page, illustrations, and copyright information (date, year, etc.). Have the children design a cover; put the pages in sequence; bind the book togehter with metal or plastic rings, yarn, or other binding materials."

"Create An Author’s Corner" Lydia, Inclusion Teacher: Newark, NJ

"Set up a table that becomes the “Author’s Corner” in your room. This table should be filled with different colored paper with lines, without lines. Construction paper should be available, colored pencils or washable markers. There could be pieces of material, string, feathers, anything that will provoke creativity in the students. This is the place where the students become “authors” and write books. For the younger student, a form paper can be displayed with Title, Author, Illustrator. They can fill in the blanks. A dedication page can be prepared. Again, the students can fill in the blanks. There can be an idea box to motivate students. Maybe some starter sentences. Anything that encourages children to write. The book can be 2 pages or 5 pages. The length is not important. A love for writing is the reason for this corner. Ask the students what else should be on the table. They have great ideas!"

"A Class Newspaper: Using PrintShop Premier 5 to Promote Creative Writing" Miriam Grech, Teacher

"Nearly every teacher finds it hard to encourage children to write creatively. The idea of creating a class newspaper with their own creative writings helped children not only to write creatively but to engage fully in the writing process (drafting, editing etc.) and to learn more about newspapers.

The children did create themselves a class newspaper and this is available on-line at: http://www.geocities.com/mirmt1/newspaper.html "