The Quarterly
Vol. 21, No. 2, 1999
Assessing Computers for Writing: Stepping Back to Move Forward
By Stephen Marcus
Marcus considers from numerous angles—and without providing a definite answer—the question "Do word processors improve writing skills?" ....
Book Review: Engaging Ideas, by John C. Bean
By Mary Beth Culp
Culp finds Bean's "aptly named" text will help instructors plan assignments that provoke exploratory writing and creativity as well as promote more successful academic writing....
Book Review: Today You Are My Favorite Poet, by Geof Hewitt
By Patricia McGonegal
McGonegal interviews Hewitt, focusing on strategies like the "Chart of Infinite Variables" and "Idea Wheel" that nudge students toward writing poetry....
Book Review: Vision and Voice: Extending the Literacy Spectrum, by Linda Rief
By Nancy Kersell
Kersell finds Rief's text "a useful guidebook for reawakening our imaginations to the power of artistic expression in all its forms and sharing this appreciation with our students....
Cat Watching: Six Easy Steps to Classroom Poetry
By Scott Peterson
Peterson has developed a process for setting students up to write poetry, one that he practices himself and details here....
Four Principles Toward Teaching the Craft of Revision
By Mark Farrington
It Ain't Just Quaint
By Anna Collins Trest
Just Give Me a Chance
By Richard Mann
Mann draws a parallel between his experience as a young, overlooked baseball player who finally gets a chance to perform and his understanding that all students have the potential to achieve in their own way....
Mina P. Shaughnessey: Her Life and Work, by Jane Maher
By Melanie Hammer
Hammer reviews this biography of the influential author of Errors and Expectations, finding that Maher creates a three-dimensional portrait of the woman who was in some ways "the mother of all developmental educators....
Partial Successes and Limited Failures: Recognizing the Dissonances in our Teacherly Talk
By Jane Greer
Greer points to the work of 19th century educator Marian Wharton as providing a model that shows how we can allow multiple and contradictory stories of teaching and learning to coexist....
Teaching the Most Important Things
By Don Gallehr
Gallehr says the most important things he teaches are "love of writing, learning the writer's mind, fitting the writing into your dream, and building on what works....
The Truth About Lightning Bugs: What Our Children Know
By Kim Patterson
Patterson argues that students from rural and economically deprived backgrounds come to school with valuable experience to share....
They Will Choose to Learn: An Alternative to the Lock-Step Classroom
By Jon Appleby
Appleby provides a series of short case studies documenting his work with troubled learners to make the case that individualized learning provides a route to success for these students and, by implication, for all students....
