Classics in the Classroom presents practical ways to use great literature to inspire imaginative writing by young people and others. The great literature discussed in this volume includes myths, epics, lyric poems, plays, stories, and novels, from ancient Sumeria, Greece, Rome, and Persia, and from Europe, Japan, Africa, and the United States. Authors presented include Homer, Sappho, Aristophanes, Ovid, Catullus, Rumi, Shakespeare, Basho, Shelley, Charlotte Bronte, Kleist, Twain, and Hesse. Also discussed are works such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and Beowulf. The 19 informal essays in this book offer useful ideas and approaches taken directly from the contributors' own teaching experience.

This book contains 33 creative writers presenting ideas and techniques for exploring poetry writing, fiction writing, translation, practical aesthetics, creative reading and the imagination. Selected from the very best articles in Teachers & Writers Magazine over 17 years, this two volumes (sold separately) offers a comprehensive multitude of ideas and techniques for writing in the classroom

In the two volumes of Educating The Imagination, fifty-five creative writers present a multitude of ideas and techniques for writing in the classroom: poetry writing; fiction writing; playwriting; writing about folklore, history, and science; translation and writing across cultures; bookmaking; writing parodies; the importance of stories; practical aesthetics; creative reading; funny experiences with words; the history of punctuation; memories of high school English teachers and other legendary figures; and that great, alluring, dangerous, delightful mystery known as the imagination. The seventy-two informal essays come from the past seventeen years of "Teachers & Writers" magazine, with practical ideas and exercises that are still fresh, useful, and inspiring. Educating The Imagination invites us to take a new look at the imagination and the ways it can enrich our classrooms and our lives. These ideas and exercises are as appropriate for the small group workshop and the individual aspiring writer at home, as they are for the formal curriculum of classroom instruction. -- Midwest Book Review

In the years before he wrote War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy founded and ran a school on his estate at Yasanya Polyana. Brimming with progressive and sometimes radical ideas on schooling, Tolstoy undertook to teach the peasant children many subjects-including imaginative writing-and wrote about what he learned. This is a book for anyone who cares about education.

This popular book, in which writers share the assignments that never fail to inspire their students, covers a broad spectrum of genres pertinent to the core curricula of school boards across the country. Lessons on diversity, Greek epic and non-classical literature will all do well by Christian McEwen's essay on preparing students for creating oral histories. But there are plenty of creative exercises on fiction, poetry, playwriting and memoir, here, to inspire teachers and engage students. Samples of student writing are included. "Highly recommended." -Kliatt.