This is a webpage from UCLA's Office of Instructional Development. It talks about the different things an instructor can do to encourage class discussion and make students feel comfortable enough in their class environment to share their ideas. The webpage mentions tips like really getting to know the students, calling on them by name and having them refer to each other by name, breaking students up into groups of 3-4 people, and how to handle disagreeing with your students when they do share. Other than how to stimulate discussion, the webpage also covers asking effective questions and the cycle of feedback.

This is an article by Frank Mcguire on (obviously) different strategies that are supposed to empower students and build confidence in their writing. The article starts out with the quote that we have all heard before, "It's so hard to put my thoughts on paper." The strategies listed include how to effectively implement a writing journal, the structure of assignments, discussions, positive feedback, peer tutoring, etc. The author goes through specific ways to make each of the strategies work, in order to create an effective and fun classroom environment.

This is a .pdf file of a sort of slide show on classroom environment. It looks pretty cheesy when you first open it, but I went all the way through and found some good points. A lot of the content would work best with younger grades, but I think that it is totally applicable to high school levels, too. It focuses on creating a warm, welcoming environment that students WANT to be in. They suggest making changes in decoration, layout, movement, temperature, etc.

This webpage is presented on the Texas A&M University website. It is all about low-stakes writing, and how it helps the students develop their ideas and write more freely. It beings with a description of low-stakes writing, and the ways in which a teacher would have this type of writing in their class (including how to grade, types of assignments, etc). The web page stresses the importance of feedback on the students' writing, and also says that the feedback can come from a number of sources, not just the teacher. It suggests responses from peers, the writing center, or the student themselves.

This article was written by Lawrence Musgrove, an associate professor of English and foreign language at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois. In the article he talks about a lot of the same problems that we have been touching on in class with concerns to first year English composition classes. After a quick discussion of the issues with English composition, he goes into his proposal for a solution. He first conjured up a metaphor between writing and driving. Bad driving has very concrete consequences, and Musgrove thinks that writing should, too. His proposal is centered on professors issuing students "writing tickets" that can be cleared up by attending workshops, seminars, revising their paper, or any other writing task their professor deems sufficient. While reading the responses posted after his article, I noticed that his ideas drew attention from all sorts of different people. People from all different professions and backgrounds (high school students, business men, elementary teachers, etc) had a variety of things to say. Some people loved his idea, and others heavily disputed it. I found that the responses generated were as resourceful as the article itself.