Demo Thoughts

After the experience of Kim's demo, I am excited, intimidated, and undecided. I had four ideas for the demo in mind, one of which was an innovative research project - thank you, Kim!! Another idea involved developing a successful method of embedding grammar into our existing projects. By "successful," I mean a measurable increase in appropriate usage. After talking with Elise, I feel certain that a great grammar idea will spark from communication with her during the summer. I am also "chewing" on a project involving in-class group writing using a wireless keyboard and projector culminating in a digital portfolio.
During this summer's process of becoming, I hope to find the words to express my delight in learning from all of you.

Dashing Demo

Have you ever felt that your head was a sort of fish bowl with ideas swimming around constantly? Perhaps it's just that it's the end of the year, but that's how I felt after Saturday. My demo ideas feel a little like that too. My original idea is having the students write historical fiction by choosing time periods or people, researching them and creating stories using their research. It's a little too close to Kim's demo. I have another idea where students interview a family member or family friend who has been out of high school for at least 30 years. They also interview other people who know the interviewee creating a sort of "oral" history of the person. This particular project develops nicely into various extensions because the students can research an event or time period that impacted their person and write about that either creatively or as a research paper. You can use the idea of episodic fiction, and students could also create their own "oral" histories. All of these assignments have had varying degrees of success for me in the past. The best one was a student researching the White Revolution in Iran and finding her uncle's picture among a group photo of student revolutionaries. That was a great story. Talk to you soon.

Demo Idea

Per Keri's request, I am posting my demo idea--or should I say ideas? One I am considering is what I call Conscious (or Integrated) and Rhetorical Grammar, a technique I developed in graduate school in 1981 and have been perfecting ever since. A second option is a demo the introduces writing centers to elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Even though promoting writing centers motivated me to join the OWP in the first place, grammar is something that also needs more emphasis, and it's FUN!

We are now an official "dot"!

I was looking for some information on the NWP website, and I took a look at the map. We are now an official red dot on the map. Congratulations to everyone!

2008 Pre-Institute Orientation

On Saturday, May 3, 19 Ozarks Writing Project Fellows met for the first time in preparation for the Summer Invitational Institute. It was a great day. In addition to the Fellows, we had some guests. Michael Frizell and Laura Burdette (TCs '08) attended. Kim Piddington, 1998 Teacher-Consultant of the UC-Irvine Writing Project, presented a demonstration on historical fiction. Hopefully, with Kim's permission, we'll get a copy of her demo on our website (see Teacher--Demonstrations).

We will be reading several books this summer, but for now, the Fellows received Breakthroughs and The Right to Write. In The Right to Write, Julia Cameron writes a short essay that ends with an "Initiation Tool." We attempted one of the initiations on Saturday. Casey passed out to each of us five postcards. We wrote one postcard to ourselves, and the other four we wrote to people we may not keep in touch with. This book will help us to focus on our writing and will help us "prime our writing pump."

Our Institute begins June 16 and ends July 11. I'll be emailing everyone, but we will not meet on Thursday, July 3, because of the holiday. (That's why we are meeting until Friday the 11th.)

Soon the '08 Fellows will be posting demo ideas and writing to the blog, so feel free to comment.

Thanks again for a great orientation. I'm looking forward to this summer!

Denver, CO Urban Sites Conference

The sign of a good conference, you're in a fabulous city and realize that you've not been out of the hotel for two days. This was exactly where I was a week ago in Denver, CO while attending the Urban Sites Network National Conference.

I must admit, I was a little nervous about telling people that I was from the Ozarks. The Ozarks hardly seems like an urban setting when compared to Chicago, NYC, Denver, or even when compared to St. Louis and Kansas City. However, if a community feels that it is urban, the Urban Sites Network recognizes it as urban. I quickly realized that, with our increasing hispanic population and the increasing diversity in area schools, we faced many of the same issues as other sites.

I knew that I was in the right place when a speaker in one of the early sessions mentioned Paolo Friere's PEDEGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED, one of my favorite books, one that I've read several times. I started writing down other titles:

• A SHORT COURSE IN WRITING, CITY SCAPES (which I had also read...here is a link to a summary http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1996 ),
• OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN: CULTURAL CONFLICT IN THE CLASSROOM (here's a link to a review of the book http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/839/Other_People.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d ),
• THE SKIN WE SPEAK: THOUGHTS ON LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE CLASSROOM,
• THE LIGHT IN THEIR EYES: CREATING A MULTICULTURAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES, there were many more.

I'll write another clip about the conference soon!!

Laura Burdette
Library Media Specialist