 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelle Rogge Gannon, USD,
Vermillion
DWP writing marathon draws teachers from all over the stateAlthough I'm not exactly objective, I think that the DWP 2002 Fall Reunion Writing Marathon was a success! We met in Arts and Sciences room 103 on the USD-Vermillion campus at 10 a.m.,, Saturday, September 28th. We started the day by choosing groups. I then read aloud an excerpt of Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, in which he describes writing a story at a cafe. Then, we all wrote for ten minutes, discussed how the marathon would work (maps included), and shared the initial writing in our small groups.Then, the group left and roamed Vermillion to do more writing! One group wrote at Spirit Mound eight miles outside Vermillion, braving the grey, rain-any-second-now skies. Others tried the charms of downtown Vermillion with the Coffee Shop Gallery and Chae's. Some teachers tried the Buffalo Run Winery at the west end of Vermillion, while others chose the Shakespeare Garden on the USD campus. (And no doubt there are other locations I haven't heard about yet!) The writers in each group produced three more pieces of writing, shared them with their group members without comment, and then return to our classroom on campus. Next, we each selected one piece of our own writing to share with the entire group of nineteen. The writing was truly wonderful. (Many of these pieces were later published in a DWP newsletter-style anthology.) Toward the end of the marathon, we ran short of time in that magical way where you feel like lingering and talking more . . . thus, we also asked the marathoners to submit messages on the DWP list, reflecting on this experience, some of which are included below. Nineteen teachers attended the marathon, including Crystal Benning (Madison), Lori Burton (Yankton), Cathie Carlson (Sioux Falls), Michele Fleer (Mission Hill), Michelle Rogge Gannon (Vermillion), Laurie Girard (Vermillion), Debbie Harrison (Fort Pierre), Carol Hefling (Brookings), Sara Hefling (Brookings), Nancy Kampfe (Martin), Dennis "Lars" Larson (Aberdeen), Lil Manthei (Kyle), Sue Morrell (Wagner), Sharon Olbertson (Beresford), Valerie Parsley (Madison), Jessica Peterson (Brookings), Stefanie Rysdahl (Sioux Falls), Mary Tranberg (Sioux Falls), and Nancy Zuercher (Vermillion). Special thanks to Nancy Zuercher for making this happen and for providing yummy, homemade brownies, fruit, and refreshments. This event was inspired by own participation in two writing marathons this year--at the National Writing Project Design Team's annual meeting in Philadelphia in February 2001 and at the NWP's Rural Institute in Burlington, Vermont this summer. After participating in those two marathons and carefully reading the New Orleans Marathon article published in a recent issue of The Quarterly (see http://nwp.edgateway.net/pub/nwpr/quarterly/2002no1/louth.html), I felt confident enough to try it with the DWP. And the DWP bunch was ripe for it. This group of teachers can write their fannies off! Some DWP marathon reflections: "We are indeed all writers and we write for ourselves, yet we are risktakers who deal with both personal subjects and professional issues with real class." --Nancy Kampfe "To have devoted these hours to the time for writing was a monumental tribute to our need for professional contact and a reflection of our desire to write. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the marathon, as a writer and as a teacher. --Sue Morrell "Something that stands out for is that the time flew. I didn't want the day to be over, and I loved hearing what everyone wrote. We ARE writers. I liked working in small groups and having control over where we went and what we wrote about. I would have loved to comment on others' writing. --Valerie Parsley "I appreciated not commenting because then all of us were equal and one message did not stick out more than others. --Stefanie Rysdahl "I couldn't help but think that these teachers not only have tremendous insights, but that their ability to share these thoughts are squandered by all the distracting activities they are forced to do in their daily work. Teachers' talents are frequently WASTED by the very situations that should be taking advantage of them! I'm proud to be in a profession with these perceptive writers! --Sharon Olbertson "The opportunity to write without restraint was a plus." --Dennis "Lars" Larson "The DWP Marathon reminded
me of how writing helps me figure out what I'm thinking." --Mary Tranberg
Marcia Votaw, Roosevelt H.S., Sioux Falls Un-expectations: 2002 DWP Institute teachers develop a close-knit community
Because I have survived and even flourished in various new experiences in my life, I was excited and anxious when I received my invitation to participate in the Dakota Writing Project's 2002 Summer Institute. Could I hold my own with the caliber of people who would be there? Could I find a carpool to help pass the long daily commute? Would I struggle to stay interested as I have in former workshops? With these thoughts in mind, I arrived at the DWP Institute with a few preconceived ideas. However, this summer's institute has been full of unexpected surprises. First and most outstanding has been the sense of community that has developed within the group. Ranging in age from 25 to 64 years and teaching from second grade to technical school, we could fulfill many diversity group requirements. Our personalities and teaching styles are as varied as our classrooms. However, the strong bond that connects us is our love of teaching and our passion for our students. It has been refreshing to spend time with like-minded, intelligent, idea-seeking teachers; we freely share ideas that have worked, as well as our frustrations. It is this spirit of camaraderie and affirmation that has fostered a sense of trust and affinity. Lunch finds many of us on blankets outside enjoying the weather and discussing our personal and professional lives. Our blanket fellowship has led to the planning of a get-together, caravaning to Sioux Falls for a home-cooked meal and an evening of games and fellowship. The sense of community has been most serendipitous. Teaching is too often an isolating experience, so it has been rejuvenating to chat and share experiences and lesson plans with other teachers. Sherri brought me her entire unit on Anne Frank to peruse and even burned a CD of a Power Point presentation she uses. Pam shared her master's project with anyone who asked. LeeAnn made copies of handouts she uses in class for everyone. This openness and generosity in networking has been such a gift. Further, there has been a cornucopia of ideas, suggestions, and plans shared. This wealth of information excites and arms us with innovative ideas to use in our classroom. Such a practical, hands-on approach has been inspirational.
The best analogy that comes
to mind of the Dakota Writing Project is a camp experience where I am both
fearful and eager about the event. There is that uneasiness about meeting
new people, wondering if I can "measure up" to others, but by week's end
I hate to leave. We have become friends and family, and the companionship
that we have enjoyed has made these four weeks surprisingly rich.
Other DWP News/Accomplishments DWP director Nancy Zuercher and DWP tech liaison Michelle Rogge Gannon attended the National Writing Project's annual meeting in November 2002, this time in Atlanta, Georgia. After the DWP writing marathon
on September 26th, the DWP Advisory Board met to share news and ideas and
to make plans for the future. The 2002 board members are Nancy Zuercher,
Sue Morrell, Sharon Olbertson, and Michelle Rogge Gannon.
|
Nancy Zuercher, USD, Vermillion
DWP guests inspire observation and communityGuest demonstrations at 2002 summer institute link experiences in art, science, writing, language, history, environmental studies and poetry.Selection to be a DWP Summer Institute participant is an honor. An invitation to be a guest presenter is a veneration. This year DWP venerated three of its teachers: Michele Fleer, Mary Schmitz, and Dennis "Lars" Larson.On June 6, 2002, Michele Fleer demonstrated "Writing a Group Poem," which originated in her quest to promote poetry among her reluctant second graders. She discovered that a blend of art and science could elicit not only the language kids needed for poetry, but also their enthusiasm. Like her second graders, we dived deep into her theme, undersea life, bubbling with ideas. As artists, we painted purple, blue, and aqua undersea scenes, sprinkling salt on wet watercolors to make bubbles. We tore sea creatures and plants from colored paper and glued them to our scenes to the sounds of omnipresent talk. "That's important for generating poetry," Michele told us, as she moved around the room. Coming together as a group, we surfaced lists of sensory words from our undersea vistas and then divided into groups to write poems. Fleer, who teaches at Stewart Elementary in Yankton, has also presented versions of this well-received interdisciplinary demonstration at DWP inservices. Mary Schmitz's June
10 demonstration, "Analyzing Political Cartoons," came from the American
Studies class she teaches at Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School. Her energetic
visual note-taking--a superior strategy to lecturing--engaged our hands,
eyes, and brains as she and we mapped a history of the Viet Nam War. Once
we had the history, we continued by looking closely at a cartoon of LBJ
pointing to his famous scar as a map of Viet Nam. Groups of four then scrutinized
other cartoons, wrote Schmitz's assignment for cartoon analysis and scored
their writing on her rubric. David Kono was excited to apply Schmitz's
demo to his fifth grader's study of the Civil War, while Marcia Votaw was
eager to have her high school students experiment with drawing a literary
work as a cartoon. Schmitz's presentations at DWP inservices have also
received high accolades.
Dennis "Lars" Larson,
a 1995 Fellow and poet of Prentis Park, is now an outdoor educator with
the Aldo Leopold Project and a health and physical education teacher at
Mellette High School. His June 17 demonstration, a microcosm of his outdoor
classes, taught us to make the invisible visible, just as Leopold did.
He led us along a trail to the Vermillion River, inspiring us to observe
actively with all our senses and challenging us to hang a red tag wherever
we saw a "relationship of community," such as a tree with a web on it.
Returning on the same trail, we stopped at each red tag to hear the story
of community in sticky mites clinging to May Apple, a skunk's den in a
hollow log, two trees twined like friendship rings. Back for debriefing
in our cool classroom, we shared another facet of Lars: his Aberdeen
American News columns. He left us with more generous gifts: Leopold's
A Sand County Almanac and a "turnover stick" to remind
us to look beyond simple appearances.
Other Information about the DWP The DWP 2002 Summer Institute Newsletter (Vol. 11, No. 1)--in four parts for easy downloading and viewing. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required.)
Vol. 8, No. 2 of the DWP newsletter. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required.) Vol. 7, No. 2 of the DWP newsletter. You can also read a DWP newsletter from a few years ago: http://www.usd.edu/engl/DWPupdates.html |
Finally,
experiencing "assignments" from a student's point of view again has been
enlightening. Being on the receiving end of education once more is both
a gentle reminder of what our students must endure as well as a relaxing
challenge. Ahh, to be given material and forced to think rather than being
the giver and enforcer. Additionally, our daily writing has resurrected
rusty, often neglected skills, and has reinforced the importance of teaching
writing in creative, engaging ways.
