Visiting Indiana University Southeast Writing Project

On Monday, June 15, I was fortunate to visit New Albany, Indiana and the IU Southeast Writing Project. Excitement was in the air as the new fellows were starting their Summer Institute and more than 25 Teacher Consultants were returning for the advanced institutes.

Dr. Kevin Sue Bailey welcomed me and made sure I had what I needed for my demonstration. It was my job to get the Advanced Institute Fellows writing this morning. Dr. Bailey opened with a read aloud and we did introductions using a simple activity of writing a memoir of our lives in exactly six words.

Then it was my turn. I presented to the group on using Poetry Slam—scaffolding spoken word poetry in the classroom. It was the same presentation I made at the Indiana Teachers of Writing Conference last year and at one of IWP’s Saturday Seminars, so I was comfortable with the material. This group of teacher consultants was energetic and fun! They were so engaged in the writing of their 6-Room Image Poems (ala Georgia Heard), that they had to be stopped to break for lunch.

I was taken out to lunch at a local restaurant called Tumbleweeds—wonderful food and a country atmosphere. When I returned, teacher consultants were scattered around the building in corners doing their own writing.

It was explained to me that every year at IUSWP they don’t actually have a topic for their advanced institute. All former TCs are invited to return to earn 3 credit hours. Those attending Advanced Institute for the first time split into a separate group (called the Level 2 group) after lunch for a book discussion on Literacy Leadership. Those attending Advanced Institute for a second, third, fourth, etc. time have additional writing time and/or conversation groups with other TC’s about what they are doing in their classrooms. Some collaborative action research projects have grown from these discussions.

The whole group comes back together again at the end of the day for a reflection time and we held a poetry slam with the poems the TC’s wrote that day. What a group of writers they are! Topics ranged from the life of a hummingbird to not being able to urinate in a dirty gas station bathroom. This was a wild bunch that is passionate about teaching, writing, and teaching writers. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this group!

Submitted by Jenny Smithson, TC 2003

Book Review of "A Curse Dark as Gold"

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

The novel, A Curse Dark as Gold, takes place in Shearing, a small English village known for its textile industry in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. As one reads, the story starts to resemble Rumplestiltskin, but never makes you feel as if you are reading the same fairy tale. This novel reads more like historical fiction than fantasy. The characters and setting are well developed as the story is woven through the eyes of our protagonist, Charlotte Miller.

The details about the millwork, wool, and sheep are very convincing as we read further into the book. Although the location is fictional, one feels as if they can visualize each character and location. The valley is described with realistic people, dialect, businesses of the times, and towns that also sound as if they could be real enough to look up on a period map.

The names of the people in the story were equally interesting because they related to the jobs or the personality of the person or company, yet it was not so overdone to make one want to scoff and close the book. Charlotte Miller of course is a miller and our main character. She leads us through the story of village superstitions, as her skepticism slowly changes to acceptance of those things that are unexplainable. She generally chooses to be practical as she takes over the mill following her father’s death. This is unusual for a female during this time period. She discovers her father had done the best he could, but had also made some poor decisions that she needed to correct. Those decisions and her attempts to do right slowly entangle her in events that she can not control.

See if you can figure out where some of these names relate to the story: Uncle Wheeler, Mordant, Harte, Woodstone, Pinchfield, Stirwater, and Jack Spinner.

Enjoy the journey to another time while feeling a familiar sense of what might happen. You will be asking yourself questions as you read. This book is best suited to middle and high school students who are not uncomfortable with suggestions of magic and curses.

Check out a discussion between Elizabeth C. Bunce and her editor, Cheryl Klein,
from Klein's blog.

Reviewed by Robin Sowder, TC 2002