NWP 2010 Annual Meeting

Indiana Writing Project at 2010 NWP Annual Meeting

Back Row - Liz Ralfe, Shirley Thacker, Barb Miller, Linda Hanson, Tammy Taylor, Linda Walker, Matt Hartman, Alena Bogucki
Front Row - Robin Sowder, Heather Abernathy, Linda Valley, Joy Dewing, Jaime Ellis

The Indiana Writing Project was proud to send twelve of its teacher-consultants and leaders to participate in the National Writing Project’s Annual Meeting, which was held this year in Orlando, Florida from Thursday, November 18 through Friday, November 19. During the two-day conference, teachers took part in sessions on a wide range of topics, including digital literacies, working with primary source documents, games for education and social impact, and arenas to publish student writing. Visit the NWP website for photos, videos, and additional highlights of the Annual Meeting.

Reflecting on lessons from the NWP Annual Meeting, Joy Dewing (IWP TC '04) shares, "The sessions at this year’s NWP Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida were ‘magical’ and gave me many ideas to bring back to our IWP site. TCs from the University of Illinois Writing Project shared their work with digital portfolios. Using flip cameras, each SI fellow creates a short (about 3 minutes) literacy autobiography video during the first week of SI. The videos are one of the artifacts posted on each fellow’s website. Writing completed during SI is also posted on the TC’s website. The digital portfolios make the fellow’s writing more visible to a wider audience. The presenters also shared other ideas for networking, including a “social network ice cream social” in which fellows learn about social networking sites, sign up for NWPi and the site’s facebook page, and meet TCs from other years while eating ice cream sundaes. They also suggested using itunesU to create podcasts of the demos or read alouds. To aid in collecting photos from the institute, they have a site Flikr site. When fellows take photos, they upload them to Flikr and tag them immediately. The Flikr site is linked to their Writing Project webpage so they have both a record of photos from previous summers and a constantly updating collection from the current year. A TC from the Spartanburg Writing Project shared how her site encouraged professional development through their use of technology. Instead of a daily log, the site uses a blog. She explained that the conversations that begin during the day continue into the evening during the Summer Institute. Their site also podcasts their author’s chair to share writing with a wider audience. A third idea this TC suggested was offering a Comp Camp focused on writing with technology for older students. She also shared the website pearltrees.com which helps to organize and link websites. I can envision our IWP site using Pearl Trees as a electronic “Wall of Begats”.

In another session called “Developing and Responding to Teaching Demos in ISI” TCs from Eastern Shore Writing Project shared how they’ve moved their demo lessons into inquiry lessons. IWP moved to this model a few years ago, so I was interested to hear ideas for how this idea was working at other sites. Our IWP site has used a team approach to coaching demo lessons for a few years. The TCs from Easter Shore bring back fellows from previous years as “thinking buddies”. These buddies work with 2-3 fellows and help them think about and develop their lessons. Using thinking buddies has freed up the SI co-directors and has improved their continuity. It has also given the fellows someone outside of the Institute to share ideas with and a connection to other TCs.
During a session called “Writing in ISI” I explored some of my “burning questions” about education and had the opportunity to write about education issues from different stances. The San Diego Area Writing Project TCs shared how they develop fellows for leadership through their fall and spring conferences. In the General Session Friday morning, Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer shared her own struggles in writing. She suggested that teachers need to “stop worrying about how to teach an essay and think about how [we] would write it” and reminded us that “we are writers because we write.” I’m looking forward to sharing her book with teachers in my school next semester. Friday evening ended with a social and appearances by Mickey, Minnie, Daisy Duck, and Goofy. Overall, this year’s NWP Annual Conference was a magical experience and left me refreshed and ready for another Writing Project summer!"

[Left] - IWP TC (2010) Jaime Ellis (second from right, in striped shirt) shares during a roundtable session at NWP.

Alena Bogucki, IWP TC '07, noted on her classroom blog that two of the biggest "Ah-ha" moments of the NWP Annual Meeting came during a roundtable session on digital literacies; she said, "I realized that perhaps 'new' literacy is something that has no official academic standard or assigned role in day to day life, but is an enrichment and illumination, a new means of being and communicating. It affects our lives and way of life before we know where the ripples will end or evolve into. New literacy is very personal and dependent on the user; it has not been canonized. As well, Bee Foster from the Area 3 Writing Project offered an astute observation that 'If it contains meaning, it's [an opportunity for] reading. If it requires a process to create, it's [an opportunity for] writing'; this informed my view of literacy in and out of the classroom." Bogucki added, "Attending and participating at the NWP Annual Meeting is such an uplifting, empowering experience; there is a tangible energy of purposeful action, collaboration, and collegiality at NWP."

"During the General Session one of the speakers said, 'It is not the harvest of writing that we celebrate, but the planting of seeds that will carry us on for years to come!' I have thought about that often since November," Shirley Thacker, IWP 2007 TC, reflected. She continued, "It isn't one piece of writing that is so important, but the excitement of the doing the work on perhaps a daily basis. We learned in SI that it isn't the writing that is so important, but giving our attention to the writer. Boosting their confidence, teaching them the craft, introducing them to wonderful mentor text that will inspire them to write. . . ultimately making that reading - writing connection. That will give them the power to believe that they are writers, they are authors, they are successful. . . to keep planting those seeds."

Looking ahead, IWP's Core Council is already making plans to get even more IWP TCs to next year's National Writing Project Annual Meeting, which will be held "in our backyard" - Chicago!