Ballot for the 2012 New York State Reading Association's Charlotte AwardCharlotte Award

Named for the main character in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, the purpose of the Charlotte Award is to encourage students to read outstanding literature and ultimately become life-long readers. Additionally, the award recognizes the authors and illustrators of such literature.

The Ballot for 2012 was announced today. We waited with baited breath to find out who would be nominated....

The Pre K-2 Primary list for this award is as follows:

Bubble Trouble
City Dog, Country Frog
Clever Jack Takes the Cake
Lousy Rotten Stinkin’ Grapes
Memoirs of a Goldfish
Otis
Stars Above Us
The Cat Can’t Stay
Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out!
We Planted a Tree

Call to Action: #blog4NWP

On March 2, President Obama signed a bill to keep the government running until March 18. The bill cuts about $4 billion in spending from the FY 2011 budget, eliminating a number of education programs, including the National Writing Project, Reading is Fundamental, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and Teach for America.
These cuts, which jeopardize the work of the NWP—the nation's leading effort to improve writing and learning—impact NWP’s federal funding beginning October 1, 2011.

- from NWP Works

The NWP is in jeopardy.  As you might suspect, we aren't taking this lying down.  I'm assuming, since you're here, that like me, you found your experience with the Western New York Writing Project to be transformative, invigorating, and thought provoking.  Maybe, like me, you consider it to be the most valuable professional relationship you have.

There's a growing movement among members of local members of National Writing Project sites to speak out in support of this organization that has meant so much to so many.  Chad Sansing, active teacher blogger and Twitterer and member of the Central Virginia Writing Project has organized a movement called #blog4NWP.  Excuse the long block quote, but here is his call (original can be found here):

I hope you’ll join me in blogging for the NWP this weekend, from Friday, March 18th through Sunday, March 20th, 2011. Please support the NWP by sharing your experiences with the project, its institutes, its teacher consultants, and the resources it freely provides for all teachers. If you haven’t participated in an institute or worked with the NWP, please join us in calling on the federal government to support the NWP in championing authentic professional development, teaching, and learning through programs like the writing project.
As you post, please share your links here, send the links to me via Twitter (@chadsansing, by @ or DM), or email your link to me. I will collect and publish the links here on the Coöp. If you tweet me, please include@EdPressSec, @Ed_Outreach, @nwpsiteleaders, and @whitehouse in your tweet.
Let’s use the hashtag #blog4NWP. If you post before or after this weekend’s window, please let me know and/or use the hashtag to make sure I pick up your article for inclusion on the #blog4NWP archive post.
Please also consider sending your writing as an email to your local and state representatives in federal government.
Be sure to tweet your posts to your followers. Also consider posting your compositions on FaceBook. Please RT calls to support the NWP and ask your followers to do the same.
If you don’t blog, but would like to write about your NWP experience in support of the program, let me know. I’d love to help you get started blogging or to facilitate guest-posting for you at the Coöp.

If you have a chance and believe strongly, as I do, that this is a program worth saving especially in this time of anti education rhetoric, please consider adding your thoughts to the conversation.  If nothing else, take a look at the growing collection of blog posts from NWP teacher consultants all over the nation who are adding their voices to the conversation.  This is an organization that celebrates writing in its very marrow.  Can there be a more worthy cause to pick up a pen?

Mind, Body, Spirit

On April 9th the WNYWP is sponsoring Mind, Body, Spirt, a celebration of poetry and the arts.  Open to the entire community, this event fuses writing poetry with the arts for a good cause. Participants will have the opportunity to choose from 3 different creative writing workshops incorporating percussion performance, photography,and artwork to help express themselves on paper.  For more information, download the brochure here.

Young Writer's Workshops

We are now beginning to accept applications for the WNYWP Young Writer's Workshops! If you know a school age child or teen who enjoys writing and is looking to improve his or her craft in a community of like minded people, share this brochure!

2011 Summer Institute! 2011 Young Writer's Anthology!

If you know any teachers interested in some high quality professional development, please pass along the word that the application for the 2011 Summer Institute is available.

Also, if you know any young writers, let them known that the WNYWP is beginning to solicit work for the 2011 Young Writer's Anthology.

Congratulations! to our Summer Institute Co-coordinator, Lisa Fanaro. Her personal essay, "Treasuring the Memory of a Kindergarten Kindness," was published in the Jan 8, 2011 Women's Voices column of the Buffalo News.

Do you remember your first day in kindergarten? Lisa does. She shares with us the treasure she found on that first day and the life wisdom she learned along the way.

Spring Newsletter Submissions

Chris Salamone is currently soliciting submissions for our spring newsletter. If you know of anything newsworthy, send her the good word. Here is the information:

It’s time for the spring edition of the Western New York Writing Project Newsletter and, as usual, I need your help.
We accept original poems, short stories, announcements of births, marriages, awards, photos, and anything else exciting.
Deadline for submissionsIsApril 24, 2009
Email all information to:
HYPERLINK "mailto:Salamone426@aol.com" Salamone426@aol.com

2009 CEE Conference

2009 CEE Conference
The Council on English Education (CEE)is announcing its first conference which will be held in Chicago, IL on June 18 -21, 2009. As an affiliate of NCTE, CEE focuses on the professional life of the English educator and the policies that effect English education at all levels.

This conference will not only be informative, but it will also offer English teachers a venue for collaborative work to bring about change.

Tom O'Malley Published in My View

Congratulations! to Tom O'Malley, 1986 Fellow, whose personal essay, "There is an Upside to Every Downturn," was published in Sunday's Buffalo News, My View column.

You can read his essay by clicking on the link below:

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/myview/story/573162.html

Peaceprints Project Exhibition

We begin this year with peace in our hearts and in our schools. This post is from Evelyn, our Peaceprints Project coordinator. Thank you, Evelyn.

This month Tapestry High School and Catholic Central, pilot schools for the WNY Writing Project's Peaceprints Project held events that celebrated Sister Karen Klimczak’s “peaceprints” ways to further a culture of nonviolence. At Tapestry students photographed examples of justice and injustice throughout the city and wrote social analysis pieces to accompany their photos. This was part of Tapestry’s expeditionary learning mission. The work was exhibited at the Grant Street Gallery January 15-18, 2009. Tapestry wrote: “Working with all of you [at the WNY Writing Project] on the Peaceprints Project you continued to show us the importance of encouraging peace and nonviolence with youth. As we put the finishing touches on the exhibition we could not help but see the vital links to the message you all bring. Peace, nonviolence, justice, and hope are really the foundations that we all hope to impart to the students we see every day.”

At Catholic Central, the St. Monica’s division held a Martin Luther King Peaceprints day sponsored by Americorp. Students from St. Joseph University School wrote peace poems under the direction of WNY Writing Project teacher mentors, Pat McClain and Evelyn Brady, and at St.Monica’s under the direction of visiting faculty. On Martin Luther King Day, the two schools came together to share their poems, enjoy peace activities, learn how to “sign” to the “Peaceprints” song and create art works that spoke of peaceprints and MLK’s message of nonviolence. The students integrated their written work in their art pieces. As a final activity, the art pieces were “quilted” together to produce a peace quilt that will be placed at the Sister Karen Center for Nonviolence.

Make Your Students Part of History

In November my students took part in the PBS McNeil Lehrer Newshour "Video Your Vote" contest. My students used digital video cameras to document the essence of the election experience. They interviewed parents, students, and community members and weaved their stories into short videos. Here are a few examples that were featured on the PBS website.

As an extension of this project, Newshour has put together a podcasting project for inauguration day. All your students need is a cell phone (or a school phone that can dial toll free 1-888 numbers). Lizzy Berryman, the Director of the Newshour Teachers Center, is a NWP TC. Here is the blurb she sent me:

We are asking your students to call and record their thoughts and reflections on the Obama inauguration in less than two minutes...We will have students calling in from the parade, from the swearing in, one student calling in after singing back up for Beyonce, and of course kids calling from across the country in their classrooms and homes as they witness history. We will be publishing the posts on our student voices section of our website.

Lizzy asked me to spread the word to my teacher networks, and that means you. If you are interested, email me at malleyjoel@yahoo.com or jmalley@cheektowagacentral.org and I will forward the phone number, password, and extension.

Publication News and Other Tidbits

• It has come to our attention that Eva Doyle, 1986 Fellow, publishes regularly. From Suzanne's email:

In the years since she participated in the Summer Institute, she has written 9 books and over 3000 articles on the contributions of African Americans to our society and to the world.

Her 9th book, Warren Gamaliel Harding - One of America's Black Presidents, was featured in the Buffalo News in 2008 for Presidents' Day. The book is still available and can be purchased on Amberbooks.com for $18.00.

• The WNYWP book club is currently reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Join us to discuss the book on February 24 at the Borders Books store in Orchard Park. If you will be attending or have any questions email Greg at staniszg@aol.com. Hope to see all you dog and book lovers there.
  

  
  
  

Linda Drajem Published in My View

WNYWP Fellow Linda Drajem was recently published in The Buffalo News' "My View" column. Her essay, "Let's focus on loving all of God's people" is a reflection on both the role of All Saints Church on her Riverside neighborhood in the 1950's and her sadness that the church seems to be pushing aside the teachings of inclusiveness and love for all people as it continues to preach against gay marriage and homosexuality.

It really is a powerful essay, no matter where you stand on the issue. Way to go Linda.

Obama, Education, and Arne Duncan

Well, I apologize for the almost month long hiatus, but it's been a bit busy. One of my New Year's resolutions is to post more often.

My inbox has been teeming with a back and forth between members of the NWP Tech Liaison network. There's been a substantial amount of discussion about incoming Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. As you're probably aware, Stanford's Linda Darling Hammond was the favorite amongst progressive educators. To the chagrin of many, President Elect Obama appointed Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan instead.

It looks like Duncan is fan of the test driven education that became ubiquitious under NCLB. For more reading, feel free to check out this article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, or this one from Truthout.org, or this primer from Alfie Kohn published two days ago in The Nation.

Now, truthfully, I don't know what kind of sway the Secretary of Education actually has, but this seems like a letdown. It would have been nice to have an actual educator fill this position, especially one with more progressive views on education.

Putting a Bullet in the Five Paragraph Essay

There's a great essay in this month's English Journal titled "The Five-Paragraph Essay and the Deficit Model of Education." In it UNC Charlotte WP representatives attack a 2007 column by Byung-In Seo defending this form. The article is a very interesting read, and the UNC WP pretty much crush Seo's article and any argument for formulaic writing.

I agree with the points in the article, but I still have a practical question. If not the five paragraph essay, then what? In the past, I have taught my kids that kind of thesis, restricted thesis, at least three body paragraph format because it seems like a good place to start to get students to at least flesh out that much (I know, deficit model). Then again, I've rarely been satisfied with the writing that comes out of assignments like the critical lens essay, controlling idea, etc. I think that most of us know how painful it is to score Regents exams (at least it was in the BPS), where only the top 10% are coherent and even less are original. Don't even get me started on the Task II essays (the factual reading).

So, I guess my question is, what is the alternative? Has anyone had success teaching essays* in any other format? What do you do?


________________________________
* not personal essays, obviously, which lend themselves to more authentic organization.
** I'd put up a link to the essay, but you have to subscribe to EJ. If you do not, but would like to have a read, shoot me an email at malleyjoel@yahoo.com.

NWP/NCTE, San Antonio, TX

The WNYWP traveled down to San Antonio last week to attend the annual conventions of the National Writing Project and the National Council of Teachers of English. We had a wonderful time in a great city. To kick things off, we had a working dinner at The County Line, a restaurant on the San Antonio Riverwalk. The food was delicious, we shared thoughts and wrote to a writing prompt on a communal napkin (even though Jon Federick mistunderstood the assignment, as usual), and planned for our presentations the next day.

I didn't personally see much of the city outside of the Riverwalk, but I'm sure we'll hear plenty about San Antonio and see plenty of pictures at our open meeting Wednesday, December 10th at 4:30.

Our presentation went rather well, as we shared information about our use of technology within our site. Jon, Genevieve, Suzanne and I shared insights about digital video, blogging and our Red Carpet Inquiry. Thirty or so people piled into our room to check out our experiences, including NWP tech liaison coordinator Paul Oh and a representative from Google.

UB Anderson Gallery: Michael Goldberg

Well, I've been on post NCTE/NWP information overload for the past week and haven't had an opportunity to share. We recently received word from the UB's Anderson Gallery about a writing program they are offering. Here are the details:

The art of abstract expressionist painter Michael Goldberg is now on view at the University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery through January 18^th, 2009.

The “Ode to Michael Goldberg: Selective Thievery and the Practice of Looking” exhibition consists of paintings and drawings on loan from the artist’s estate, Knoedler Gallery in New York City and seminal paintings in the university’s collection. The work in this exhibition traces the artist’s career from the early 1940s through the 1980s. Also highlighted in this exhibition are Goldberg’s art and poetry collaborations with poet Frank O’Hara.

A 28-minute long video “Bowery Studio Days” (1998-2000) that includes footage of Goldberg in the process of creating paintings in his studio, along with one-on-one interviews, is available for viewing in the gallery’s exhibition space. As a member of the influential New York School in the 1950s and 1960s, the artist drew influence from first generation abstract expressionist painters Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still and Franz Kline. Goldberg believed that art-making requires an engagement on the part of the artist with other works of art, both historical and contemporary. He stated simply, “art comes out of art.”

K-12 Teachers are invited to schedule exhibition tours for their students between December 8th 2008 and January 18^th 2009. Available also for students are art activities based on Goldberg’s art, art making processes and collaborations with O’Hara. The activities are designed to address NYS Learning Standards and can be customized and included as tour-related follow-up sessions. To schedule a tour, discuss transportation options, or for further information, contact education curator Ginny Lohr at UB Anderson Gallery, 829-3754 or Email: ginny@andersongallery.org.

Tom O'Malley Published!

Our original Fellow, Tom O'Malley, is once more leading the way for us with his publications.
This time in conjunction with the opening of the new Burchfield Penny Gallery at Buffalo State College, Tom reflects on the importance of Burchfield's works.

Contemporary Writer Series

Long time fellow Debbie Beis sent this heads up about the last of Mich Cochrane's Contemporary Writer Series:

The "Contemprary Writers Series" is ten years old this year, and Mick Cochrane is to be congratulated on bringing so many fine authors to Canisius, with no cost to the public. At Ann Patchett's presentation, there were two groups of high school students in attendance, who had all read her newest novel,RUN. So other HS teachers should think of assigning a novel of a upcoming speaker, and reserving seats for your students to hear the author speak of his/her work. Not only do the authors read from their books, but they also share what they know of the craft of writing.
Uwem Akpan's SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM is his first book, and hs scoffed when someone in the audience asked him how he dealt with "fame." Maybe I shouldn't say "scoffed," because he actually giggled at the suggestion that he might be famous. He was delightful!

Ann Patchett was very witty - one can tell that her command of language extends beyond the written word. She was easy to listen to, and she signed books for a very long time, long after the delectable desserts were just memories.
Mick has arranged for one more author to come this year, Rishi Reddi, who speak on Thursday, November 13, at 7:00 pm.

If you have the chance, check out Rishi Redd at Canisius on the above date. Thanks Debbie!

House on Mango Street Project

I think this is a good place to share writing ideas and projects that were successful. In that vein (am I using the right vein? Vain? Anyways...), my students are finishing reading The House on Mango Street. As part of the project, they wrote vignettes in some way related to their neighborhood or to themes in the novella. They composed their vignettes using Google Docs, shared them with me and their peers for editing/revision purposes, and ultimately "published" their pieces into web pages.

After they published their pieces (and thus creating individual URL's for their stories), we created a collaborative Google Map, plotted the location for each Vignette, and then hyperlinked our vignettes. Now you can scan the map, click on a push pin, and read student stories related to the novel. Next week we're going to discuss our collection much as we did Cisneros' book.


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