Teaching Writing from a Writer's Point of View. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 422 582 CS 216 474 AUTHOR Hermsen, Terry, Ed.; Fox, Robert, Ed. TITLE Teaching Writing from a Writer's Point of View. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-5517-0 PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 233p.; Based on a summer writing seminar cosponsored by Wright State University and Ohio Arts Council. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 55170-3050: $16.95 members, $22.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; *Creative Writing; Elementary Secondary Education; Summer Programs; *Writing Attitudes; *Writing Instruction; *Writing Workshops IDENTIFIERS Ohio; Writing Contexts; *Writing Thinking Relationship ABSTRACT Based on a series of successful summer writing institutes, this book presents practical ways for teachers to reinvigorate their classrooms and their own attitudes toward creative writing. In four complementary sections focusing on four groups of writers--creative writers in residence, K-12 students and teachers who participated in the summer institutes, and established writers such as Ron Carlson and Scott Russell Sanders--the book demonstrates the enormous variety and high quality of writing that result when people use writing to discover what they want to say. After an introduction by Robert Fox ("The Experience of Writing: A Summer Institute"), the first section presents essays by Ohio writers in the schools; "Doing Our Own Possibility: Journal of a Residency at Columbiana County Head Start Centers" (Debra Conner); "Playwriting: A Teaching Approach Using the Stories of Our Lives" (Michael McGee London); "Just across the Street: The Story of a Teacher-Based Residency" (Lynn Powell); "Translytics: Creative Writing Derived from Foreign Language Texts" (Nick Muska); "How to Do a Poetry Night Hike" (Terry Hermsen); and "Reading to a Sky of Soba" (David Hassler) .The second part presents poems, stories, and plays from 13 Ohio schools. The third part presents essays from participants in the experience of writing: "When Spirit Moves, Children Sing" (MaryAnn Titus); "Sudden Revelation: Fiction Writing in the Classroom" (Carl H. Krauskopf III); "A Year of Writing Workshop" (Mary L. Noble); "Word Works: Building a Community of Writers" (Janice M. Gallagher); and "Green Digits and Colons: Find Time to Write" (Barry Peters). The last section presents essays from experiences of writing faculty: "Turning the Desk" (Ron Carlson); "The Singular First Person" (Scott Russell Sanders); and "Reveling in the World: An Interview with Christopher Merrill on the Power of Language and Teaching" (Terry Hermsen) . (RS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** TE G ---1 I- -1 i 17 --1 '1__._-9 1 FROM A -_-', -__.-.. POINTOF EW Terry Hermsen and Robert Fox, editors PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY /1"1 /I"( t-P BEST COPY AVAILABLE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) let 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement E0 CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 01this document hos been reproduced 08 received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- ment do not necessarily represent official OE RI position or policy. 2 Teaching Writing from a Writer's Point of View NCTE Editorial Board: Pat Cordeiro, Bobbi Fisher, Xin Liu Gale, Sarah Hudelson, Bill McBride, Al leen Pace Nilsen, Helen Poole, Jerrie Cobb Scott, Karen Smith, Chair, ex officio, Peter Feely, ex officio 4 Teaching Writing froma Writer's Point of View Edited by Terry Hermsen The Ohio State University, Marion Robert Fox The Ohio Arts Council National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 Staff Editor: Kurt Austin Interior Design: Doug Burnett Cover Design: Evelyn C. Shapiro Cover Photographs © Elizabeth Crews NCTE Stock Number: 55170-3050 ©1998 by the Ohio Arts Council. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a fo- rum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. The programs described in this book are made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Teaching writing from a writer's point of view/edited by Terry Hermsen and Robert Fox. p.cm. Based on a summer writing seminar cosponsored by Wright State University and Ohio Arts Council. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8141-5517-0 1. English languageComposition and exercisesCongresses. 2. Creative writingStudy and teachingCongresses. I. Hermsen, Terry, 1950- .II. Fox, Robert, 1943- . PE1404.T3994 1998 808'.042dc21 98-29894 CIP In memory of Elizabeth Kray Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets 1963-1981 and Leonard Randolph Director of the Literature Program The National Endowment for the Arts 1970-1978 for all their efforts on behalf of writers in the schools vii Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii The Experience of Writing: A Summer Institute Robert Fox I. Wild Cards: Essays by Ohio Writers in the Schools 1 Doing Our Own Possibility: Journal of a Residency at Columbiana County Head Start Centers 3 Debra Conner Playwriting: A Teaching Approach Using the Stories of Our Lives Blood in the Valley (script) 22 Michael McGee London Just across the Street: The Story of a Teacher-Based Residency 37 Lynn Powell Translytics: Creative Writing Derived from Foreign Language Texts 48 Nick Muska How to Do a Poetry Night Hike 63 Terry Hermsen Reaching to a Sky of Soba 78 David Hassler II. Returning to the Source: Poems, Stories, and Plays from Ohio Schools 83 Eastwood Elementary (Oberlin) 85 Glendale-Feilbach Elementary (Toledo) 87 0. R. Edgington Elementary (Englewood) 88 Duxberry Park Elementary (Columbus) 89 Kyle Elementary (Troy) 90 Glendale-Feilbach Elementary (Toledo) 91 viii Maumee Valley Country Day School (Toledo) 98 Ladyfield Elementary (Toledo) 99 Fort Loramie Middle School (Fort Loramie) 100 Solon Middle School (Solon) 101 Pleasant Run Middle School (Cincinnati) 105 Miami Valley East High School (Miami County) 108 Appendix: Publishing Student Work 117 III. When Teachers Become Writers: Essays from Participants in The Experience of Writing 119 When Spirit Moves, Children Sing 121 Mary Ann Titus Sudden Revelation: Fiction Writing in the Classroom 136 Carl H. Krauskopf III A Year of Writing Workshop 141 Mary L. Noble Word Works: Building a Community of Writers "Into the Flames" (story) 149 Janice M. Gallagher Green Digits and Colons: Find Time to Write "Julie" (story) 163 Barry Peters IV. Full Circle: Essays from Experience of Writing Faculty 177 Turning the Desk 181 Ron Carlson The Singular First Person 186 Scott Russell Sanders Reveling in the World: An Interview with Christopher Merrill on the Power of Language and Teaching 195 Terry Hermsen Experience of Writing Faculty 209 Editors 211 Contributors 213 ix Preface Thus, helplessly, there on the bridge While gazing down upon those birds How strange to be above the birds! ... the spelling mind Imposes with its grammar book Unreal relations ... 0 swallows, swallows, poems are not The point. Finding again the world, That is the point. Howard Nemerov,"The Blue Swallows" The purpose of this book is to demonstrate various ways in which writ- ing can help us, as teachers (whatever our training) or students (whatever our age), to find again the world. Writing that pulls in upon itself, that speaks only to "the spelling mind," as Nemerov puts it, or only to a select group of connoisseurs, eventually withers. To thrive, and to find its true voice in us, writing must lead us to gaze over the swal- lows, from the bridge that links our common life, and supply us with new ways of visualizing our interaction with each other. On one level, Teaching Writing from a Writer's Point of View details ways that writers in Ohio have been working with teachers and their stu- dents to uncover new methods of using writing in the classroom. There are, thus, plenty of lesson ideas that might be taken back and applied "on Monday morning," as they say. The essays in Section I, from writers in the Ohio Arts Council's Artists in Education program, in particular provide practical ideas for preschool through high school, along with sample student writings. But you will also find ways of revamping curricula or constructing new writing assignments in Scott Russell Sanders's thoughts on the personal essay in Section IV, for instance; in the essays by Ohio teachers in Section III; or even in the samplings of students po- ems and stories in Section II. Each section complements and presents a dialogue with the other sections. In addition, the book offers more than interesting lesson plans. It gives testimony to the value of collaborations between teachers and writ- ers who love to teach, and presents models. It also intends to shake the foundations of writing on a much deeper level. In essence it is asking us, Teaching Writing from a Writer's Point of View in the words of Ron Carlson, "to turn the desk," to put away the yellowed lesson plan, the approach we always got by with, the formula or the proven scheme, and begin listening again to the scratch of pen across paper or of fingers across keysto writing discovering where it needs to go.