A Busy Weekend Preparing for @NCTE and NWPAM in St. Louis Next Week

I spent the last day of the work week, Friday (as if that is the last day of the work week), putting together folders for varying sessions at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting and National Council of Teachers of English conference in St. Louis, Missouri. I depart next Wednesday and go non-stop while there. It's always a fantastic time with CT teachers, but also a reconnection of friends from all over the world and nation. We're excited to share some of the work we've been up to.

Reading Landscapes: Writing Nature in the 21st Century will be presented by Richard Novack during the NWP AM, as will Project Citizen: Flying Lessons from the Prose with Sean Mitchell, Kim Herzog, and Dave Wooley (I am emceeing). Meanwhile, Kristin Veneema will be representing our C3WP grant throughout the meeting.

In addition, we'll be very active on Friday and Saturday at NCTE, too, with several presentations.

“You Gotta Write! A’ight?” – Young Adult Literacy Labs at Fairfield University: As local, state, and national support for programs lessened, Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University thought outside of the box. Few writing opportunities existed for young people in the summer, so they asked themselves, “What can we do to change this?” Young Adult Literacy Labs resulted. The labs now partner with the National Writing Project summer institute for teaching writing.

The Intersection of Literacy, Sport, Culture, and Society - Literacy4Life

This roundtable session invites attendees to explore contemporary literacies and diverse teaching practices through the use of sports content and an examination of sports culture, including this year’s keynote talk about the education programming and exhibitions from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

Of Wishes and Walls—Reclaiming Voices of Refugee and Immigrant Youth

In 2016, teachers and youth attending Connecticut Writing Project-Fairfield summer programs collaborated with artist Rick Shaefer and Fairfield University Art Museum to debut Refugee Trilogy, three large charcoal drawings: land-crossing, water-crossing, and border-crossing. Inspired by the work, they wrote and recorded podcasts that became part of the artist’s exhibition.

NWP Promising Practices in Urban Spaces: Learning Together while Teaching, Engaging, and Involving Student Voices in Their World:  Connecting students, teachers, schools, and communities impacts student learning. Becoming active participants together in this learning process and applying the learning to the world engages students as involved global citizens. National Writing Project (NWP) sites from various urban areas discuss civically-engaged writing practices in schools and communities, giving voice and building agency for students.

The Little Lab for Big Imaginations: A 3rd-6th Grade Summer Writing Institute: This presentation will highlight The Little Lab for Big Imaginations, a weeklong summer writing institute designed to help students in grades 3–6 compose like authors. The Little Lab is a community writing space, where young students write, read, speak, listen, perform, and most important, have fun during the summer.

Urban Literacies in Middle School: Giving Students Voice and Agency inside and outside of the Classroom: Urban middle school students see the world/words through their own literacy practices—literacy practices of reading, writing, and beyond—practices that uplift, connect, illuminate what they bring to school and/or use out of school. Understanding these literacy practices allows us to teach our students more effectively and gives them (and ourselves) voice and agency. This session will showcase sports, music, digital, community, and poetic literacies.

If you're in the area, come say, "Hello!"