JSU Writing Project
The 2004 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Robin Clay, Donna Coleman, Tammy Cook, John Hickman, Linda Lyle, Joy Maloney,
Tiphanie Maze, Dana McCarver, Millie Mostella, Vicky Newsome, Emily Rasbury,
Paula Segrest, Becky Word
The 2003 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Lorrie Cooper, Nia Cox, Gregory Deupree, Rhonda Duncan, Carol Hoggle, LeAnne
Jenkins, Elizabeth Johnson, Amy Kelley, Alaina Lett, Melissa Marsh, Heather
Mitchell, Cathy Noye, Lori Shaffer, Janet Smart, Terrie Turner, Jeff Walls,
Shalonda Williams.
The 2002 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Enithie Bradford, Suellen Brown, Jackie Campbell, Heather Church, Victoria
Everett, Kimberly Gomez, Denise Haskins, Charlotte Hindman, Lisa Light,
Karla McArthur, Leslie Smith, Michelle Williams
The 2001 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Amy Brown, Parham Cain, Erica Clark, Claire Dryden, Beverly Harlan, Caryn
Hyatt, Teresa Johnson, Anne Kerr, Cynthia McDaniel, Heidi Morgan, Marsha
Berglund, Mary Oliver, Sherri Shamwell, Kelly Stulce, Jennie Thomas
The 2000 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Sonja J. Adams, Staci D. Jenkins, Gail Kelley, Michelle McKinney, Susan
Runner, Benjie Thomas, Tony Entrekin, Katie Cain, Alice McWhorter, Robin
Norred, Ada Blair, Lisa Roberts, Paige Smith, Crystal Venable, Don S. Bennett,
Darlene Driggers, Michelle Williams, Laurie Moore Elam
The 1999 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Kenny Clevenger, Sudealia Douthard, Sonja Fincher, Margaret Hendrix, Brenda
Morgan, Ana Torres-Norton, Dorothy Phillips, Sandra Plenty-Perteet, Christine
Phillips
The 1998 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Melinda Cushing, Jennifer Foster, Millie Harris, Beverly Haynes, Dale Laidlaw,
Bridgette Lovelace, Pam Miller, Lane Parker, Lynn Rice, Eleanor Williams,
Shalonda Williams, April Wright. Lisa M. Williams, Director, and Gloria
P. Horton, Co-Director.
The 1997 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Donna Calhoun, Ginger Carrell, Joanne E. Gates, Darryl Gossett, Pam Hausfather,
Kevin S. Holt, Stephanie Kirby, Elizabeth Lixey, Melissa Shields, Louise
Sowa, Timothy Stewart, Tabatha F. Treece, Jennifer T. Webster. Gloria Horton
served as director of the program, and Deborah Prickett assisted.
The 1996 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Susan Allred, Ann Rollins Bryant, Dondra Casey, Kathrin Hand, Leslie Hodges,
*Becky McKay, William Oberholtzer, Deborah Prickett, Kelli Souder, Wade
Webster, Louise White,
The 1995 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Karen Burnham, Sally Buttke, Gary Davis, Rhonda Downer, Cathy Green, Rhonda
Hammett, Connie Holmes, *Robin Jennings, Britt Johnson, Debbie Kipp, *Ellen
Lacey, Tonja McCurdy, Traci Shaw, Shannon Smith, Barbara Wynn
The 1994 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Kelly Abney, Kelly Bonds, Johnnye Ellison, Pamela Ginn, Beth Gray, Margaret
Griffin, Suzanne Grimes, Audrey Haynes, Althelstein Johnson, Nancy Kearns,
Dale Laidlaw, Lisa Light, Carolyn Manscill, Martha Martin, David Myer,
Chris Pope, Jill Roberts, Sloan Taylor
The 1993 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Sarah Binion, Bunti Britt, Missy Dickinson, Beth Dear, Carol Green, Todd
Hamilton, Diane Holliday, Susan Lancaster, Susie Manning, Becky McKay,
Eula Morris, Becky Newman, Dana Owen-Molan, Helen Partrick, Dianne Ray,
Rose Schlatter, Cathy Studdard, Nancy Willis,
The 1992 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Tricia Bates, Willie Charley, Cristy Colvin, Lisa Emigh, Grace Hobbs, Cindy
Johnson, Ann Lett, Laura Lockette, Marilyn McCoy, Tonya Mitchell Reid,
Pamela Moore, Janet Smart, Leroy Sterling, Tony Snider, Debra Upchurch,
Mildred Woods, Ellen Lacey
The 1991 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Edna Bratcher, Glenda Byars, Linda Johnson, Patricia G. Koors, Jimmie Lou
Marshall, Katrina H. Mintz, Leslie Ellen Moon, Sylvia McCrary, Deborah
McMurtrie, Sherilyn H. Osborne, Cyndi Owen, Hilary Rains, Angela A. Rinehart,
Cerilla D. Roe, Madeline Wigley, Karen S. Wilksman, Matthew York
The 1990 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Haifa Beshara, Steve Buckner, Maxine Crawford, Sudealia Douthard, Judy
Eliot, Kay Simpson, Wilma Guthrie, Sharon Harris, Judith McKibbin, Ruth
Mitchell, Felicia Morgan, Carolyn Stephens, Susie Thornton, Lynda Van Devender,
Cheryl Wade, Nena Walker, Gail Williams
The 1989 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Nadine Bruce, Margaret Bloomer, Carole L. Campbell, Barbara Eubanks, Amelia
Fletcher, Imogene Heatherly, Gloria Horton, Carolyn Johnson, Dana L. Key,
Dale M. Laidlaw, Brian Mintz, Anna K. McIlwain, Becky B. Nelson, Jean Jehle
O'Shields, Eva Jean Timmons, Norma Jean Tow
The 1988 Summer Institute Teacher Fellows:
Amy Allred, Kay Brown, Laura L. Butler, Gena Christopher, Betty Jeanne
Dobbins Gosdin, Terry Gosdin, Kenneth Guthrie, June Harbison, Suzanne J.
Hobbs, Jeri Holcomb, Maryann Cavender Hood, Robin H. Jennings, Michael
Johnson, Cynthia H. Lynch, Sondra Dempsey Oswalt, Diane M. Palmer, Gene
Rhodes, Ruth Taylor, Betty Wilson
For information about future Summer Institutes and other activities
of the JSU Writing Project, call the English Department office at 256-782-5412
or consult the current WIT Newsletter.
A fact sheet of pre-2000 WP material is available at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6337/jville.html
Carrying the Flame--The National Writing Project at Work in a Classroom
by Janet L. Smart
This article originally appeared in The WIT Newsletter, Volume
IX, Number 2 (February 1993), 3-4. Ms. Smart is an instructor at JSU.
I am a convert.
I am as feverishly zealous as the most rabid convert you have ever met,
the one you want to avoid at all costs, the one with that whacked-out gleam
in her eye who collars you and preaches the gospel. So, if you want to
glimpse my righteous fire, read on, and witness my conversion.
After being in the writing classroom for twenty-three years, after trudging
through all the trends, and after experiencing all those breathless moments
of hope followed by a deadening sense of defeat, I think, finally, I have
found THE WAY.
I am talking about the summer of '92, in sweltering Jacksonville, Alabama,
located in a shallow, emerald valley in the heart of the South. Here at
Jacksonville State University is located one of the summer institutes sponsored
by the National Writing Project.
During those golden days of summer, when temperatures soared into the nineties
outside, twenty of us, all teachers, caught fire, died a little, were reborn,
and then cast out to spread the gospel. What follows is the recounting
of my discipleship.
Writers Collaborating
I had read the literature in the journals; I knew groups were supposed
to work; I put my writers in groups occasionally. But then I would watch
writers drift away from their groups. (A lot of writers would rather work
alone.) I was not sure how to evaluate compositions written in a group.
(Was their writing really a valid representation of their ability?) Their
playing around bothered me. (They seemed to be discussing the parties the
night before.) I could not always get their attention. (I was supposed
to be in charge of the class!) There was just no time to deal with group
dynamics. (I had nine essays to produce, and somehow, I had to fit in all
those lectures on structure and mechanics.)
And then, there was the Writing Project.
For the first time, I participated in a reader-response group myself. I
experienced firsthand the delicate dynamic of group work.
Back in class, I emphasized that everyone would participate in a
group for a whole semester. I recognized that some would find it uncomfortable
at first; some would be reluctant to share; but I stressed that all
would belong to a group. Then, I just divided my roll into groups of five
in no particular order. I let my classes know that I would be unappreciative
if I entered the classroom in the future and found them sitting apart.
After that, groups simply evolved.
Collaborative Learning
In the Writing Project, I learned from my group. They found my errors,
explained why they were errors, and helped me correct them. My group taught
me that I failed often at getting my point across in my writing because
of poor unity, inadequate coherence, and verbosity. Their help was offered
in the spirit of generosity. I was neither intimidated nor insulted.
I learned.
This is a fact. A reader-response group teaches. When a student composition
travels through four other consciences, there is pooled an awful lot of
knowledge. Of course, one must expect the initial modicum of courtesy:
"Oh, that's so good!" But when grades start coming back, some of them not
so good, the group gets tired of correcting the same old errors. The writer
begins to get the idea, starts listening to the group, and quits making
the errors.
My evaluation of the student essay is not affected by its journey through
the group. I find that student writing is often still fraught with distressing
anomaly, words still misspelled, comma splices still intact. The group
teaches where it can--that is all. A lot of teaching goes on, nevertheless.
Group Antics
If ever I thought that the antics of eighteen-year-olds were exclusively
absurd and frivolous, I am now amended of that fact. The average age of
my group at the Writing Project was probably around forty. I will not go
into the details of our idiotic pranks, the occasional stupidity of our
conversations, the time we "wasted" on soul-searching and commiseration,
the jokes we shared. At the top of it all, though, was the task at hand.
We were writers with a vested interest in writing. That was an important
lesson for us.
A reader-response group is an organic entity. It laughs and cries and exalts
and learns. It has a time for every emotion. Eventually, it becomes unified.
It revolts at the threat of a split.
At midterm, I asked for a confidential note from the members of my groups.
Did they want to change groups? Out of seventy-six freshmen, not a single
student wanted to restructure the class.
The fact is that the group members cared for one another. Their success
was collaborative, and so was their failure. Their writing was not an isolated,
solitary experience; it was generated through the souls of them all. It
was the highest form of publication: to be read by people who appreciate
and like one another. That requires a lot of joking around. And some crying.
Teacher as Authority
It was a revelation, but we needed no teachers at the Writing Project.
We were set loose with certain goals and time to read, write, and research.
We were to fulfill rather loosely defined tasks, providing us with quite
a bit of latitude as to the final product. The result was a product that
was ours rather than anyone else's.
That is called "ownership."
I resisted the impulse to stand before my writing class as an authority.
I announced the general assignment and the deadline, and then I backed
off. I never assigned topics, never suggested subjects, hardly even mentioned
the rhetorical patterns discussed so thoroughly in the text. I might have
said, "Compare something." Perhaps I said, "Tell me what causes something."
I recall saying, "Define something."
Teacher as Facilitator
It was hard. I would watch the little guy in the group in the back struggling
to think of a topic. I would watch as he wadded up a dozen sheets of notebook
paper, used his pen as a stiletto in frustration, aggravated his group
with endless meanderings into possible topics. It took perseverance on
his part as well as mine.
Sometimes, I have had to share that student's failure. But, then that student
might also flourish as a writer without the devouring presence of authority.
Without outside influence, that writer might own his subject and
therefore place more importance on it.
Teacher as Teacher
What about learning the mechanics of writing?
In the Writing Project, I participated in many learning sessions upon the
occasion of writer errors, but never did we discuss these writing rules
without first having made an error in our own writing.
I no longer stand before the class en masse to lecture on general
writing errors. The closest I will get to that situation is to invite class
members to private seminars, outside of class, to discuss particular problems.
The Writing Project teaches right away that the application of rules to
writing cannot occur in any way but to one's own writing. In other words,
one must make the error before the error can be corrected.
This is a truth so basic that it must not be ignored.
In a writing workshop, either the group teaches, or the teacher teaches.
Some students are beyond teaching by either; and there is a great failure.
Failures and Successes
In my outside reading during the Project, I learned of great failures.
Even the experts admit to impossibilities. I will not reach everyone. The
group will not help everyone. The most desperate measures will not help
everyone to be an adequate writer. There will be those who, through their
own poor backgrounds, through their own lack of motivation, will fail.
Here is where the instructor's aim is most important. It is the instructor's
aim to help everyone who remains there to aim at. Sometimes, though, the
instructor should acknowledge that the target is nebulous, for various
reasons. That is not a sign to give up, however, but to concentrate on
those many successes who come out of the workshop.
Teachers, it is our responsibility. Let us take up the flame of ideas and
ignite the written word.
English
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