Bard College Institute for Thinking and Writing, 2011

Dear CEEF Grant Committee Members:

Here follows a preliminary report of my grant to attend the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking, July 10-15, 2011. 

Background
I have spent most of my first six years at CEHS as the English teacher assigned to the Achievement Center to work one-on-one with students to help them revise their essays.  But in the past year, the Achievement Center was reconfigured to have two additional English teachers in the AC, and to have me teach two sections of English.  After a year of being "back in the classroom," I felt that although I am good at evaluating and editing writing, my skills were rusty where the teaching of writing was concerned.  I assigned writing frequently enough, but I didn't teach writing.  A colleague, Win Phillips, had spoken highly of Bard College's Institute of Writing and Thinking, which he'd attended in previous summers.  Win is someone who, I'd noticed, gets students to expand their repertoire beyond the five-paragraph essay, to experiment with voice and form, and in the process, to go beyond a superficial or canned response to literature, to themselves, and their experiences.

Twenty years ago, I was in the English Ph.d. program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, working with the renowned writing teacher, Peter Elbow, author of, among other books, Writing with Power.  As guest editor in 1990 of a scholarly journal, Pretext: A Journal of Rhetorical Theory, he encouraged me to revise a piece I'd written in his class, which he subsequently published in the journal. My article was titled: "Enduring and Diagnosing Reader's Block."  Serendipitously, upon attending the workshop this summer, I learned that Bard's IWT was co-founded by Elbow in the early 1980's, using many of the precepts I'd practiced as a graduate teaching associate at UMass from 1987-1993.  I'd come full circle two decades hence.

The grant from CEEF to attend Bard's IWT workshop has allowed me to return, in a sense, to my scholarly roots and reinvigorate myself pedagogically to teach writing in the coming school year.

The Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking
We were a diverse group of sixteen middle and high school teachers, male and female, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, ranging in age from the 20's to the 50's. Several were from private schools in metropolitan Philadelphia, D.C., Chicago, and New York. At the other end of the spectrum, one taught on a  "reserve" (Canadian term for reservation) in British Columbia, and another at an arts school on an Indian reservation in New Mexico.  Another was heading for a new teaching job in Dubai. One Chicago charter school teacher reported being constrained by the newly implemented "Common Core" standards to the extent that each lesson had to have a direct link to a standard, and written on the white board for administrators to see. Yet another was leaving her position at a French International School in Bethesda, Maryland to direct Bard College's new magnet school in Sacramento.  I mention these demographic details because this diversity is one of the intangibles of such an experience for teachers: we get a different perspective on ourselves and our teaching when we venture away from our community and our comfort zone.

The Process
We spent six days together writing, sharing, revising--and in the process--learning ways to generate writing, respond to texts, and approach revision as an organic process of generating more ideas, doing additional writing, and distilling the whole into a finished piece that exudes voice, logic, perspective.  The instructor, Mary Leonard, gave us a writing prompt on the third day of the workshop: "Authority: who are we as authors, as teachers?" In responding in writing to this prompt I realized a few things.  I wrote, "I want to learn ways to help students find their voice, that ineffable self, through writing.  And I want evidence of their deep thinking, too. I don't want the product to be accidentally good. I feel like right now, I assign writing rather than teach it, or at best, I facilitate writing." To the follow-up question, "What's important to you as a teacher in writing?" I responded, "I want kids to like what they've written--how do I get there so it's not haphazard, accidental, or a matter of the most gifted writers always nailing it and others feeling no sense of growth? I fear assigning writing just for the sake of writing."  A subsequent question was, "What concerns do you have about your own writing?"  What emerged as we read aloud our responses was that we share the same concerns our students do over their writing:  a desire for clarity, creativity, a battle against insecurity, rage, time, expectations, messy humanity, and a reluctance to share, to expose one's thinking to public critique. If nothing else, attending the IWT causes teachers to develop empathy for their student writers and the struggles inherent in the composing process.  But, it was so much more. Writing over the course of the week allowed us to tap into stories that connected to who we are as teachers, as human beings.  We shared our "messy humanity" in writing; we became partners in feedback, in thinking, in making sense of each other's perspectives.  We learned and practiced techniques for examining poetry, prose and non-fiction texts so that we can better enable our students to understand and interpret challenging works of literature.  It was like boot camp for the left brain. 

Product
What was most exciting about this professional development opportunity was that another colleague in the English department, Erika Blauch Rusley, also attended the workshop. Bard's campus, with its rich cultural offerings and beautiful setting on the Hudson River, is the ideal setting for a writing teachers' retreat.  We feel energized by what we've learned and by the fact that we'll be able to support each other as we implement the IWT's writing-intensive, student-centered approaches to the English class.  I will give a follow-up report or presentation in the spring that will include samples of student writing.

Thank you, CEEF, for supporting teachers' professional development.

Sincerely,


Lisa Stapleton Melanson
Cape Elizabeth High School
Achievement Center and English Department Teacher

Pond Cove Professional Development 2009-10

The Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation awarded two extremely generous grants for professional development in 2009. The Technology Grant, funding the purchase of computer projectors and Smart Boards, transformed Pond Cove classrooms into vibrant, interactive learning centers with the latest educational technology sparking creativity in teachers and students alike. The Fiction Writing Grant, funding a year-long residency with nationally recognized author and educator, Jennifer Jacobson, expanded the English Language Arts curriculum, grades 2-5, to include the teaching of fiction writing, the most appealing of literary genres for imaginative adults and children.

The reason for the genuine success of these two opportunities, made possible by CEEF, is best explained in an article written by Andy Hargreaves, “Five flaws of staff development and the future beyond” (NSDC, 2007). In describing the future of professional development at its best, Andy Hargreaves envisions teachers learning from other teachers as they teach together, teachers learning from their students, and teachers learning from evidence and data as they process learning goals and targets for individuals and groups of students.

Andy Hargreaves writes, “Professional learning communities will be places where wise and critical teachers engage with each other over their accumulated (though not unquestioned) knowledge using a wide range of data (not just test scores) to devise more powerful strategies that help all children learn.”

As a result of the 2009 Technology Grant, the introduction of technology has been eagerly assimilated into the existing math, science, and literacy programs and has encouraged colleagues to share practices among students and classrooms. With the strategies learned through the 2009 Fiction Writing Grant, teachers and children have shared the fiction writing process across hallways, buildings, and grade levels, capitalizing on the months between Ms. Jacobson’s visits to truly hone their new skills.

Members of the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation are continually collaborating with parents, teachers, and administrators, asking thoughtful questions, and exploring innovative ways to support and improve the community’s academic goals.  Their passion inspires dreams and ignites possibilities. The Technology Grant and the Fiction Writing Grant allowed for continuous sustained professional learning among Cape Elizabeth educators and highlighted an example of Dr. Hargreaves’ goal for exemplary professional development. Working as a professional learning community, grateful educators from Cape Elizabeth devised more powerful strategies that help all children learn.

Searching for All Possibilities in Fiction-Writing

Second-grade students have their "glasses" on with visiting author Jennifer Jacobson on Friday, April 9th. Jacobson completed her multi-day professional development work with Pond Cove teachers and students, providing valuable instruction on the ins and outs of fiction writing.  For more photos of the students and their visitor, check out the gallery.

Art Students Learn Skills Gained through Art Teacher's Professional Development Experience

  Marguerite Lawlor-Rohner and her eighth-grade students spent weeks recreating a wonderful view of Portland Head Light.  Mrs. Rohner attended a CEEF-funded professional development course during the summer of 2009 where she learned many of the skills taught to her talented students.

Room with a View

Eighth-grade students Austin Andrews and Josh Graessle are two of the many artists who created this beautiful mural of Portland Head Light on the wall of a previously drab middle school conference room.  Art teacher Marguerite Lawlor-Rohner instructed the students with landscape-painting skills gained in a professional development grant funded by CEEF.  More murals are in the works throughout the fifth-grade wing and art hallway. To view a video of the dedication at Arts Night click here.