western massachusetts writing project volume 23, number 1, … fall... · 2016. 8. 13. · western...

Connections W e s t e r n M a s s a c h u s e t t s W r i t i n g P r o j e c t V o l u m e 2 3 , n u m b e r 1 , S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

English Department • College of Humanities and Fine Arts • University of Massachusetts Amherst

Newsletter of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project

WMWP remembers Charlie Moranby Bruce Penniman and Anne Herrington

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Charlie Moran, co-founder of the WMWP, passed away on June 21, 2015. Bruce Penniman and Anne Herrington remember Charlie and the legacy that he leaves behind.Bruce Penniman: Charlie and I both came to UMass in 1967, he as a new English professor and I as a freshman English major. We met in Grayson dorm, where Charlie served as a faculty fellow. He par-ticipated in social events on the floor and ate mystery meat with us at the dining commons. My future wife Val and I started spending a lot of time together that year, and she remembers these din-ners too. Who knows, all of Charlie’s loving talk about his family may have inspired us to become one. In fact, Char-lie and Kay are both partly responsible for our marriage. On our first real date, Val and I ran into them at the movie theater, and they paid for our tickets to Doctor Zhivago and gave us a ride back to campus. As an English major, I studied the 18th-century novel with Charlie—I can still hear him giggling over a passage from Tristram Shandy—and later fiction as a genre. When I saw the new course in the schedule, I asked Charlie about it, and he said, “Oh, stay away from Prose Fiction.” I was crushed; I thought he didn’t want me in class again.

Eventually I realized that that this was just his way of saying, “You’ve already gotten what I have to offer; try someone else.” But of course he had a lot more to offer. I did enroll in Prose Fiction, my only English course that required short weekly papers instead of a long one at the end. I’ve been copying that approach in my own teaching ever since.

I connected with Charlie again in a gradu-ate course, Writing and the Teaching of Writing—a course I now teach, though not as well—and that was the beginning of my turn toward composition, which became the focus of my doctoral work. Charlie served as one of my dis-sertation advisors, and I re-member vividly the meet-ings I had with him each time I submitted a chap-ter—he always praised what I had done, offered lots of encouragement, and asked two or three hard

questions I hadn’t even thought of. How I hated and loved those questions! WMWP, which Charlie co-founded in 1992 and served as director of until 2003, was the site of my longest and deepest collaboration with Charlie. Like many other teachers, I have come to call the Writing Project my professional home. I participated in WMWP’s second summer institute in 1994. Soon after, Charlie asked me to

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-Charlie Moran - Continued from page 1join the leadership team, and it’s been non-stop in-volvement ever since. Many others could say the same. We all grew into leadership because Char-lie encouraged us to and worked with us to tackle problems and design solutions, even in areas where we had limited experience. Eventually I had the awesome responsibil-ity of stepping into Charlie’s shoes as site director, an opportunity that would not have come my way without his intervention and assistance. In that role, I gained a greater appreciation for the mentor-ing work that Charlie had done for over a decade and appreciated his ongoing advice and support. I have tried hard to emulate his practice of creating supportive spaces for others to lead, and I am very grateful to have him—present tense—in my life.Anne Herrington: I joined the UMass Amherst English De-partment because of Charlie, who he was as a per-son and the programs he was leading. Soon after I arrived, he had me on the board of the Five Col-leges Partnership Writing Project. It was the fore-runner to the Western Mass. Writing Project, which became a site of the National Writing Project in 1992 thanks to a successful grant co-written by our first co-directors: Charlie Moran, Pat Hunter, and June Kuzmeskus. Actually, as Bruce Penniman has pointed out, Charlie was the site director, with all of the responsibilities and administrative headaches associated with that role, but characteristic of his collaborative style of leadership and his humility, he always referred to himself as a co-director. His doing so also conveyed his deeply held respect for the expertise of WMWP teachers—pre-K through college—and belief in what we could learn from one another and together. That belief in teacher expertise was also coupled with a set of principles that guided his work as a program leader, teacher, and mentor. I think he would want us to remember these: We learn to write by writing and receiving feedback. The primary texts of a writing course should be students’ writ-ing. Writing is central to learning in all subjects and thus, the development of students’ writing abilities is the responsibility of all teachers.

Two corollaries that Charlie modeled by ex-ample: Teachers of writing should be writers them-selves. Teachers of other writing teachers should be writing teachers themselves. And along with these, a deeply held commitment to social justice and equal education for all students. Although Charlie stepped down as site di-rector in 2003 and retired from UMass, he never “retired” from participating in and advocating for WMWP programs. Here are a few memories that stand out to me now: Sometime in the 1990’s, Charlie and Pat Hunter taking the leadership on getting “Smart Boards,” inexpensive keyboards that could be linked to computers, primarily so students in poor-ly resourced districts, including Springfield, could have access to composing with computers. Our last work together, arguing against us-ing automated computer programs in classrooms to evaluate student writing. Charlie’s title for one of our articles: “Writing to a Machine is Writing to Nobody at All.” Charlie, leader as colleague, modeling a generosity of spirit for us all. As colleague, always ready to join in enthusiastically and offer support. No retiring from that role. Late March 2015, WMWP Spring Sympo-sium. In early January, we agreed to do a session critiquing automated writing assessment programs. In late February into early March, as we began planning, it was evident that Charlie was serious-ly ill, so I wanted to lessen the preparatory work we’d need to do. I told him that I thought we had enough material from our previous research, but he disagreed, saying, “We should do something new.” To me, that remark reflected both the high standards he set for himself and his belief that this was what our teacher audience deserved. And Charlie was not going to let them/us down. He never did. If you have memories of Charlie that you would like to share, please visit our padlet site and leave a comment: http://padlet.com/khodgson1/charlie See page 9 for information about a fellow-ship being created in Charlie’s memory.


WMWP Fall PlannerEngaging Student Writers: Best Practices in the Teaching of WritingSaturday, October 24, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. UMass, Bartlett Hall. See pages 4-6 for details. WMWP’s annual conference features three rounds of concurrent sessions on such topics as digital portfolios, writing in science and math, and Uni-versal Design for Learning, plus a luncheon and keynote speech by Alicia Lopez, winner of MTA’s Louise Gaskins Lifetime Civil Rights Award. 12 PDPs with extension option. Registration fee: $50 ($25 for full-time undergraduate students)

National Day on WritingTuesday, October 20 Participate in the Seventh Annual National Day on Writing. Submit some of your own writing, encourage your students to participate, organize a writing event at your school. For ideas and information, visit: www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/.

Teachers as Writers ContestDeadline: Tuesday, December 1 WMWP invites all Massachusetts educators to sub-mit manuscripts of up to 750 words for its annual Teachers as Writers Contest. Winner receives a gift certificate for WMWP programs and publica-tion in the newsletter. Submission guidelines are available at: www.umass.edu/wmwp/events/teachersaswriterscontest.html.

WMWP Leadership MeetingsWednesday, September 16, 4:15-6 p.m. Five Col-leges, Inc., Spring Street, Amherst; winter and spring dates and locations TBA.WMWP leadership meetings—open to all WMWP teacher-consultants—are held for the purpose of reviewing ongoing programs, planning future programs, and discussing issues of importance to teachers, including the WMWP inquiry theme for the year, to be decided at the September meeting.

Empowered Teachers, Engaged Students: Building Our Capacity to Reach All Learn-ers: NEATE Fall Conference October 30-31. Holiday Inn, Mansfield, MA Keynote addresses by Sonia Nieto, author of many books on multicultural education and teacher resilience, and Tom Newkirk, a leading authority on writing and literacy, plus almost 15 concurrent sessions on Friday and 3 three-hour workshops on Saturday (including one by WMWP Technology Co-Director Kevin Hodgson) in these strands: Journeying toward Justice, Designing for Differ-entiation, and Teaching with Technology. For de-tails and registration forms, visit www.neate.org.

Reaching and Teaching All Learners: ELL/SPED Workshops/Grad CourseMondays: January 11 and 25, February 8 and 22, March 7 (ELL portion); March 28, April 11 and 25, May 9 and 23 (SPED portion); June 6 (synthe-sis); 4-7 p.m. Boland School, Springfield.This program consists of two 15-hour workshops that fulfill the Massachusetts DESE requirement that all teachers renewing their licenses earn at least 15 PDPs related to supporting ELLs and at least 15 PDPs related to students with disabilities and diverse learning styles. Teachers may enroll in either part for 15 PDPs or both for 3 cred-its. The full course may be counted as an elec-tive in the Certificate in the Teaching of Writing Program. $150 for one 15-PDP workshop series (ELL or SPED), $250 for entire course. $345 ad-ditional for 3 UMass credits.

WMWP Spring SymposiumThursday, March 24, 4-8 p.m. Westfield State University. Save the date! Details TBA.

Questions? E-mail WMWP office manager Jess Ouellette at [email protected] or call 545-5466.


A Sessions (8:30 – 10:00)

Engaging Student Writers, K-12

Saturday, October 24, 2015Bartlett Hall Lobby, UMass Amherst

6 Professional Development Hours12 PDPs available with extension

Register Online at www.umass.edu/wmwp/registration.html (please indicate session preferences)

WMWP’s Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing Fall Conference

Keynote by Alicia Lopez, recipient of the Norma Jean Anderson Civil Rights Achievement Award and the MTA Louise Gaskins Lifetime Civil Rights Award

8:00 Coffee & Registration8:30 Workshop sessions A & B12:00 Lunch Keynote by Alicia Lopez1:30 Workshop session C3:00 Closing&6PDhourscertificatepickup

Schedule

The Western Massachusetts Writing Project has a proud tradition of featuring selected workshops by its new-est Summer Institute class and veteran teacher-consultants at its annual Best Practices conference. This year’s program includes 10 morning workshops, followed by a luncheon featuring keynote speaker Alicia Lopez. Five additional workshops will be held in the afternoon.

A1. Low Stakes Writing for Student Self-ExpressionThis workshop will focus on the question, “If students are invited to respond to low-stakes writing prompts as a means of self-expression and verbally record rather than write their first drafts, will their confidence and joy in writing increase?” The ultimate goal is for students to develop an appreciation for writing. The hope is that this will be accomplished by changing students’ thinking about writing from exclusively dry and academic-based to viewing it as a form of self-expression and empower-ment. The final aim is to deepen students’ thinking and improve their writing skills. Michelle D’Amore teaches 8th grade English at Baird Middle School in Ludlow. She is also the English/Reading Department Chair. A2. The Role of Roles in Writing This presentation branches from work on improving students’ science argument writing. The National Writ-ing Project has been studying what a prompt elicits from students. Our Western Mass. science group has become

interested in sentence frames and other simple scaffold-ing. How well does casting students into a particular role improve their writing? Most teachers include role and audience in a writing prompt. This presentation pushes toward more investment in casting students in a particu-lar role to answer a scientific question. This can include appealing to their own sense of social justice—casting themselves as themselves. This session is appropriate for teachers of all grade levels.Karl Muench teaches 8th grade science at Collins Middle School in Salem, MA.

A3. Content Area Literacy (and a few other surprises) to Engage Learners This workshop, most appropriate for teachers who teach grades 3-7, will provide participants with an opportunity to explore who they are as learners, writers, and teachers of writing in the content areas. After they have had time to reflect on their own learning on topics and to map out topics they teach or would like to teach, participants will embark on a short study of invertebrates and use this study as a vehicle to explore Writing-to-Learn and other creative experiences as they apply to the study of this vast and important group of animals. Participants will walk away with a combination of reflection about their own learning processes and teaching practices, easy-to-use writing strategies to implement right away in their classrooms, and some life-changing information about the animals that comprise 97% of our animal kingdom. Marian Parker co-teaches in an upper elementary classroom, grades 4-6, at The Montessori School of Northampton.

$50 Registration Fee($25 for full-time undergraduate

students)Includes Coffee and Lunch

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A4.WritingPortfolios:StudentReflectionandGoalSetting This workshop will explore the importance of reflection as an ongoing process in the student portfolio. Some teachers ask their students to set goals, but the students only reflect on those goals a couple times during the year. Reflection should be an ongoing process, and students need models to work from when developing goals and writing more formal reflections. Participants in this workshop will look at student writing samples and discuss what this could look like in their classrooms. Participants are encouraged to bring student samples from their own classes as well. The targeted audience is teachers in grades 6-8.Sarah Gengel teaches grades 7 and 8 ELA at the Paxton Center School in the Wachusett Regional School District.

A5.What’stheBrainGottoDoWithIt?TakingaCloser Look at the Brain and Universal Design for Learning for Readers and Writers In this workshop, participants will take a basic path through the awesome and mind-boggling brain. They will understand the relationship of neuroscience and UDL. They also will become familiar with the principals of UDL and consider how to apply them to their lessons for their diverse students. This workshop is best suited for elementary-level teachers. Elizabeth Devlin is a reading specialist at Wildwood Elementary School in Amherst.

B Sessions (10:15 – 11:45)B1. Writing Makes Sense in Math: Supporting Student Writing in Mathematical Problem SolvingThis workshop will explore strategies for improving students’ writing in math as well as ways to increase the amount of joy that students take from their written math work. Helping our students become more adept at sense-making in math is becoming even more important to teachers of math at every level. This is especially chal-lenging for students who are anxious about math. How can we help students write with clarity and feel successful about the written expression of their mathematical think-ing? When students gain confidence, their attitude toward math will certainly improve. Grade level: 3-8.Johanna Greenough co-teaches in an upper elementary classroom, grades 4-6, at The Montessori School of Northampton.

B2. Prewriting Techniques: How to Intrigue Different Types of Learners, Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic This session explores different types of prewriting tech-niques for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners to further their writing process. Each technique we go over will touch base on one or more of the different learning styles, as well as focus on either narrative, persuasive, or

argumentative writing. These techniques are appropriate for 8th-12th grade. Kasey Leslie is pursuing a Masters in Education at Elms College.

B3. Making Student Writing Portfolios More Interac-tive and Engaging This presentation will engage participants in activities that explore how to revive student writing portfolios in the middle grades. Participants will read an article and reflect on what it means to make the writing portfolio real. Two strategies will be shared and discussed: (1) Sentence frames for feedback and (2) Electronic portfolios on Google Drive with reflections. Lastly, participants will have conversations about how teachers can engage their students in feedback and reflection. Michelle Eastman is a Grade 6 Teacher of Math, ELA, and Reading at JFK Middle School.

B4. Rhetorical Analysis and Moves: Strategies to Support Students in the Art of Persuasion and Argu-mentation For middle and high school students, the ability to argue based on evidence rather than opinion is a key component of being college and career ready, and it is an expectation of the Common Core. In this session, participants will perform a rhetorical analysis and be introduced to strate-gies for effectively utilizing templates from the book They Say/ I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing.Amber O’Reilly is a science teacher and Department Chair at Duggan Academy in Springfield, MA.

B5. Planning and Differentiating Online with the Literacy Design Collaborative The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) allows teach-ers to create and share online instructional plans. This workshop will introduce participants to the power of this collaborative tool, customize a bank of skill-based prompts to the tasks they assign students, and add specific “demands” to the task to differentiate the prompt while staying true to the same core skill. With a skill-based task in place, LDC guides teachers through the development of instructional strategies and “mini-tasks” that focus learn-ing and formative assessment. Participants will learn how to use LDC and enjoy results they can use on Monday. Damian Konkoly teaches at Minnechaug Regional High School; Karin Kayser teaches at Pioneer Valley Perform-ing Arts Charter Public School. C Sessions (1:30 – 3:00)C1. 2015 Summer Institute ReunionFor 2015 SI alums only.C2.GoogleApps for Writers and ReadersAs more and more schools move over to Google Apps




for Education, more educators are wondering how best to use the tools in the Google suite of programs—such as Slides, Docs, Forms, and Sites—to engage students as learners. In this workshop, participants will dive into the collaborative nature of Google programs with hands-on writing and reading activities as we reflect on the pos-sibilities for classrooms. Note: Participants ideally should have an account with Google (such as basic Gmail) but it is not necessary for participants to be part of the Google Apps for Education program. This workshop is appropri-ate for teachers of all grade levels.Kevin Hodgson teaches 6th grade at the William E. Norris Elementary School in Southampton, and he is the WMWP co-director of technology.

C3. Science Writing Inquiry—Exploring Argument Writing in the SciencesWMWP members of a national SEED Science Writing Inquiry group are a little more than halfway through a two-year study of writing arguments in the sciences, thanks to a federal grant awarded to the National Writing Project. They will share what they have learned so far from their work, the work of the four other participating WP sites, and will invite participants to look at some of the student work that has resulted from this inquiry. The session will end with a whole group discussion of how this work can be shared with other teachers, schools and districts. Grade levels: Middle and high school teachers.Jack Czajkowski teaches at Elms College, Susan Fisher teaches in the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, Hollington Lee teaches for the Ludlow Public Schools, Eileen Lynch teaches for the Westfield Public Schools, and Lisa Rice teaches in the Southampton Public School District.

C4. The Holocaust Education Network Joanne Wisniewski, retired West Springfield Middle School teacher, and Cara Crandall, facilitator of the Holocaust Teacher Institute, will lead a panel discussion about this summer’s institute. They will include glimpses into the workshops, resources shared, and tell about field trips they took. If you are interested in teaching about the Holocaust or already do, this session will give you more insights into the topic and a preview of next sum-mer’s session. This discussion is aimed at middle school and high school teachers, especially English and history.

C5. I-Search: Engaging Student Writers through Independent Inquiry Projects Developed by Ken Macrorie, the I-Search reinvents the traditional research paper and encourages students to

take ownership of the research process. Using student-generated questions as a starting point, I-Searchers seek information that will benefit them in some way, creating motivation that helps them through the research process. Along the way, high school students learn essential research skills, including how to access and evaluate a variety of sources, synthesize information, cite correctly, and organize their work. The end result is a narrative research paper that tells the story of the writer’s search and reflects thoughtfully on what has been learned.Jonathan Weil teaches English at Longmeadow High School.

Best Practices Keynote Speaker Alicia Lopez

Alicia Lopez has been teaching for over 20 years. At first a French, then Spanish teacher, she now teaches English Language Learners. Currently, she is in her 11th year of teaching at Amherst Regional Middle School. Alicia received her Master’s in Education at UMass, and she has been involved in the Western Mas-sachusetts Writing Project for eight years, presently as co-director of the Summer Insti-tute. Alicia was the recipient of two awards last year: the Norma Jean Anderson Civil Rights Achievement Award and the MTA Louise Gas-kins Lifetime Civil Rights Award. Alicia lives in Amherst with her husband and three chil-

dren, ages 14, 12, and 10.

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WMWP brings summer pilot program for middle schoolers to the Springfield Armoryby Katie Richardson In late June, WMWP partnered with the Springfield Armory to offer an exciting new pilot program—Summer Workshop: Write, Learn, Cre-ate. Attended by 22 middle school students, the week-long program offered students a wide vari-ety of history, writing, and other creative activi-ties. The program was funded through an NWP/National Park Service Collaboration Grant. The program was taught by TC Katie Richard-son, along with three Springfield teachers—Laura Gay, James Davenport, and Karen Flaherty. As part of the grant, the four teachers participated in three mornings of professional development with fa-cilitators from the Armory, the Veterans Education Project, and other teachers who have worked with curriculum that integrates the Armory’s history and collection. Through this process, teachers learned a lot about the Armory and the various ways that it has impacted history and helped shape the city. They also gained curricular ideas and informa-tion about the use of oral history, primary sources, and curriculum already available through the Ar-mory. At a final meeting, they developed the cur-riculum for the week’s program that focused on two threads—im-migration/labor and rebellion. Supported by park ranger and Education Coordinator Jennifer Zazo-Brown, the group recruited Springfield area students through intensive community outreach. Every day during the student program, the group met together for whole group activities in-cluding a tour of the Armory, a discussion of The Butter Battle Book, a presentation by immi-grant Joel Iranzi, a historical 3D map-making activity, and a mock assembly activity that made real the differences between individu-

al production and assembly line production. Then, students were split into small groups to complete other activities that connected the whole group ac-tivity to their group’s theme. The format was en-gaging and effective at providing many different opportunities for learning, creating, and building community. Writing was woven throughout the week with students writing into and out of the day, and completing poetry, newspaper articles, comics, journal entries, and more. Students did a fabulous job presenting their work and new learning during the final day celebration. Students really enjoyed the program and, know-ing that it was a pilot, enthusiastically asked that it be offered again next year. The program was sup-ported by a staff of interns and volunteers, as well as the aforementioned site partners. Luckily, the site has been offered additional grant funding for resource development and travel to the Annual Meeting to continue the great work that was done this summer as part of the WMWP/Springfield Armory collaboration. To view a video about the program, click this link: https://vimeo.com/132702803.



SI 2015: A professional community of writers, researchers, and presentersby Elizabeth Devlin A few days after the last week of the school year, I walked into a calm circle of teachers with some eyeing the carafe of perking coffee and most not knowing one another. We would soon start to spend eight hours a day together focusing on writ-ing. Three weeks later, I left the Summer Institute inspired, informed, and full of inquiry. That circle of courageous teachers in college chairs became a professional learning community focusing on three strands of the National Writing Project Summer Institute: Teachers as Writers, Research-ers, and Presenters. We also became part of a community of caring peers. Teachers as Writers: When co-facilitator of the SI Alicia Lopez told us we could write anything we wanted to write during the writing marathon on the second day, I thought, “Serious-ly? Complete choice? No strings?” Yes, we could finish a task from the school year, a poem, that half-done chapter, or start a memoir. We needed to create our space for writing. Every day, Alicia presented prompts for Writing Into or Out of the Day. It had been a long time since I had written to such specific prompts. At first I wondered if it would lead to authentic writing. However, I found the prompts used creativity to probe and open deep crevices of experiences and thoughts, as well as to stir up whimsical fun with words. Writing In and Out of the Day led me to recover and discover my writer’s notebook. To be a teacher of writing, I have to write for my own purposes in addition to

“teacher writing.” Every day for three weeks, we wrote for ourselves. We shared. We responded. We were seekers of truths in territories of ourselves as writers. We ventured to be a caring and skilled community of responding readers and writers for each other. We will bring this to our practice, to our programs, and to our students. Teachers as Researchers: We feasted on readings, research, and dis-cussions while revitalizing best practices such as Share the Air with Three to discuss an article on

restorative justice, or Take a Line for a Walk with “Willing to be Disturbed.” We honed in on techniques for re-sponse groups. We learned from past SI participants. Al-legra D’Ambruoso linked us to effec-tive internet search routes, and Chris Rea livened up prac-tices of having voice in writing with stu-dents. Our special

guest, Sonia Nieto, fielded a range of questions and shared her research on why teachers teach. We did our own research. Co-facilitator of the SI Karen Miele drove home the point that our inquiry proj-ect was a time to be selfish and to explore a topic that we felt we needed to learn more about, so that is what I did. I delved into the neuroscience behind written response to reading which brought forth neuromyths, Universal Design for Learning, and the absolutely mind-boggling and awesome ex-panse that the brain and mind offer. The SI probed all of our understandings every day. Our explora-tions went beyond the room in Tobin Hall to each



If you would like to make a contribution to the fellowship, you can do so online at: http://www.umass.edu/wmwp/contribute.html or by mail at UMass Amherst Annual Fund, Development Office, Memorial Hall, 134 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003-9270. Be sure to earmark your contribution to the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, CHFA.

WMWP to establish Charles Moran Fellowship

- Continued from page 8other’s classrooms and practice. Teachers as Presenters: There was a hum as teachers settled into putting together their 90-minute presentations for their Teacher Inquiry Workshops. Some dispersed. Some rarely walked away from the desktop screen in our computer lab. I relished the collection of text and brain videos at my fingertips in the Du-Bois collection at the UMass library, and I was sty-mied by how much I needed to learn to snip and embed video clips for my presentation. Everyone approached the TIW in the way best for his or her question of inquiry and tried to include best prac-tices in the presentations to engage our peers and to communicate clearly. We were active partici-pants and critical friends in a research laboratory of peers. TIW could have stood for Teachers Inspired about Work. I was a Teacher In Wonder at the ex-pertise shared in content and presenting. We all left the TIWs with many new ideas to bring back to our

classrooms and to share with our students.Summer Institute: Although SI stands for Summer Institute, it could also stand for Summer Invitational to In-quiry, Information and Inspiration for teachers of writing. By revitalizing our own writing, we revi-talized our listening hearts to student writers who are vulnerable when uncovering, shaping, or shar-ing their experiences and thoughts, whether that is on paper or with others. By revitalizing our own writing lives, we honed in on the craft and process of writing as a writer as well as a practitioner. The Summer Institute brings writing into professional development and academic study. It re-members writing into the teaching of writing, which feeds our practice and learning as well as our connec-tion to our students so they can reach their capac-ity, choose their paths, and change the world. That may be one ever-reaching reason for why we teach and for why we teach writing.

-SI 2015: A professional community

To honor founding site director Charlie Moran’s contributions to the Western Massa-chusetts Writing Project and continue his efforts to promote teacher leadership, WMWP will establish this year the Charles Moran Fellowship, an annual award that will enable an aspiring teacher-leader who has completed the WMWP Summer Institute to propose and implement a project benefiting teachers and/or youth and families in the region. The successful candidate will receive a stipend and mentoring by one (or more) of WMWP’s co-directors. Details will be announced at the Best Practices conference and by e-mail.

Justin Eck to serve as new co-director of youth programming Justin Eck is serving as the new co-direc-tor of youth and family programs for the West-ern Massachusetts Writing Project. Justin joined the WMWP in 2013 when he participated in the Summer Institute. He has stayed involved with the WMWP since his participation in the SI by work-ing on the continuity committee and by attending

executive board meetings. Justin is excited to take on this leadership role and to expand the role of youth programming in the WMWP. If you are interested in joining the youth and family programming committee, please con-tact the WMWP at [email protected] and let us know that you want to join this committee.


Planting the seed for science writingby Karl Muench and Amber O’Reilly From two coasts, we arrived as old es-tranged friends at the one-week conference at the Edith Macy Conference Center in New York. Most of us in NWP’s SEED science project had first joined a year earlier in common purpose: improve students’ science argumentation. Between that July a year ago and the one this summer, our WMWP delegation met every month, talked as a national group about as often, and regularly monitored each other’s progress through our shared Google site. When we started last year, most of us had no firm idea of what we would do. Our projects have grown through this year, and now we can see some fruits of that growth. Every participant performed two “scoops,” as they have been dubbed. That is, a soup-to-nuts collection of all that goes into an in-vestigation that leads to students writing a science argument. Each team— Western Mass., New York City, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Califor-nia—shared their progress. The Bay State work centered on high-leverage scaffolding through sen-tence frames and emphasizing students’ roles and audience in their writing. The work continues. The projection runs through this school year, with each participant ex-pected to perform two more scoops. We are plant-ing seeds.Excerpts from Amber O’Reilly’s journal:Monday: 7/13/15 I had never been involved in a run-through of a conference before, and I was surprised by how many kinks had to be worked out hours be-fore the participants were to arrive. We ran through

the agenda, adjusted timing, and switched around when different topics were going to be covered. It was an eight-hour journey, but I felt very confi-dent in the work we had prepared for the upcoming week.Tuesday: 7/14/15 The morning was spent working through two types of arguments, criterion based and ex-planatory. These two types have caused many de-bates within our state groups and national groups. We have decided that both in fact can be identified as arguments. One thing that came to light during this session was that we as a group are still having difficulty determining what constitutes evidence

and what is reason-ing in students’ work. It was very helpful to use a graphic organiz-er asking: Does the student connect the claim to the evidence explicitly? Does the student use scientific concepts and ideas to explain the evi-dence and claim and/or clearly connect the evidence and claim to scientific concepts

and ideas? and Does the reasoning attend to the pa-rameters of the claim and available evidence? An-other helpful strategy was to highlight the claim, evidence, and reasoning in different colors before analyzing them. Wednesday: 7/15/15 (visit to the American Mu-seum of Natural History) As I sit here in the presence of numerous fossils of all shapes and sizes, I wonder why this thought has never come to me before. When teach-ing about modern trophic levels, why have I never placed them next to trophic levels of the Jurassic period? When students think of the time of the dinosaurs, they think of T-rex, pterodactyls, and



Holocaust Education Network and WMWP partner for summer workshopby Joanne Wisniewski This summer, WMWP and the Memorial Library Olga Lengyel Institute worked together to hold a week-long symposium at UMass Amherst. Teachers from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Texas gathered daily for a wonderful program that prepared them to better teach their students about the Holocaust. The program included talks by Holocaust survivors Dr. Anna Ornstein and her hus-band Paul, as well as Echoes and Reflec-tions memories that are record-ed. Dr. Dawn Skorczewski, from Brandeis U n i v e r s i t y , showed us how to use Shoah F o u n d a t i o n Archives in our teaching to make the lessons seem real to our stu-dents. Micha Franke, from the Holocaust Educators Network, presented a talk, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Concentration Camps,” as we explored teaching this topic at the middle and high school levels. Rabbi Benjamin Weiner from the Jewish Community of Amherst spent time answering our questions about being Jewish today and invited us to attend a Shabbat Service with his congregation on Friday evening. We took field trips to the amazing National Yiddish Book Center as well as the permanent ex-hibit on the UMass campus, “A Reason to Remem-

ber: Roth Germany 1933-1942.” Our docent spoke about his personal mem-ories of Kristallnacht and how his family managed to escape from Germany and survive. Hanna Perl-stein Marcus spoke about writing the book Sidonia’s Thread, which told the story of her mother’s life and her life after surviving a concentration camp. She and her mother moved to Springfield, Massa-

chusetts, when she was just two years old, but her story gave us some insights into what life could be like for a Holocaust sur-vivor and her daughter. Cara Cran-dall and Paula Mercier led us through many commu-nity building exercises and assisted us in our Teaching Circles where

each participant created a unit they would like to teach. It was a busy week, but all came away with many new resources, new friends, and new ways to help their students learn about the Holocaust. A group of teachers who attended this sum-mer workshop will present at this year’s Best Prac-tices conference. They will lead a panel discussion and share some of their experiences and resources with those who attend their panel discussion. If you are interested in learning more about the summer workshop, come to learn how you could participate next summer.

WMWP and DYS create new science unitsby Heather Hay

-science writing - Continued from page 10

The WMWP and the Collaborative for Edu-cational Services are working together to align the Department of Youth Services science curriculum with the new Massachusetts science standards. A group of DYS teachers and WMWP TCs met dur-ing the week of August 10th to recap the scope and sequences that our writing team accomplished in Phase I of the DYS curriculum project and to begin Phase II: writing six sci-ence units incorpo-rating numeracy, lit-eracy skills, and the latest science stan-dards. Before the curriculum “Writ-ing Marathon” even started, many of us met for a site visit at the DYS school in Westfield where we observed the challenges and accomplishments of teachers and students. We watched and listened for the needs of youth in transition and the educators who support them. In the spirit of “teachers teach-ing teachers,” our group considered classroom size, availability of supplies, differentiated instruction, and various approaches to unpacking the new Next

Generation Science Standards (NGSS). We hoped to put together a real and authentic instruction sys-tem for the DYS Curriculum Guide. And what happened? We created this (using the cooking theme we incorporated in the chemistry unit):Recipe for Interest and Engagement in the Sci-

encesReactants (Ingredi-ents): positive, ex-perienced colleagues + “superb” leader-ship. Mix well. Bake in the UMass Bartlett Hall room 105 for 200 man hours.Add a sprinkle of Laura Finn-Heafey’s suggestions for keeping the learning authentic.Shut off AC when

middle is solid to touch. Products (Yield): Exemplar units in Ecology and Biology, a long unit in Physics on motion and sta-bility, a long unit in Chemistry on reaction rates and equilibrium, and two short units in Biology on evi-dence for evolution and DNA & protein synthesis.Serve (hot) and enjoy the results!


brontosaurus, but seldom do I believe they think of the smaller creatures occupying the niches from the ground up into the canopies. What a fantastic com-parison to provide them with. This is a model they would more readily grasp when thinking of modern and prehistoric organisms. This view may enable the abstract to become more concrete. The only is-sue that may arise is the fact that gaps occur in the fossil record, but surely this would lead to vigorous discourse within the classroom.Thursday: 7/16/15Most of today was spent working on our writing

tasks for the Fall scoop. My task: Physical Science, 8th grade.A question I wrote: “Will the melting of polar ice lead to climate change? How does the melting of polar ice impact our community?” I received some wonderful feedback from my peers when we broke off into groups of three and used the assignment protocol to review our plans. We spent an hour focused on each plan. Friday: 7/17/15Each group shared what it learned from the week together.

western massachusetts writing project volume 23, number 1, … fall... · 2016. 8. 13. · western...

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