Creative Literacy Alliance - Terry Hermsen
Abstract:
Within this project, the Genoa-Otterbein Creative Literacy Alliance, 10 creative writing and two education students were trained in methods of teaching poetry to middle school students in English 375, conducted during the fall of 2007. During the course itself, they observed two different writers teaching classes, wrote lesson plans of their own, and taught three sessions to get started. In the winter, they "apprenticed" to visiting writer Katie Daley-and followed up her work in the classes with at least five lessons of their own. In addition, actors from Otterbein visited the same classrooms to explore methods in the performance of poetry.
Partnership and Collaborative Development
A kick-off "mini-fest" in which 40 students from all grade levels met with visiting writer David Hassler doing poetry exercises and reading back their work. (A highlight, during our closing reading session, Otterbein president Brent Devore was in attendance to accept the grant award from Chase Bank... but ended up staying past his deadline in order to hear ALL of the students' poems.
We had a wonderful all-day teacher-training session in December during which our 2nd visiting writer, Katie Daley, worked with the teachers on methods of using poetry in the classroom-as well as exploring theater-game exercises for linking poetry to acting.
A highlight of the winter was when two classes who had been working both with Katie Daley and the participating Otterbein writers met in the library for a "poetry circus," where students chose from a range of 5 options-working further on monologue poems, writing from paintings and images, working with three Otterbein actors on the performance of poetry, or working with their classroom teachers, who guided them with lessons they had designed. It was a truly exciting, truly interactive week!
In late February and early March, 12 actors from Otterbein visited each of the five classrooms which had been involved in the project to work on means of performing poems. They started off the sessions with theater games to loosen up the kids-and give them a greater sense of their own bodies. The students totally loved the actors-and it showed when they performed their poems on March 14th at Otterbein University.
A final highlight would be the all-day poetry 4 field trips we conducted in April... one to the Columbus Museum of Art, one to Franklin Park Conservatory, one to Olentangy Indian Caverns, and one to Spring Hollow, a metro park in Westerville. Each field trip had sections led by Otterbein students - and involved the Genoa students in means of applying the skills they'd learned in the year to "writing in the world." One of the Otterbein writers felt that he got to know the Genoa class he'd been working with all year in a whole new way-once they spent the afternoon around a fire (on a chilly day at Olentangy Caverns), reading poems and prose pieces about about fire and the natural world.
Evaluation
The Genoa teachers, the Otterbein student poets and the Genoa students all filled out evaluations responding to their experience in the program.
In addition, there are plans to compare the test scores (and attitudinal scorings) from the students involved with this project and the peer group students who were not involved.
Stories and Successes
There was one VERY QUIET 8th grade student who had come to our "mini-fest" in October. The goal of the mini-fests we've done is to reach those kids "who need a spark" -who have shown promise but not fully developed to their potential. This student, whom I'll call Brittany, quietly sat to the side of the small group she'd joined to work with one of our Otterbein students.
As I wandered around, I noticed that she'd filled two pages, whereas the others in the group were struggling to complete even half a page. I asked her if I could read it-and was stunned by the imagery she was using to convey her experience of moving from Florida to this new school in Ohio-and feeling so very much out of place. Everything the guest writer had been trying for was in this student's poem. Yet no one would have noticed her... or even heard her... her voice was so soft.
At the closing reading, I read the poem aloud for her...and you could see the beam on her face (and in her mother, who had come to hear the closing reading). On top of that-when we put together the final booklet for the year, we featured her poem on a page by itself (quite an honor, in a book that was crammed for space)... and she came to our closing reading. Once again, she was too shy to read-but was so pleased that one of the Otterbein students in attendance chose her poem to read (without even knowing she was there!). There were many other "success stories" - but even if we worked the whole year JUST FOR THIS, I'd say all our time was worth it.
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