Learning Through Them

On Friday, US History students submitted their Immigrant Experience letters. This project is the first substantial independent work students do in the blended learning class. This year I asked them to submit an evaluation of three sources they planned to use a week before the letter was due, just to ensure that they'd given it …

Mashup, Mixtape Culture

I never feel comfort Steeped in commodity Tangible artifacts and wasted ideas Counting joy uncovered exits Changed the argument The beginnings of the difference Dusty road Gets me where I need to be -A found poem pulled from final UNCCWP SI reading   Had this song in my head as I was writing

UNCCWP Wrap Up

Tomorrow is the last day of the UNCC National Writing Project Summer Institute. I've written my final reflection, but I also wanted a post in which to collect the posts I've written during the Institute. Inquiry blog posts Looking at the idea of helping students understand history as a more nuanced and complicated narrative, while …

Leaving and Taking

As part of this morning's improv activity, we were invited to think about what we would take away from the UNCC National Writing Project Summer Institute and what we would leave. I decided to use those categories for my reflection on SI. What I'll Leave The feeling that if I don't do it it won't …

The Familiarity and Strangeness of History

Today I presented my demonstration lesson as part of the UNCC National Writing Project Summer Institute. In part, I based the demo on a lesson that I've done with both adults and students, but I also made some changes to it. I'd never used Lino with a group of folks and wanted to try it …

Poetry Crawl

In Melissa's demo today, we reflected on our experiences with poetry. I hated poetry in school, mostly because I felt like I didn't "get" it. There weren't clear right answers, and it often seemed like analysis of poems was just the teacher or students BS-ing about how it made them feel. My best teachers of …

Defamiliarization and Wonder

Today in Tricia's demo we were invited to express a simple mathematical equation in words. Many of the groups wrote word problems and our group wrote a description of the communicative property. Some groups even drew pictures. As many of us spend less time working with math rather than other areas, this activity forced us …

Writing at Ikea

"I know we don't need it, but it's still pretty cool." -IKEA shopper I'm wondering about the reactions of the shoppers as we sit here in a living room set writing. Do they think we're store employees? Paid actors? Squatters? Performance artists? I imagine writing in this space as a quiet protest against the necessity …

10am at Amelie’s Bakery

Bride to be in white wedding dress and teal shoes drapes over an armchair Photographer and assistant flutter around Someone wryly offers "I got married at the courthouse" A woman in a steel neck and head brace converses with companions A three year old asks her dad, "Are you going to write with me?" Jeweled-tone …

Two Things At Once

At the end of the day at UNCCWP SI, I'm wondering about... A) Ways to use writing to help students connect their experiences to history B) How to problematize/complicate student assumptions about motivations/beliefs of people in the past C) How to do both things at once, at least within the space of a class or …