Vol. 19, No. 25

March 23, 2000

Educators learn about
innovative writing techniques

High school teachers want to help their students become better writers and to prepare them properly for the writing demands they’ll face in college. Professors of freshman English want to work with students who already have developed good writing skills on which they can build in college. What could be more sensible than bringing the two groups of educators together? A March 4 gathering at UD did just that, attracting almost 50 participants to a conference that organizers hope will become an annual event. The “Conference on the Teaching of Writing” was attended by faculty from Delaware Technical and Community College and Lincoln University, as well as UD professors and teaching assistants, and by high school language arts teachers from public, private and parochial schools throughout Delaware. The Delaware Writing Project, the Delaware Center for Teacher Education and the University Writing Center sponsored the daylong event, with support from the Department of English, the College of Arts and Science and the Office of Admissions. The conference featured Eli Goldblatt, writing director at Temple University, as the keynote speaker and included workshops on topics such as expectations in college composition, teaching grammar in context, encouraging students to revise their writing, using literature in the writing classroom and operating a high school writing center. Participants also had the opportunity to exchange and discuss samples of their students’ papers with a partner–an exercise that paired high school teachers with postsecondary colleagues to share their different perspectives. “High school teachers have specialized needs in teaching writing, and they’re especially interested in learning what colleges expect of incoming students,” Bonnie Albertson, co-director of the Delaware Writing Project, said. “We found a great deal of enthusiasm for this conference.” The conference was co-directed by Albertson; Clyde Moneyhun, Writing Center and English; and Carol Vukelich, Center for Teacher Education. Albertson described Moneyhun, who has been involved with similar programs in other states before coming to UD this academic year, as “the driving force” behind the event. “High school teachers are hungry for contact with the college teachers who are going to have their students,” Moneyhun said. “That’s why these kinds of program are so popular.” He said organizers already are planning to hold a similar conference next year and possibly to expand it in future years, perhaps including middle school teachers or adding sessions in southern Delaware. Many of the presenters at the conference were teachers who regularly lead similar workshops for their colleagues statewide through the Delaware Writing Project, a two-year-old program run by the Delaware Center for Teacher Education. Each summer, the writing project selects 20 teachers nominated for their interest and success in teaching writing and enrolls them in an intensive five-week course. During that time, the teachers meet daily to study and practice writing, discuss techniques of teaching writing and develop workshops to share their ideas and instructional strategies with colleagues. During the school year, the graduates, known as teacher-consultants, take their workshops on the road. “We serve as their booking agents,” Vukelich said. “We distribute descriptions of the workshops that are available, and when we get requests from districts or schools or groups of teachers, we schedule the ones they request. The workshops are extremely popular.” The presentations cover topics for teachers at all grade levels, from kindergarten through high school. Several workshops focus on using other subject areas, such as science and drama, to teach writing. Vukelich, whose office scheduled 160 workshops throughout Delaware in the first six months of the current school year, said teachers and administrators are always seeking professional development programs that offer practical information. Because the project’s teacher-consultants have tried out their techniques in their own classrooms, as well as having had feedback from their colleagues in the summer program, their workshops tend to be especially useful to teachers, she said. –Ann Manser