Hundreds Turn Out for Festival of Words Conference
Rain didn’t stop the words from flowing. On Saturday, March 13, 2010, more than 200 teenagers and teachers participated in the 10th annual Festival of Words at the University of Delaware. The event in Willard Hall featured Patricia McCormick, a young adult author, who set the stage with a talk on her pre-writing research, particularly for her book, Sold. With assistance from the audience, two actors from Poetry Alive! kept everyone’s rapt attention as they performed poetry from Edgar Allan Poe to Ernest Thayer. Sandwiched between these two features were sessions related to books students had read prior to the event, a writing contest, an artistic expression contest, hip hop poetry, and even special sessions for teachers.
UD participants included Bill Lewis, assistant professor in the School of Education, and students from his EDUC 403 class, Associate Professor Shuaib Meacham, Department of English Assistant Professor Deb Alvarez (sporting a great cheese hat), graduate students from the Writing Center, and many participants from the Delaware Center for Teacher Education (DCTE). Numerous teachers from around the state also helped facilitate sessions for students and gave presentations to educators.
The conference is supported with a significant grant from the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust plus additional support from DCTE, the Education Resource Center, the Delaware Reading and Writing Project, and the UD Writing Center.
Article by: Margaret Dillner and Cassandra Kramer
