Bright Ideas and Great Expectations

This past Saturday I woke up at 6 am, showered, filled my travel mug with coffee, and set off down Lake Michigan Dr at 6:30 am to begin my hour and a half journey to MSU. The sun was just rising and I was driving straight into it – a beautiful experience I can’t say I’ve had all that often. I arrived at MSU right on time for the 2007 Bright Ideas Conference and some more caffiene by way of more coffee. I expected the “Great Expectations: Literacy, Language, Literature & Learning” conference to be very boring, to be honest. I was thinking longingly back to my still-warm bed. Getting up at 6am definitely had its advantages, however. I experienced a full day’s excitement and revelation all before noon, leaving plenty of time for that pesky stuff called homework.

The keynote speaker, Jacqueline Woodson, was actually familiar to me. Having always loved reading and writing (when I was younger, my ambition was to be an Author), I was priveledged enough to attend a National Book Foundation Summer Writing Camp in 2000. There, Jacqueline Woodson, along with Cornelius Eady and Norma Fox Mazer, led a bunch of us in a writing experience that I will never, ever forget. So, long story short, I was quite excited to see Jackie Woodson again. She certainly did not disappoint.

Jacqueline Woodson recommended and urged that we teach our youth to use their voices, not to silence them. She asserted that everyone has the RIGHT to tell their story. I think this is wonderful, and perfectly in keeping with my Eng310 class. Further, Woodson said that fear should not be allowed in writing. She doesn’t believe in writer’s block. She only believes in fear. I think this is excellent. As long as you aren’t afraid of your word’s worth, they will come – just keep writing! Very much a process pedagogy believer. I also loved that she said that one of her best editing techniques was to simply read her work out loud – if it doesn’t sound good, it needs to be fixed. I have done this for years – was it my own idea, or a remnant from writer’s camp? In either case, when combined with the performance of some of her writing, Woodson was an excellent keynote speaker and gave me hope for the rest of the conference!

The first session I attended was “Using Art in an ELA Course”, given by Anna J. Roseboro of GVSU. I got many excellent ideas for my future classes. I hate the standard forms of assessment – tests, boring analytical or comparative essays – so Roseboro’s presentation offering art as an alternative was very exciting. She cited Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligence theory as the basis for the use of art in an English course. The best examples she gave were a geometric character analysis, which allowed for a lot more creativity than a standard character analysis, and a literary weaving tape, on which students can pictorally, symbolically, etc. the major themes and issues in their text. These are a great start for making high school English courses more interesting for more students and providing htem with alternate forms of assessment – so the bad test takers and lousy paper writers can have a chance too. A little bit of everything is a great mix.

The second session I attended was “Let’s Talk About Writing!” presented by Christine Dawson of MSU. She gave us strategies for improving peer sharing and response in the classroom, an issue that I am admittedly a little nervous about. One of the great ideas she had was a “Quaker Share”, in which students read brief excerpts of their writing into the air, without any feedback given. When one finishes, another begins… whoever feels like it, with silence in between perfectly okay. This strategy seems perfect to relieve much of the stress that centers around sharing your own, personal writing. There is no expectation of criticism, the spotlight quickly moves off of you and onto the next person, for their brief share. I was also particularly impressed by her “partner response” technique. Overall, Dawson stressed building a supportive writing community in the classroom. She also demonstrated many of the strategies with us, which made me even more excited to test them out.

The Bright Ideas Conference defied my expectations and proved to be both interesting and beneficial. I got lots of wonderful ideas from other educators and wish I could have sat in on many more of the sessions.