Maricopa Writing, Reflection and Renewal Project
May 19-23, 2008
Celebrating the Abundance of Summer

August 11-15, 2008
Celebrating the Renewal of Autumn

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Event Location
Chandler-Gilbert Community College
26 East Pecos Road, Chandler
480-732-7000
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This Writing Event has been pre-approved for 42.5 clock hours Faculty Professional Growth non-academic advancement.

You are invited to the

Maricopa Writing, Reflection and Renewal Project

May 19-23, 2008, Celebrating the Abundance of Summer
August 11-15, 2008, Celebrating the Renewal of Autumn
Chandler-Gilbert Community College, L226

hosted by...
Darby Heath, Anthropology & Sociology Faculty
Pam Davenport, English Faculty
Chandler-Gilbert Community College

To celebrate and immerse ourselves in writing, storytelling, sharing teaching ideas and community.

Instructional Goals

• Participants will be engaged in the National Writing Project model, which started at Berkeley in the 1970's, and has been enhancing teaching and learning since then. This model promotes authentic communication, which builds enduring relationships among students, faculty and staff.

• The activities and the writing participants will be engaged in foster inclusiveness--helping us to relate to others, celebrate people from various backgrounds, and honor our individuality. This supports Maricopa's Diversity Initiative.

• Participants will learn methods for helping students prepare for the world of work by improving their communication skills and ability to interact with diverse groups. They will also discover ways to engage students in reflection on their identity and integrity.

• Participants will do meaningful writing, explore various theories related to the teaching of writing, and develop and share teaching practices, thus improving teaching throughout MCCCD.

• Participants will benefit from the training the facilitators have received from the Center for Formation in Higher Education. Philosophy, methods and techniques from this training, based on the work of Parker J. Palmer, will be infused into the program and modeled for participants.

• Participants will learn ways to share their learning from the Maricopa Writing Project with colleagues at their individual colleges.

Rationale

Over the past several years, approximately 70 MCCCD faculty have participated in the Greater Phoenix Area Writing Project (GPAWP) at Arizona State University, which used the National Writing Project model, and/or the Maricopa Writing Project (MWP). Feedback on these projects indicates that the teaching of these individuals has been profoundly impacted by their Writing Project experience. In these projects, faculty in all disciplines focus on "Writing to Learn." They discover ways to connect with and motivate students in any course through writing. Participants will be actively involved in experimenting with different forms of writing, sharing stories, and creating assignments that are meaningful for students and lead to deep learning. Participants will also have the opportunity to interact with a series of guest speakers who represent the highest level of expertise in writing instruction. Furthermore, the project includes a component on sharing the Writing Project experience through in-service activities at their own colleges.

Starting this year, 2007, the new name for the Writing Project--The Maricopa Writing, Reflection and Renewal Project--reflects the added component of Formation work, with an emphasis on the identity and integrity of the teacher. This emphasis encompasses Parker Palmer's declaration that "I teach who I am," which is the focus of the Formation facilitator training that Darby Heath and Pam Davenport have received. Our project will include considerable opportunities for participants to reflect on who they are as teachers, why and how they teach, and how they might renew their commitment to the heart of their profession.

Facilitators

Pam Davenport has been English faculty at CGCC for nineteen years and has over thirty years of experience teaching a variety of writing courses. She went through the Greater Phoenix Area Writing Project in 1980 and was a co-director of GPAWP at ASU for three years. She has been her campus coordinator of First-Year Composition; is a regular presenter at conferences on various topics related to teaching writing, including "The Multi-genre Research Essay"; leads writing retreats for CGCC faculty from a variety of disciplines, co-directs the Network for Excellence II program for new faculty, and is trained as a facilitator for Formation in Higher Education.

Darby Heath has taught anthropology and sociology at CGCC for ten years. She team teaches in learning communities with Pam Davenport. These learning communities always include a composition course, and use writing to teach the content area. Darby attended an intensive program on Brain Research with Dr. Pat Wolfe summer 2004, and is doing presentations and workshops on writing and brain research at various conferences. Darby is co-director of the Network for Excellence I program for new faculty and is also a trained facilitator for Formation in Higher Education.

Guest Speakers

Jim Blasingame is an assistant professor of English at Arizona State University. He has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on secondary English from the University of Kansas. He was a high school English teacher and principal in Iowa, Utah, Kansas and Nebraska for a span of 22 years at a variety of schools. Jim is an expert in the "Six Traits of Writing," used by K-12 schools throughout Arizona and elsewhere. We have found that college teachers benefit greatly from learning about the approaches to teaching writing used at the schools our students attended.
Dr. Blasingame is the author or co-author of several books, including Teaching Writing in the Secondary Schools , 2005 from Pearson, Merrill, Prentice, Hall, and Using and Choosing Young Adult Literature: A Comprehensive Guide to Authors, Books, and Instructional Strategies for Motivating and Engaging Today's Diverse Middle School and High School Students . He is past president of the Arizona English Teachers' Association and spends at least one day a week teaching lessons in K-12 schools in central Arizona. Dr. Blasingame's workshops for the Writing Project have been extremely popular with participants who find his material both inspiring and practical.

Dr. Lynn Nelson is a professor in the English Department at ASU, where he created and teaches a class called Writing and Being, upon which his most recent book is based. For twenty years he was the director of the Greater Phoenix Area Writing Project, on which this Maricopa Writing Project is based. Dr. Nelson also created and directs the Rainbow Section for First-Year Composition for Native American Students at ASU and is founder and director of Native Images, an advanced writing and community outreach group for Native Americans. Dr. Nelson is much in demand throughout the country as a speaker on teaching, writing, and the human spirit.

For More Information...

Pam Davenport, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, (480) 732-7135 or Darby Heath, Chandler-Gilbert Community College at 480-857-5442.

Faculty Professional Growth