Since
the fall of 1996, Paul
Heilker, the director of the Virginia Tech First-Year Writing
Program, has engaged in a concerted effort to build a strong working
relationship with the local high schools. Some of these intiatives
are described here:
Paul Heilker teaches courses on the theory and practice of
writing, rhetoric, and composition pedagogy at Virginia Tech, where
he serves as the Director of the First-Year Writing Program. In the
mid-1980s, Paul taught ninth grade English at Sachem High School on
Long Island, following in his father's footsteps, who taught high
school music for thirty years. He is an actively involved parent at
Kipps Elementary School in Blacksburg, where his son, Eli,
attends.
Reflections is designed to generate creative efforts and to provide an opportunity for children's creative expression in the visual arts, music, photography, and literature. Each year, the contest chooses a theme, such as "Just Open Your Eyes and See...," and the students are encouraged to create artistic expressions of this theme. There are four categories -- Visual Arts, Literature, Music, and Photography -- and there are four grade divisions -- Primary (Pre- to 2), Intermediate (3 to 5), Middle (6 to 8), and Senior (9-12).
Steve Kark, contest judge, says, "I enjoy doing this because there's a freshness and openness in this writing that we don't often see at the university level. Writing is still relatively new to these students, and it shows in their enthusiasm for expression."
Involved VT faculty members: Steve Kark, Kaye Graham (Belview School), and Nancy Metz (Beeks Elementary).
1998 is the twentieth year for this contest. Students in grades
9-12 in any Virginia high school are eligible. Entries are collected
and judged by members of the English Department faculty. Edward
Falco and Katherine Soniat
are the Contest Coordinators; Jeff
Mann, author of Bliss, is the 1998 judge. Here is the 1998
First Prize Poem, by Michelle Gil-Montero from Episcopal High,
Alexandria, VA:
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Life thumps |
and front porch steps. |
A tire swing freezes into its still death His years, |
CARE is an after-school reading program sponsored by Gilbert
Linkous that meets weekly "to bring story hour to the children who
live at University Village," says Frieda
Bostian (shown left), the project's support person. Each week
Bostian, a teacher from Linkous recruited by coordinator Joan
Nunnally (shown right), and a volunteer or two from Bostian's
children's literature class gather to "read books to the children,
let them read to us if they want to, play games with them, put
together puzzles, and the like. At the end of the hour, there are
cookies, and each child can choose a book to take home and keep." She
goes on to add, "For me, it's a pleasant change and a chance to test
the child-appeal of some of the books I teach...The real heroes of
the program, though, are the elementary teachers who do this after a
long day with many of the same children."
This program brings poets in the English department into contact with
young writers. The English teachers in Pulaski schools choose a group
of 12 students from grades 9-12 to participate in an eight-session,
after-school course in poetry writing. The project's coordinator,
Katherine Soniat (shown right),
says that she has "used varied exploration techniques from drawing,
finger painting, to incorporating a group of Edward Hopper paintings
to initiate poems. Students are enthusiatically responding to the
idea that indeed poetry can go beyond 'spontaneous feelings.'" VT
plans a mini-writers conference as a culminating activity for the
workshops, where all the writers can gather to read their work.
Gyorgyi Voros and Jeff
Mann are also involved in the project.
The
LIT (Literature Initiatives in Technology) courses have begun to look
for ways to extend the uses of technology into teaching. As part of
this effort, the Literature for Children course used the online
advantages of the course to join VT students with local middle school
students. When Literature for Children was offered as a LIT
course in Spring 1997, VT students teamed up with "web pals" at
Blacksburg Middle School to chat about readings and books. They also
had a group MOO (online conversation) about Lois Lowry's The
Giver and Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The team members involved were J.D.
Stahl (team leader), Kathryn Graham, Kathleen Carico, Len
Hatfield, Pat Kelly, and Elizabeth Pandolfo-Briggs. Here is a link to
the homepage of their Spring 1997 course: http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/childlit/.
In the Fall of 1997, Suzan
Mauney, founder of AWARE, began a partnership with Salli Johnson
who teaches Women, Ethics and Religion. She wanted to add a
service learning component to her class, and Mauney wanted some
support and expertise on women's issues that could transfer to the
middle school age student. Stemming from this pre-existing program in
the Blacksburg Middle School, the LEAD program is a partnership
between the Women's Studies Program and Religious Studies Program,
and the Blacksburg Middle School. According to project coordinator
Heather Switzer of the English
Department, "The program seeks to foster self-esteem and voice in
middle school girls and university women by bringing the two groups
together. For the past two years, Suzan Mauney, eighth grade science
teacher at BMS, has sponsored a girls' group called AWARE designed to
give the girls a comfortable, fun place to discuss relational and
societal issues of special concern to them as females. Involving
university Women's Studies students as assistant facilitators for
adolescent girls' circles exploring girls and women's issues can
enhance self-understanding, confidence, and leadership abilities in
both universtiy women and the middle school girls...and, we might
even have fun in the process!"
Each
spring semester since 1995, Tamra
Oliver, from Margaret Beeks, and Nancy
Metz, from Virginia Tech, also co-coordinators of these pages,
have linked their classes in "a mutually beneficial partnership to
support the goals of improved literacy skills for our students."
Nancy Metz's ENGL 1106 class studies literacy in its cultural
context, and as part of the project, they interact in various ways
with second-grade
students from Margaret Beeks. Since 1998, Jennifer
Bryant has taken over Tamra Oliver's role.