Launch of the C3WP Elementary Advanced Institute

Bringing Students into the Conversation

by Angela Hase

“We have to let children speak.” This quote said by participant Kathy on the first day of the Upper Elementary AI is bouncing around in my head. I am sitting in the Devil’s Lake Holiday Inn conference room working with a group of elementary teachers from Langdon, Harvey, Center-Stanton, led by RRVWP TCs Lisa Gusewelle and Emily Olson. We are engaged in a two-day conversation about argument writing in elementary classrooms. Together, we are learning the C3WP instructional resources with the goal of introducing skills for teaching argument to upper elementary teachers in Belcourt and Dunseith districts during the 2018-2019 school year, as part of three-year i3 grant the RRVWP received from the National Writing Project to scale up the College, Career, and Community Writers Program in rural, high-needs schools.

Yesterday, we spent a day focusing on how much of argument writing is understanding that arguments are everywhere. Arguments are part of every decision we make, of the screens we scroll through and consume, and of the outside world that bombards us in advertisements from billboards to the songs lyrics hoping we live life to the fullest or forget that crush. Arguments are even in wrappers from our favorite fast food restaurants. Are you really “loving it”? Can you have it “your way”?

This morning, we tried the Atwoodian table, a play on the Burkean Parlor by Kenneth Burke. A brief description of the Atwoodian table is to think about who is in the conversation at a round table. All of the people involved in the text get their own seat at the table. The table is round because no one person is at the head, instead everyone is an equal participant.

Our conversation was about drones. In the instructional resource Entering the Conversation: Joining a Conversation in Progress, we read perspectives (one or two sentences) from a variety of sources:

North Dakota Students Announced as 2017 Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Award Recipients

RRVWP TC Nancy Devine was the featured speaker, all photos by NDSU student Guo Chen

Young Artists and Writers Recognized by Plains Art Museum and Red River Valley Writing Project for their Original Works

Plains Art Museum and Red River Valley Writing Project at NDSU have announced the regional award recipients of the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Presented by the nonprofit organization, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the country's longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative students in grades 7–12. This program year, more than 330,000 works of art and writing were submitted to 118 Affiliate regions across the country. In North Dakota, about 400 works were submitted—double from the previous year. Eighty-three creative teens from around the state of North Dakota received regional honors, including Gold Keys, Silver Keys, Honorable Mentions, and/or American Visions & Voices nominations, from the local Affiliate including:

Art Award Winners

·       Katelyn Arman, Fargo North High School, Fargo. American Visions nominee, Gold Key, Two Honorable Mentions.

·       Kaylee Bartram, Kindred High School, Kindred. Honorable Mention.