ASU-based Arkansas Delta Writing Project announces unveiling of local gallery as part of National Day on Writing, Oct. 20

Oct. 15, 2009 -- The Arkansas Delta Writing Project at Arkansas State University-Jonesboro announces its participation in the first National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the National Gallery of Writing and its local counterpart, the Arkansas Delta Writing Project Gallery, will be unveiled online at http://www.galleryofwriting.org/about_national_gallery.php.

Dr. Dixie Keyes, director of the Arkansas Delta Writing Project, says, “The U. S. Senate passed a resolution declaring Tuesday, Oct. 20, as the National Day on Writing. This National Day on Writing provides everyone the opportunity to share writings from our local milieus and support writing in our schools. Attending to the latest in the media sharing of writing, NCTE has orchestrated a fabulous National Gallery of Writing, and the ADWP will have a local gallery of its own.”

The National Gallery of Writing, like the National Day on Writing, will emphasize the remarkable variety of writing individuals engage in today. It will provide a collection for research on the quality of writing today, and it will help individuals to value written expression.

The National Gallery of Writing is a virtual space (http://www.galleryofwriting.org/about_national_gallery.php) where writers of all levels select and post writing that is important to them. It features local galleries, created by community entities who are most often teachers or National Writing Project associates. The co-director of the Arkansas Delta Writing Project, LaToshia Woods, and a local teacher and ADWP teacher consultant, Trina Walls, serve as curators of the Arkansas Delta Writing Project Gallery online at http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/105259).

The gallery submission process is safe and secure and requires previewing from one of the curators. All teachers of writing or English are urged to encourage their students to share any variety of writings through the Arkansas Delta Writing Project Gallery—from blog entries to letters to recipes, ADWP seeks to create a gathering of writing that depicts this part of the country and this region of Arkansas.

Since writing varies widely, encompassing stories, poems, recipes, e-mails, and blogs, and include audio, video, and artwork, the National Gallery of Writing will accept the following file types: .doc, .docx, .txt , .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .jpeg, .gif, .tif, .eps, .mp3, or .wma. All word processing and presentation files will be converted to pdf format. Contributors will also be able to link to videos and web-based text by providing the URL. The file size maximum for uploaded files is 10 megabytes.

From Bay High School to the Nettleton School District, ADWP teacher consultants are orchestrating writing marathons, book-making activities, writing hallways, writings that respond to art, and writing contests. Some teachers have even created galleries for their own classes. Sharon Brown, a seventh grade math teacher at Blytheville Middle School and an ADWP teacher consultant, shared this: “I am starting a math club that will use many forms of writing and hands-on activities. I love teaching my kids about math, and of course, about the integration of writing, reading, and science.”

Another ADWP teacher consultant, Claire Coppola, is an art teacher at Annie Camp Junior High in Jonesboro, and her students are writing stories based on Scott Mutter’s surrealist photos as part of their photography unit. Teachers who have participated in National Writing Project summer institutes on writing understand the creative ways to write across the curriculum.

For more information on the National Gallery of Writing or the Arkansas Delta Writing Project Gallery, contact LaToshia Woods (ltwoods@astate.edu) at (870) 972-8443, or visit the galleries online. Join the online conversations on writing at the National Council of Teachers of English website http://www.ncte.org/community, where links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Ning can be found, as well as information specific to elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges.

The Arkansas Delta Writing Project staff encourages all educators to join them in support of writing across the country. For more on the Arkansas Delta Writing Project, contact Dr. Dixie Keyes (dkeyes@astate.edu) at (870) 680-8065. The application process for the 2010 summer writing institute for teachers is available on the ADWP website, http://www2.astate.edu/cpi/adwp/.

 

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