05/10/2007

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Georgia Randels makes corrections to a story she has written.

FUN-damental

Authors join forces with teachers to drum up enthusiasm for the written word

BY KEVIN WRIGHT
kwright@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/
Douglas Tesner
Ann Bardens- McClellan works with Robbie Dohm during a first-grade writer’s workshop at Old Mission Elementary.

The first-graders at Old Mission Peninsula School did something their teacher, Connie Thompson, rarely sees. They decided to end free time early.

What prompted such unheard-of behavior?

The kids saw their special friend, Dr. Ann, walking down the hallway. And three minutes later they had cleaned up their play area.

In her fourth visit to the school, Dr. Ann Bardens-McClellan, a member of the Michigan Writers group, stopped by the first-grade classroom because she just had to watch the students present their stories. The kids took turns reading their finished pieces from an author's chair placed in front of the classroom. With lemonade, cookies and an assortment of balloons floating in the corner, the first-graders were able to appreciate each other's literary works.

For 7-year-old Wiley Fraser, reading his story about playing Hot Wheels on his computer proved to be the most nerve-racking but thrilling part.

"I was kind of scared at first, but then I noticed it was fun,” he said.

Bardens-McClellan and other members of Michigan Writers joined forces with Old Mission Elementary School to teach students more about writing. Headed by Michigan Writers Vice President Stephen Lewis, the group wanted to enhance the steps of writing, including brainstorming ideas, draft writing, editing and publication.

In his five years with Michigan Writers, Lewis has heard discussion among the members about their desire to enter the classroom.

Then last fall, Sherri Fenton, the school's enrichment coordinator, contacted Lewis with the proposed writer enrichment program. The idea was aimed at pairing each classroom with a Michigan Writer, who would guide the students through the writing process in three or four visits.

"I was very excited at the possibility,” Lewis said. "We've always had intentions to do this and work in local schools, and now we had the opportunity to pursue it.”

Lewis gathered enough volunteers to match one writer with each classroom, except kindergarten. The writers ironed out a curriculum to guide their time in the classrooms, also leaving room for each author to individualize programs with classroom teachers.

"You have to find a method that works,” Lewis said. "If teachers have the ability to find their own methods, I find you get better results.”

Bardens-McClellan visited Thompson's first-grade class four times. In her first visit, Bardens-McClellan brought in a painting, "Stepping Stones” by Eileen Millard, and asked the students to think of words the picture evoked. She then took their list and used it to write a poem about the painting.

Marcy Branski, working with Debbie Watson's fifth-grade class, showed the students how to expand poetry beyond personal feelings. She divided the 20 fifth-graders into groups and gave each a color that served as a basis for a poem — something Callie Bartkowiak had never imagined.

"You think brown is an ugly color, but dogs are brown,” Bartkowiak said.

A former creative writing and poetry professor at Central Michigan University, Bardens-McClellan pointed to the fun the children had as a crucial component.

"If you can get the idea across to children that writing is fun and they are proud of their accomplishments, and you can keep that going, they can really do amazing things,” Bardens-McClellan said.

And from what McClellan and Lewis have heard, every class and writer had just as much fun with the pilot program.

With the success of the initial probe into the classroom, Michigan Writers has started to look into a grant from the state to fund further excursions into Traverse City area schools.

Lewis, who currently teaches composition at Northwestern Michigan College, believes that instilling the proper writing process in students at a younger age is critical to later academic success.

"Most kids think of revision as proofreading,” Lewis said. "That's the last, last, last step. What about the steps that led up to it?”

Michigan Writers should at least have Old Mission Peninsula as a willing partner for the near future. Thompson, Watson and principal Patty Olson hope the writers come back next year, especially since the children seemed to enjoy the program.

"They really liked Dr. Ann,” Thompson said. "They're excited to have her come back.”