Writing Project Produces First Book

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Quick writes can start with anything — an advertisement for cereal, a basket filled with rocks, shells or nests, a poem about a teacher’s persona, a newspaper story about a man seeking an heir. Teachers may have students pick up the storyline of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” one year later or describe someone they admire for characteristics that go beyond the popular images of skin-deep beauty.

An invitational writing program that brings in outstanding teachers from throughout Northwest Arkansas has expanded its reach by publishing a book to share the teachers’ expertise on quick writes, a prewriting strategy that provides students a quick, enjoyable way to get ideas on paper. Writing generated from the method later may be crafted into a polished piece, but the original draft is not intended for evaluation.

The Northwest Arkansas Writing Project celebrates its 10^th year on the University of Arkansas campus this summer with the release of its first book, “Spark the Brain, Ignite the Pen: Quick Writes for Kindergarten Through High School Teachers and Beyond,” published by Information Age Publishing.

Samuel Totten, professor of secondary and middle-level education in the UA department of curriculum and instruction, directs the writing project’s seven summer workshops including the by-invitation-only session and three for school-age students. “This book highlights the creativity of our Teacher Consultants in the program and their dedication to improving student writing in the classroom,” Totten said.

Totten brought the project, which is part of a national program headquartered at the University of California at Berkeley, to the Fayetteville campus in 1997 to offer accomplished teachers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the science and art of teaching writing. Fellows of the Summer Invitational Institute develop a network of colleagues committed to the goals of the Writing Project and upon successful completion become Teacher Consultants with a responsibility to share what they have learned in their schools and communities.

“Spark the Brain” gives the project participants the opportunity to extend their reach even further. Organizers collected “quick writes” from participants for the past eight years to create the anthology. All have been tested and used by teachers in Northwest Arkansas, Totten said.

Quick writes are short, powerful, thought-provoking literary prompts ranging from passages from children’s literature to newspaper articles to personal stories, Totten explained. They can be serious, reflective, historical in nature or humorous, but they are all intended to spark the students’ interest in a topic and get them writing from their perspectives.

“When students maintain a writing portfolio and include quick writes in it, they can’t complain, 'I don’t have anything to write about.’ Instead, they can go back to the quick writes for ideas or to revise. It provides additional food for thought down the road,” Totten said.

The book can assist teachers with incorporating quick writes into the classroom and will also be used in the College of Education and Health Professions’ process writing course for students in the master of arts in teaching program. Use of the method extends beyond the domain of the English teacher, according to the book’s contributors.

Helen Eaton, one of the book's co-editors, teaches fourth grade at Holcomb Elementary School in Fayetteville. She believes other classroom teachers will find the book useful in doing just what its title says — sparking the brain to get ideas flowing.

"It's not a book to teach how to teach writing but to learn to enjoy writing, to give students ideas," Eaton said. "Its purpose is not to start at the beginning of the book and use each quick write but to learn the concept, to see how to use it.

"A good thing about quick writes is that they build a community in the writing class, a community that respects each other and helps each other be creative, think outside the box. They help teachers help kids get things on paper."

While Totten has authored and edited many books, including several about genocide around the world, this is the first published work for his co-editors. The other two are Clare Lesieur, an academic coach in the Harrison School District, and Shelley Dirst, an English language arts curriculum/assessment specialist for the Arkansas Department of Education. When they attended the writing project, Lesieur was teaching fourth grade at Skyline Heights Elementary School in Harrison and Dirst was teaching high school English in the Omaha School District.

Information about the book can be found at www.infoagepub.com and other online and local bookstores.