Winter 2001 - Middlebury

Winter 2001

A Publication of the Bread Loaf School of EnglishMiddlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont

Teacher Network

COVER PHOTOCOURTESY OF

EDWARD BROWN

Teachers on Standards

Raising the Bar withHigh Stakes Tests

What Is Good Writing?Standard Deviation

Strengthening BestPractices in SouthCarolina

Integrating Standardsand Culturally RelevantCourse Content

Plus more stories onstandards fromteachers in the BreadLoaf Teacher Network

Table of ContentsA Call to Action: Standards in Alaska .................................................... 6

by Scott ChristianMandating standards raises hot-button policy issues for all Alaskan communi-ties, and coordinating stakeholders’ interest will be critical for success.

BLTN: Strengthening Best Practices in South Carolina ...................... 9by Diane Crenshaw

Student test scores cannot give a complete picture of teacher accountability.This veteran teacher examines three fair accountability programs and findsthem complementary to her first year of study at Bread Loaf.

Raising the Bar with High Stakes Tests ................................................ 12by Hugh Dyment

A teacher at an alternative school welcomes the challenge posed by the HighSchool Graduation Qualifying Exam in Alaska.

Excellence for All and from All:A Look at Standards in One Inclusion Classroom ............................. 15

by Lorrie JacksonThis Ohio teacher explains how to set and achieve writing standards in a class-room including varied student levels of ability.

Karina: A Personal Perspective on High StakesStandards and Growth ........................................................................... 18

by Tom McKennaA writing teacher discovers the “language of standards” falls short of describ-ing an important moment in a student’s intellectual growth.

Of Bombs, Blackness, and Beautiful Music.......................................... 21by Will Marinell, with Lou Bernieri

Is there a place for electronic writing exchanges in schools? A poetry exchangebetween students in Massachusetts and Kenya finds a cross-cultural niche.

What Is Good Writing? Standard Deviation ....................................... 24by Jason B. Leclaire

Students’ performance on high stakes testing does not always reflect theirability. What one teacher did to ensure his students met the challenge.

Listening to Voices: Integrating Standardsand Culturally Relevant Content .......................................................... 26

by Maria OfferBy listening to elders’ and students’ suggestions, a teacher in a Native Alaskanvillage integrates state curriculum standards with culturally relevant content.

A Teamwork Approach to Implementing CurriculumStandards and School Reform ............................................................... 30

by Patricia C. WatsonKentucky’s school reform movement, now a decade old, continues to find new,innovative ways to improve its schools.

A Cross-Disciplinary BreadNet Exchange:Moving beyond the Facts ........................................................................ 32

by Mary LindenmeyerBelieving that inert facts are a limited form of knowledge, an Arizona historyteacher teams up with an English teacher to explore connections between litera-ture and history.

Bridging the Gap with Communications Technology ......................... 34by Lou McCall

A New Mexico teacher combines technology and writing for the community tobuild a bridge to real-world writing contexts that meet the standards.

Teacher NetworkWinter 2001

EditorChris Benson

[email protected]

Address correspondence to Chris Benson,Bread Loaf School of English, Middle-bury College, Middlebury, VT 05753.

The Bread Loaf School of English pub-lishes the Bread Loaf Teacher Network

Magazine twice a year.

Director of BLTNand the Bread Loaf School of English

James Maddox

CoordinatorDixie Goswami

Bread Loaf Office StaffElaine LathropSandy LeGaultDianne BarozJudy Jessup

Faculty ConsultantsJoBeth Allen

Courtney CazdenTharon HowardAndrea LunsfordCarol MacVeyBeverly Moss

Jacqueline Royster

Director of TelecommunicationsRocky Gooch

[email protected]

Technical ConsultantCaroline Eisner

Administrative Associateto the Coordinator

Carolyn Benson

Documentation ConsultantsScott Christian

Eva Gold, Research for Action

Teacher Research ConsultantBette Davis

Copyright 2001Bread Loaf School of English

http://www.blse.middlebury.edu/

No part of this publication may be repro-duced without permission of the editor.

Winter 2001

Bread Loaf School of English • Middlebury College • Middlebury, Vermont 3

4 Bread Loaf School of English

Teacher Network

From the Director

James Maddox, DirectorBread Loaf School of EnglishMiddlebury CollegeMiddlebury VT

Attentive readers of ourmagazine will have no-ticed that its title has

changed with this issue, fromBread Loaf Rural Teacher Net-work Magazine to Bread LoafTeacher Network Magazine.There is nothing sinister aboutthe dropping of “rural” from ourtitle: the Bread Loaf RuralTeacher Network (BLRTN)continues to exist, and BreadLoaf maintains its firm, de-cades-old commitment to ruralteachers, students, and schools.A little history will help to ex-plain why we have made thischange.

The BLRTN was inauguratedin 1993, with funding from thefirst of two very generousgrants from the DeWitt Wal-lace-Reader’s Digest Fund; thismoney was later supplementedby another generous grant fromthe Annenberg Rural Challenge.The BLRTN grew and flour-ished so spectacularly well thatwe at Bread Loaf incorporatedits most successful features intoadditional grant proposals, suchas those we have made success-fully to state departments of

education in Alaska, Kentucky,Ohio, and South Carolina. Inthese later grants, however,teachers who have been re-cruited are urban and suburbanas well as rural. Rather thancontinue using a title that ex-cluded some of our newly re-cruited teachers, we have madethe umbrella of the title wider,and we are now happy to in-clude in this network teachersfrom, for example, Columbus,OH, and Louisville, KY, as wellas from Shishmaref, AK, andTsaile, AZ.

I am delighted to announcethat Bread Loaf faculty memberEmily Bartels of Rutgers Uni-versity has agreed to serve asAssociate Director of the BreadLoaf School of English; Emilyhas worked with BLTN teachersin the past, as a consultant to aSchools for the New Millen-nium grant at Laguna (NM)Middle School and as a partici-pant in our annual BLTN con-ference in Jekyll Island, GA, in1999. As Emily joins the BreadLoaf administration, I am stay-ing on as director but am alsotaking on new duties as Dean ofGraduate and Special Programsat Middlebury College, where Ioversee the School of English,the Bread Loaf Writers’ Confer-ence, and the Middlebury Lan-guage Schools.

In addition to other grantsthat have been announced inthese pages in the past, we haverecently received from the Edu-cational Foundation of Americaa two-year grant for ten teachersof Native students in Alaska,Arizona, and New Mexico. ThePlan for Social Excellence isfunding six teachers fromLawrence, MA, to attend BreadLoaf in 2001. The GreenvilleCounty (SC) School Districtwill fund five teachers to attendBread Loaf in 2001 and will in-crease that number in subse-quent years. In 2000, Middle-bury College itself gave eightfull fellowships for urban teach-ers to attend Bread Loaf/NewMexico and will continue tofund those teachers in 2001.Bread Loaf is also a participantin a U.S. Department of Educa-tion grant secured by the Uni-versity of Alaska Southeast toencourage Native Alaskan stu-dents to enter the teaching pro-fession. Five mentors of theseteachers will be funded to at-tend Bread Loaf/Alaska in2001.

One final piece of news.Bread Loaf/New Mexico will bein a new site beginning in thesummer of 2001: at the Instituteof American Indian Arts, inSanta Fe. We look forward totaking up residence there. ❦

Middlebury College • Middlebury, Vermont 5

Winter 2001

Dixie Goswami, CoordinatorBLTNBread Loaf School of EnglishMiddlebury CollegeMiddlebury VT

Standards, accountability, andhigh stakes tests. When we talkabout teaching and learning,

those words seem always to be part ofthe conversation. But something ismissing from national and local de-bates around these issues: the narra-tives of teachers who are struggling toteach for understanding in the age ofaccountability. Make no mistake,implementing standards, preparingthemselves and students to do well ontests, and being held accountable tothe public, parents, and the system areessentially the responsibility of teach-ers. The teachers’ narratives in thisissue of Bread Loaf Teacher NetworkMagazine represent a body of writingthat is essential to understand practicein the context of standards.

I recommend reading this issue ofthe magazine several times. Read firstfor the pleasure that comes from thecompelling, original stories aboutteaching that bring students and theirvoices alive. For example, HughDyment writes about Alex and otherformer students who he believes willbe well served by Alaska’s highstakes test. He writes, “I welcome rea-sonable testing procedures that helpdefine standards of student achieve-ment on which Alaska teachers canagree.” Lorrie Jackson writes about

students in her special educationclass—Ed, Dell, and Marcia—andhow she and her teaching partnerCynthia Rucker devised standards fortheir BreadNet exchange and in theprocess raised tough questions thatare relevant to all teachers in class-rooms where students’ abilities varywidely. Tom McKenna writes aboutKarina, what he learned from herabout standards and about his ownteaching, and about our need to de-velop a common language of stan-dards that values the kind of growthhe observed in Karina. Jason Leclairewrites about Ellen, who writes wellbut who has not yet passed the re-quired writing proficiency test.There’s more.

Then read again to discover howBread Loaf teachers in very differentplaces are making a distinction be-tween standards and standardization.Insights like the ones provided byMaria Offer, who listened to andacted on advice from parents aboutwhat students should read and why,are important contributions to thestandards debate. Mary Lindenmeyertells how she and her students cri-tiqued their BreadNet literary ex-change with the writing and technol-ogy portions of the Arizona standardsin mind—and how they met the chal-lenge of the test while engaged in“new ways of textbook learning,” toquote one of Mary’s students. Maryand others contributing to this issueappreciate the guidance that standardsoffer, but admit that it takes a boldteacher to act on the belief that stu-dents who are engaged in nontradi-

tional teaching and learning will nev-ertheless do well, as they must, onhigh stakes tests.

And read this issue as a tribute tothe BLTN, a professional communitycreated and sustained by thoughtful,activist teachers and their students,who well understand that teaching andlearning are political acts, just asimplementing standards and highstakes tests are political acts. Theteachers who contributed to this issueare connected to their colleaguesacross the country, electronically onBreadNet, the electronic network ofthe Bread Loaf School of English, andby the shared inquiries and intellec-tual work they do during their sum-mers of study at Bread Loaf. In myview, their stories published here andelsewhere are essential documents foreducators and policy-makers as theystruggle to support content standardswhile honoring local knowledge andsituations and the needs of individualchildren and young people.

This issue was inspired and in-formed by Alaska teachers who metfor a writing retreat in Anchorage in2000. Annie Calkins and Scott Chris-tian edited the chapters these teacherswrote for a book entitled StandardImplications: Alaskans Reflect on aMovement to Change Teaching (Ju-neau: University of Alaska Southeast,2000), which will be distributed toteachers across Alaska and beyond. ❦

The Challenge of Standards: SupportingContent Standards While Honoring LocalContexts for Learning


Teacher Network

Scott Christian and Doug Woodat Bread Loaf in Vermont

Scott ChristianUniversity of Alaska SoutheastJuneau AK

As a parent of two children inAlaskan schools, as a formerclassroom teacher in two

Alaskan school districts for twelveyears, and currently as the Director ofthe Professional Education Center atthe University of Alaska Southeast,where I assist teachers in pursuingprofessional development, I wouldlike to make a call for action to all thestakeholders involved in Alaskan edu-cation. Since our state is not unique inits movement toward implementationof standards and high stakes tests, Ithink this call may apply to manystates where the standards movementis manifesting itself in ways that areboth positive and negative for stu-dents, teachers, and society.

I think it’s important to begin byconsidering why high stakes testinginitiatives have been launched. Thesad reality in both rural and urbanschools in Alaska is that many stu-dents graduate without the skills tosucceed in society. The grading ofstudent work is not linked di-rectly to student performance:A’s, B’s, and C’s are awardedbased largely on the percentageof points earned during acourse, not according to an ar-ticulated standard on whichteachers in the discipline agree.Opportunities are rare for stu-dents to apply their skills andknowledge in complex, real-world situations on which theywill be evaluated by clear andrigorous criteria. The result isthat students can earn highgrades without synthesizingand applying their learning andslide through the system withminimal effort. As educators,we cannot continue to deny

that our system is failing our studentsand that fundamental change isneeded.

Certainly, there are many excel-lent, highly skilled teachers, whoregularly challenge students in rel-evant, academically rigorous settings.There are outstanding schools andteachers across the state, and manystudents leave our system prepared forthe future. But there are also manywho move on without even a basicknowledge of their potential to beproductive members of society. Thereis much rhetoric about “teaching allstudents.” But, realistically, in large-scale systems, how do we get therewithout some kind of accountability?Although I have serious reservationsabout the implementation of highstakes testing nationwide and the na-ture and misuses of these often nar-row minimum-competency tests, noone can argue that the movement to-ward standards and accountabilityhasn’t forced us to look closely at ourschools.

What’s good about the standardsmovement in Alaska? First of all, theAlaska Content Standards were writ-ten by the stakeholders, groups of

teachers, parents, community mem-bers and business leaders, and theydescribe what students should knowand be able to do at several stages oftheir education. In addition to the con-tent standards, frameworks documentswere created for each content area toguide curriculum committees in de-veloping local curricula based onthese standards. Unfortunately, de-spite this important first step, the stan-dards movement in Alaska lost mo-mentum, largely because of a lack offinancial support. Regardless of therhetoric from the legislature, it is im-possible to effect meaningful changein a system as complex and diverse asAlaska’s school system without theresources to bring people together toprocess the ideas and to make plansfor implementation. In the years1997-1999 groups of educators met tocreate performance standards in read-ing, writing, and mathematics. Thesestandards describe what studentsshould be able to do and how wellthey should be able to do it. In short,performance standards describe thespecific performances which indicateproficiency, at the benchmark levels(i.e. ages eight to ten, eleven to four-

teen, and fifteen to eighteen).If we think of these perfor-mance standards as a way forstudents, parents, and teach-ers to share a common lan-guage, and to focus on high,clear expectations for learn-ing, the result should behigher achievement.

There are two prevail-ing views of stan-dards. There are

those who view standards asconvergent, as a means tomake sure that every teacheris teaching the same thing atthe same time. Such a beliefis actually a belief in stan-dardization in education,

A Call to Action: Standards in Alaska


Winter 2001

which independent and creative Alas-kan educators rightly ought to oppose.Those who take a divergent view ofstandards, as I do, believe standardsactually increase the amount of in-structional freedom for teachers,schools, and districts. Once a clearvision exists for what students shouldknow and be able to do, there are infi-nite pathways, based on local re-sources and cultural perspectives, forteachers and students to get there.

A careful process of adopting thestandards can lead to meaningfulschool reform. Such was the case atGlacier Valley Elementary in Juneau,where teachers, parents, administra-tors, and community members metregularly for two years to look closelyat students’ work, to create curricu-lum, and to plan and analyze mean-ingful assessments. The structure ofthe school changed positively and dra-matically as a result. However, theadoption of standards can also lead tothe kind of high stakes test that is now

being implemented in Alaska, andmany other states. Under fire fromlegislators and score-conscious ad-ministrators, some teachers are scram-bling to teach to the test in order tosurvive. But Alaskans can learn fromreform efforts that have been takingplace around the country.

Lesson number one: exit examshave no impact on student achieve-ment. Because of legal battles whichinevitably occur as soon as studentsfail an exit exam, these tests oftenbecome meaningless minimum-com-

petency tests that have no impact onlearning and achievement. Teachingto these tests crowds out the creativeelements in the curriculum. I think itwould be wise to implement stan-dards-based instruction and assess-ment first, to provide quality, sus-tained professional development toteachers across the state, then con-sider a high stakes assessment. AsRick Cross, our Commissioner ofEducation and Early Development,recently asked at our literacy confer-ence, “Do we know what it means toteach all students?” In the first year oftesting, less than a third of our stu-dents passed the three tests in reading,writing, and mathematics. Mr. Cross’spoint was that we need to allow oursystems the time to restructure so thatwe can truly address the needs of alllearners. This has not been the prac-tice of schools in Alaska. We have nothad the resources, the communitysupport, or the understanding neces-sary to reach all students.

Lesson number two: state take-overs of schools have failed miser-ably, resulting in lawsuits and openhostility between the stakeholders andthe government. This is the one areawhere our legislature is truly misin-formed. We all know which schoolswould receive the hammer blow insuch misguided efforts: for the mostpart, these will be schools attended bystudents in the lowest socioeconomicbrackets across Alaska. Mostly, thesewill be rural schools.

A recent study analyzing the per-formance of students in Alaska’s ruralschools on standardized tests showedthat although the students are stillwell below national and state averagesfor performance, the composite scoreshave nearly doubled since the ruralschools first opened in the late seven-ties. How can a system where the testscores have doubled be labeled “incrisis?” When we think about ruralschools, we have to remember thatthese schools are relatively new to thefabric of society in rural Alaska.There haven’t been successive gen-erations of parents who have attendedthese public schools, as you will findin urban areas. The idea that a groupof distinguished educators is going tofly out to rural Alaska with wisdomthat has eluded the hardworking pro-fessionals who have worked and livedin those communities is ludicrous.

Before we pick up the hammer topunish schools and districts for lowscores on high stakes tests, let’s lay a

foundation for success thatthese schools can build on. TheRural Alaska Secondary Educa-tion Study Task Force Report of1994 states: “The State shouldenhance funding dedicated tothe support of public education.It will be very difficult to im-prove the quality of rural highschool education under the con-stant threat of declining fund-ing. For rural communities anddistricts to offer a quality edu-cation, the State must insure amore predictable and sustain-able level of funding.” Six years

after the task force report, funding ofall Alaska schools, and particularlyrural schools, has continued to declinein real dollars.

What kind of foundationalstructures must be in placein order to ensure the suc-

cessful adoption of standards in allAlaskan schools?

(continued on next page)

There are those who view standards as convergent,as a means to make sure that every teacher is teaching

the same thing at the same time. Such a belief isactually a belief in standardization in education,which independent and creative educators should

rightly oppose.


Teacher Network

School and Community Partner-ships. In communities where educa-tion is a priority, students achievemore. It’s that simple. Schools andcommunities need to enter into a dia-logue about standards and the expec-tations they have of students. Schoolsneed to interact with communities inways other than by requesting money.That our schools desperately need re-form is partly due to basic mistrustand lack of communication among thestakeholders of public education.

Improved Teaching Force.Alaska can attract and retain the bestteachers in the country through highersalaries. When I began teaching inAlaska in 1985, our salaries wereranked the highest in the nation. Now,we’re ranked twenty-sixth. Last fall,for the first time in recent memory,there weren’t enough qualified appli-cants to fill the teaching openings inAlaska. The situation will worsen,especially in rural districts that havebeen plagued by high turnover rates,as the number of school-age childrencontinues to increase. Unless the leg-islature addresses this need with addi-tional funding, the teaching force willcontinue to decline. Moreover, ifwe’re going to ask for higher salaries,we need to engage in a discussionabout how we can work together toimprove the teaching force; untilteachers acknowledge the problem ofincompetence in the system and be-come a part of the effort to addressthe issue, the teaching profession inAlaska will suffer because of it.

High Quality Preservice andProfessional Development Pro-grams. Innovative programs, such asthe standards-based Master of Arts inTeaching Program at UAS, should beavailable throughout the state. In or-der for systemic change to occur inAlaskan schools, teachers need timeand support to further their ownknowledge, instructional skills, and

professional development. Our cur-rent system allows for as few as fivedays of in-service in some systems,and as little as forty-five minutes ofplanning and collaboration time dur-ing the school day for teachers. Asfunding has been dramatically re-duced in real dollars over the last fif-teen years for school districts, fundsfor staff development have becomescarce or have disappeared entirely. Inaddition to rethinking the content ofstaff development opportunities, weneed to reëxamine the delivery mod-els. Earning course credit for passivelearning and seat time doesn’t countfor much. We need to provide oppor-tunities where teachers are asked pro-vocative questions about learning andassessment, where they have time toread, think, discuss, and write aboutthese issues. If the legislature wantsworld-class schools producing profi-cient students, we need to provide theteaching force with the skills and re-sources to make this happen.

Standards for All. In addition tothe content standards for students,there are also teacher standards, ad-ministrator standards, and schoolstandards in various stages of devel-opment. This process needs adequatesupport so that all elements of oureducation system will be equally re-sponsible and accountable for studentsuccess.

Culturally Responsive Schools.The Rural Systemic Initiative haslaunched a major effort to incorporateindigenous ways of knowing into cur-riculum and assessment around thestate. If we want students from di-verse cultural backgrounds to be suc-cessful in schools, we need to lookbeyond our traditional Western mod-els of instruction, curriculum, and as-sessment, and to incorporate diverseways of thinking and learning. The“English Only” movement is counter-productive to the multicultural, multi-lingual reality of Alaskan schools.

Scott Christian coordinates thedocumentation and evaluationof the Bread Loaf TeacherNetwork. He formerly taught atthe middle school level in ruralAlaska for twelve years andhas published several articlesand chapters centered aroundliteracy and teacher research.His book Exchanging Lives:Middle School Writers Onlinewas published by NCTE in1997. He lives in JuneauAlaska with his wife and twochildren.

A Call to Action . . .(continued from previous page)

Breaking the Mold. Althoughthere has been substantial change inelementary and middle school class-rooms around the state, with increas-ing numbers of multi-age classrooms,schools within schools, interdiscipli-nary teaching, charter schools, lan-guage immersion programs, we havea long way to go before our systemreflects best practices in instruction. Ithink everything should be on thetable: curriculum, scheduling, classsize, physical space, instruction, as-sessment, and so on. All aspects ofour K-12 programs need to be re-viewed by all stakeholders.

I’d like to make a call to educatorsto become an active part of the politi-cal process. Three years ago when thelegislature was considering the exitexam, there was an eerie silenceacross the state as NEA Alaska en-dorsed the legislation and it movedtowards the governor’s desk for hissignature. Public school teachers havetremendous work loads and responsi-bilities and impossible constraintsplaced on them; unless we enter theconversation with a voice that speaksto standards and assessment and therealities of classrooms and schools,we can’t expect the governor and thelegislature to make informed, well-reasoned decisions. ❦


Winter 2001

Diane CrenshawDixie High SchoolDue West SC

At our state Bread Loaf fallmeeting, seven teachers aresitting in a classroom at

Waccamaw High School. We are in afocus group on “Collaboration withOther Professional Organizations,”and talk has been about our participa-tion in the state conferences of theCouncil of Teachers of English andthe International Reading Associa-tion. On the agenda is a note for thisfocus group: “National Board Certifi-cation – where does Bread Loaf fitin?”

It proves to be the most controver-sial topic in our otherwise harmoni-ous focus group. The discussion cov-ers the aims and process of NationalBoard Certification and raises largerissues of accountability and the com-plex relationships of professionals inthe teaching community.

Among the seven teacherspresent, one finished her NationalBoard work last year and is waitingto see if she has passed; three teach-ers are in the process now; one isconsidering doing it next year; andtwo are opposed to the entire processand plan not to become candidates.

* * *In the week since our meeting,

I’ve been going over the issuesraised, trying to define them, tryingto analyze my decision to become acandidate, and trying to see how, amonth into the process, I can makesense of the accountability issue.

Teachers are always called on todo more than be good in the class-room, good with students. This yearI’m wearing three accountabilityhats: I’m on an ADEPT (Assisting,Developing, and Evaluating Profes-

BLTN: Strengthening Best Practicesin South Carolina

sional Teaching) evaluation team for ateacher at another school; I’m a teamleader for SACS (Southern Associa-tion of Colleges and Schools) of theGoals for Student Learning chapter;and I’m a National Board candidate.All are time-consuming, analyticallydemanding, and personally stressful. Ineed to make sense of accountabilityor I won’t be able to make muchsense of anything else this year.

When we talk about accountabil-ity, anxiety rises. While most teachersare proud of their classroom accom-plishments, they’re not sold on any ofthe methods by which those accom-plishments are measured.

The two most frequently heardwords in South Carolina regardingteacher accountability are “testscores,” followed closely by “curricu-lum standards.” Current high stakesexit exams and SAT tests, the imple-mentation of a new and more difficultstandardized test for public schoolstudents, and the institution of state-mandated standards in all fields placeoverwhelming pressure on teachers tosolve a multitude of educational diffi-culties. We’re being told we willsolve the problems; our jobs are onthe line.

While we all want to bring up testscores, most of us don’t think achecklist approach to the standardswill solve all of the problems. And,while test scores are a part of howteachers assess their effectiveness,most of us don’t think test scores arethe best measure of how well we doour jobs.

So in the midst of discussing cur-riculum standards and the tests thatevaluate how well the standards havebeen learned, maybe this is a goodtime to think about other measures ofteacher effectiveness and how we caninclude them in a more realisticteacher accountability package.

The three assessments I’m in-volved with this year have commonthreads. The ADEPT evaluation pro-cess, National Board Certification,and SACS accreditation indicate areasin which teacher accountability can beexplored in a supportive and positivecontext. When viewed together, theygive important insights about teachingstandards and the assessment of teach-ing effectiveness.

The ADEPT program is the mostfrequently used teacher evaluationinstrument in South Carolina and inmany other areas. The process takesan entire school year and looks at thedetailed work of a single teacher, withimproving student learning as the fo-cus for the study. A teacher is exam-ined in ten “Performance Dimen-sions,” including planning capability,teaching strategies, content taught,assessment practices, classroom envi-

Diane Crenshaw



Teacher Network

ronment and classroom management,and even the teacher’s activities out-side the classroom, both professionaland community activities. TheADEPT evaluation process was de-veloped in part by the National Boardof Professional Teaching Standards,the organization that developed Na-tional Board Certification.

Like ADEPT, the National BoardCertification process examines thework of a single teacher, with the goalof improving student learning throughimproving teaching. National BoardCertification (NBC) looks at “TheFive Propositions of AccomplishedTeaching.” They are similar to thePerformance Dimensions of theADEPT process. To earn NationalBoard Certification, teachers demon-strate their knowledge of students,subjects, instructional practices, andclassroom management. They mustshow that they can assess their ownteaching and modify it as needed. Thefinal requirement is that teachers dem-onstrate their involvement in the com-munity, both as professional educators

working with colleagues and as col-laborators with parents and others inthe community in efforts to enhancestudent performance.

While both ADEPT and NBC lookat teacher performance, NBC involvesa more comprehensive documentationand reflection process. Certificationinvolves the planning, implementa-tion, documentation, and reflection onseveral lessons throughout the year, aswell as teacher reports and analysis ofstudent profiles, goals, and practices.Information on each of five areas isassembled in a portfolio. In additionto assembling the portfolio, teacherstake a written test covering a varietyof professional issues.

The SACS accreditation process isthe broadest and most comprehensiveassessment of the three. While SACSfocuses on the work of the entireschool rather than a single teacher,much of the investigation, documenta-tion, planning, and implementation ofthe SACS self-study speak directly toissues of teacher effectiveness.

SACS self-studies involve teamsof educators, students, parents, andcommunity members—the stakehold-ers in local education—in examiningall aspects of what an individualschool does to provide the best educa-tional opportunities for students. Foreach area examined by SACS, the fo-

cus is always the same: What is theschool doing to improve studentlearning?

After the self-study is completed, ateam of evaluators, composed ofclassroom teachers and administra-tors, visits the school to determinehow the school is improving studentlearning, both by addressing weak-nesses identified during the self-studyand by building on strengths. The vis-iting team interviews the stakeholdersand examines documents to determinethe school’s progress towards itsgoals.

NBC, ADEPT, and SACS allhave as their theme the im-provement of student learn-

ing, with the monitoring and analysisof instruction as key components. Alltie instructional assessment to curricu-lum standards, and all set out stan-dards by which effective learning canbe tied to effective teaching.

These three assessment programscomplement each other in definingteaching standards and assessingteaching effectiveness. Their commonthreads:

• Teachers are assessed on the basis ofwork with their students. However,the work of students is in no waylimited to standardized test scores.Teachers use state curriculum stan-dards and communicate with eachother, parents, and the community todetermine what they expect fromstudents and to evaluate how wellthey reach their goals. Studentslearn better with support from out-side the classroom, and teachers arethe primary link between school andcommunity.

• All three programs emphasize plan-ning and reflection as essential tothe teaching process and to improv-ing student learning.

• Teachers get to know their studentsas individuals and, consequently,can base their teaching on studentinterests as well as on student needs.

Diane Crenshaw working with students on writing projects

Strengthening BestPractices

(continued from previous page)


Winter 2001

It’s not enough to know a student’stest scores. Involving students intheir own learning means reachingout to them through all aspects oftheir lives and responding to them ascomplete individuals.

• Teachers master both their contentareas and instruction, producing ef-fective lessons and effective assess-ments. They monitor studentprogress in a variety of ways and areflexible enough to change whenwhat they are doing isn’t working aswell as desired.

• Teachers are evaluated by otherteachers. Regardless of who elseparticipates in the evaluation, everyteacher can expect peer evaluationas a part of the process.

• Teachers document their work. As-sessment is sometimes not aboutwhat teachers do but about whatteachers can document. While manyteachers believe that their most ef-fective work cannot be documented,a reality of the profession is thatteachers can document many of theways they affect students, and docu-mentation must be provided for anyassessment or accountability processto capture a teacher’s performanceaccurately.

• Teachers use the processes to de-velop their own goals and assesstheir professional growth in support-ive, non-confrontational situations.

In NBC, ADEPT, and SACS ac-creditation, teachers have lots of roomfor setting their own goals and en-hancing their teaching in ways theydetermine, and the common goals ofthe programs are worthy pursuits forprofessional teachers. So, why thecontroversy in our focus group?

Those negative about NationalBoard Certification, for example,raise valid and troubling concerns.They see certification as one moreburden placed on teachers who arealready straining in the traces. Thosemore cynical see it as a series of

hoops to jump through with little di-rect impact on learning. They are dis-tressed that certification is evaluatedby teachers who are not necessarilycertified themselves. And they see itas an arbitrary choice of state depart-ments of education to give significantfinancial rewards to this process andnot to others equally challenging,such as completing the Bread Loafdegree program.

Those involved in the certificationprocess, however, are very favorable.Judy Ellsesser, a National Board Cer-tified Bread Loaf teacher, says, “Ithink it is one of the most satisfyingand personally enriching experiencesI ever went through.” She and EvaHoward, who contributed an articleon the National Board to this publica-tion last spring, have been active inhelping colleagues develop their port-folios, both in person and on line.

Have I made any personalsense of the issue yet? Twomonths ago I was asked why

I was doing National Board, besideswanting the salary increase. I had tosay I didn’t know; I was doing it forthe money. Now I see benefits I didn’texpect. The Bread Loaf TeacherNetwork is helping make NationalBoard possible for me. The classesat Bread Loaf model the best prac-tices of teachers (the basis for theNational Board portfolio), and theyalso provide the analytical tools forlooking at our own classes. BreadLoaf helps provide me some teach-ing skills that National Board re-quires in planning, presenting, andreflecting on the work of my stu-dents and on my own accomplish-ments. The learning traditions atBread Loaf—of respecting and pay-ing close attention to what otherssay, of finding and developingmeaning from texts and dialogue,and of relying on fellow teachers ascolleagues and coaches—allstrengthen the work required forNational Board.

I understand what other NationalBoard teachers I’ve met mean whenthey talk about how enriching it can

be. I already have more contact withand support from parents than Idreamed possible, a direct result ofNational Board work. I have new re-spect for the teachers who wentthrough the training to become asses-sors this past summer and who aresharing what they learned with therest of us as we pursue certificationtogether. I’m looking at what goes onin my classroom with an intensity I’venever had before.

Assessing teacher effectiveness ismandated by parents, politicians, andby educators themselves, even thoughthere is more consensus about hownot to assess teaching than how to doit fairly and accurately. If we teachersare expected to tackle these importantissues, we must be provided with rea-sonable time to plan, analyze, assess,and document how effective ourteaching is.

These assessment processes maynot redefine our ideas of what goodteachers do, but they can make usmore articulate about how teacher ac-countability goes beyond test scoresand how good teaching goes beyondaddressing curriculum standards. Theassessment of our teaching is as seri-ous a responsibility as assessment ofour students’ growth, and the assess-ment approaches should work to-gether to help our students and im-prove ourselves. ❦

Diane Crenshaw hastaught English at DixieHigh School in DueWest, South Carolina,for eleven years. Shecompleted her firstsummer at Bread Loaf in2000 as a South Caro-lina State Department ofEducation Fellow.


Teacher Network

Hugh DymentBethel Alternative Boarding SchoolBethel AK

The same year I attended myfirst summer at Bread Loaf inVermont, the Alaska Depart-

ment of Education and teachers fromthroughout the state began a long pro-cess of articulating content area stan-dards. Last year our sophomores be-came the first high school class re-quired to take the Alaska High SchoolGraduation Qualifying Exam(HSGQE). This exam tests students’reading comprehension, writing, andmathematics abilities. Each of thethree sub-tests must be passed at somepoint in order for a student to earn anAlaskan high school diploma.

There is a reason that for the firsttime, before receiving a diploma, mystudents must prove their abilities inthe three R’s to someone other thantheir teachers. Simply put, Alaska’selected state legislature wants to en-sure something that the state’s educa-tional establishment apparently can-not. Namely, the legislature wants tochange the fact that thousands ofAlaskan high school graduates, pre-dominantly poor minorities, cannotread, write, or do arithmetic at levelseven close to twelfth-grade.

Despite very good intentions andthe millions of dollars being spentannually, Alaska’s publicly fundedschool systems have not been able toensure that their graduates can read,write and compute. Yet these skillsare the foundation and a prerequisiteto a person’s ability to think well in amodern and complex society andeconomy.

A typical example is a student,whom I will call Alex, who just trans-ferred to my school, an alternativeschool. A twelfth grader with no his-tory of behavioral or learning prob-lems, Alex had earned straight C’sand B’s for the last three years. Yet

his reading and writing skills are at asixth or seventh grade level. His mathcomputational skills are lower. ByMay this young man will have com-pleted all of the school district’scourse requirements and will receive ahigh school diploma; yet he hastrouble making change (passing theHSGQE will not be required until De-cember of 2001). This is not an ex-treme or rare occurrence but rathersomething I have seen repeatedly inthe eleven years I have taught inAlaska. The public, Alex and his par-ents, and the state legislature knowthat such learning deficiencies caneasily condemn a young person to themargins of our economic and politicalsystem. Without basic knowledge andskills, the “Alexes” of Alaska will beunable to adapt to a changingeconomy or to effect change in theworld around them.

The community college in our areahas pointed out that many of ourschool district’s graduates, even thosewith a 3.0-plus GPR, need to take atleast a year’s worth of remedialclasses before they can attempt col-lege-level courses. It’s an unfortunatephenomenon and a serious politicalissue as well because atone point our schoolboard and our formersuperintendent even dis-cussed the idea of pay-ing for our district’sformer students whoneeded to take remedialcourses.

This situation had tochange, and Alaska’spublic schools couldn’tdo it as a system withoutoutside mandates: it’sthat simple.

I don’t know how thestandards movement isdeveloping in otherstates, but I’m a sup-porter of what’s happen-ing in Alaska, warts and

all. Ninety-five percent of the studentsI teach are Yup’ik Eskimo. Ninetypercent of my students are poor andseventy percent score in the bottomquartile of nationally-normed assess-ment tests of academic achievement.Some would argue that the playingfield is not level for these studentsand they would be right: it’s not. Mostof my students come from homeswhere Yup’ik is the first language;many come from homes affected bythe ills of poverty, including sub-stance abuse and family or commu-nity tragedies. Yet despite the disad-vantages, my students are expected totake the same test that those frommore encouraging socioeconomicbackgrounds will take, and theyshould because they can pass it.

Regardless of socioeconomic cir-cumstances, students all across Alaskaare earning diplomas that presumablymean something. But what does anAlaskan diploma signify? The stan-dards of a school in one communityare not the same as those in anothercommunity. Essentially, studentgrades are based on comparisons be-tween the skill levels of students inthe community and not on an articu-

Raising the Bar with High Stakes Tests

Hugh Dyment


Winter 2001

lated, statewide standard of achieve-ment. Because of this, employers andpost-secondary institutions know thatan Alaskan diploma does not signify acertain standard of achievement.

Despite linguistic particularity andtroublesome backgrounds, my stu-dents can pass the HSGQE. I havehad dozens of students make dramaticgains academically. These studentsinvariably have one thing in com-mon—they try hard. In twelve yearsof teaching in both rural New Hamp-shire and Alaska, I have never knowna student who failed to meet an aca-demic challenge if he or she tried hardenough. This notion may seem naive,old-fashioned, or simplistic, but bar-ring legitimately diagnosed neurologi-cal problems or learning disabilities, itis my experience. My students canachieve academically when they areexpected to and when they make aconscientious effort to learn, and I’veseen the HSGQE encourage this ef-fort.

The HSGQE is a high stakesexam, but unlike in many Asian andEuropean countries where a single testtaken in adolescence can seal one’sfate, the HSGQE, or portions of it,can be taken up to five times in highschool, beginning in sophomore year.By law, students are allowed six at-tempts after they leave high school.Teams of teachers, administrators,and members of the public determinedthe cutoff scores, which seem to me,in the areas of writing and reading,rather modest levels of achievement.Moreover, between the third andeighth grades, three similar compre-hensive assessment exams are admin-istered to assess whether students areon track or need academic interven-tions.

I have seen the test that is given inthis state and it seems reasonable. It isnot the kind of multiple answer test Itook in high school in preparation forcollege admissions. The HSGQE re-quires writing of essays in response to“real life” scenarios, editing of mis-takes, short-answer responses to read-ing excerpts, applied mathematicalproblems, descriptive writing of howmathematical problems are solved,

etc. The test is essentially untimed inthat one day per sub-test is allowed,though on average only three to fourhours are needed.

Tests are not a problem if the testis a good one, nor is teaching to thetest a problem because the skills thetest assesses are those that high schoolgraduates should have. I have seenfear in my students’ eyes when theytalk about the HSGQE, but I’ve seenrelief, pride, and self-confidencewhen they pass portions of it. Byimplementing this testing procedure,the state of Alaska has said to my stu-dents, “Here’s the bar. If you choose,you can and will learn the skills youneed to get over it.”

A team of teachers and educatorscomprises a committee called theSchool Designator Committee, whichwill issue student testing results onschools and districts (already theseare reported in the local papers).

One of the big issues has beenwhether the state should step in andtake action if a certain percentage ofstudents do not demonstrate profi-ciency. Some question the fact thatthere are provisions in the law thatallow the state department of educa-tion to “take over” under-performingschools. But this fear supposes anadversarial relationship between thestate department and Alaska’s schooldistricts that I don’t believe exists. Infact, it appears the state department ismore interested in observing the de-velopment of a school district’s testscores than it is in “taking over” dis-tricts where the numbers indicate lowpercentages of passing students.

Is mandating such testing fair to anunder-performing school faced withsocioeconomic conditions that dra-matically affect students’ efforts? Is itfair to a hardworking teacher to betold that there are better methods thathe or she must follow? These are dif-ficult ethical questions, and I am un-certain. But I do know that it is notfair to award high school diplomas tostudents who have not achieved eveneighth-grade skill levels. As a teacher,I welcome reasonable testing proce-dures that help define standards ofstudent achievement on which

Alaska’s teachers and the public canagree.

Unlike most states, our publicschools are funded directly by thestate using a funding formula thattakes into account the higher expensesin rural areas. Except for a few metro-politan areas, Alaska’s school systemsare not funded by property taxes, sowe don’t see the resulting disparity inamounts spent per pupil that exists inother states. Currently, we are spend-ing between $11,000 and $13,000 an-nually per rural pupil. Anchorage andFairbanks, which do raise educationaldollars through property taxes, aresupplemented by about $3,700 perstudent. When students do poorly inAlaska, lack of funding is not thecause. While spending more moneycan’t hurt, spending more does notnecessarily result in improved studentperformance. Setting reasonable stan-dards and motivating students toachieve them over a sustained periodof time will create positive changes inthose students’ lives as well as in thegeneral state of education in Alaska.

I’m optimistic about the possibili-ties but not naive. If a high percentageof my students are going to pass theHSGQE, they will need to learn more.Thus, I expect my state legislature,which presumably wants the samething, to increase funding for effectiveafter-school and summer program-ming so my students are given theopportunity to learn more. The typicalvoter in Alaska should expect no lessfrom the legislature. To date, we havebeen receiving funding for such pro-grams, though it comes from a federalsource.

Fortunately for my student Alex,his school focuses much of its pro-gram on developing vocational skills,forthrightly addressing substanceabuse problems, remediating aca-demic deficiencies, and impressingupon Alex that he can succeed in al-most any way he chooses. HelpingAlex become a person who can read,write, and do arithmetic must also be



Teacher Network

accompanied, I believe, by helpinghim become a good person, someonewho will stand up, speak his mindwhen he is called to do so. Alex, likeall good students, is learning to forgoimmediate gratification in order toreach long-term goals and the greatersatisfaction that comes with them.

When I think of my former stu-dents, I am saddened by thoughts ofthose now dead, from violence andsuicide, those who have been trappedin the cycle of substance abuse orchild abuse, living lives of resentmentand self-pity. Yet I also considerthose students who are now bush pi-lots, those studying to be teachers, theones active in their churches andfaiths, the young couples providingfor their little babies, those who arebecoming nukalpiaq (master hunters),and those who are living simple, giv-ing lives. These are not things that canbe assessed in a single test, nor arethey things that curricula can be de-signed to teach well. These standardsare learned by example. ❦

Raising the Bar . . .(continued from previous page)

Andover Bread Loaf/Lawrence

Teacher Network: The Amigo

Exchange

Andover Bread Loaf alumni con-ducted several exciting exchanges withteachers from the Bread Loaf TeacherNetwork. Paradigm Fellow MaryGuerrero organized two of these ex-changes at the Oliver School in Lawrence,MA. One exchange partnered twelveOliver students in grades three throughseven in a writing exchange with preser-vice teachers in Juneau, AK, under thedirection of Karen Mitchell. The otherproject, the Amigo Exchange, partneredstudents from Mary’s class with middleschool students from Emily Rinkema’sclass in Hinesburg, VT. Mary reported thefollowing about the partnership:

“The Amigo Exchange has only justbegun, yet it is already a success. My firstgrade bilingual students tell all visitors,including parents on report card night,that they are ‘anthropologists.’ They arelearning how other people live, work,play, eat, and dress. My first graders arelearning about others, but just as impor-tantly they are learning about themselves.They are amazed to find out there are stu-dents who don’t speak Spanish, don’t eatrice and beans, and don’t walk to thenearby city school wearing blue and whiteuniforms.

“As part of the project, my students,partner teacher Kathy Osberg, and I havebeen taking walking tours of our neigh-borhood. We have visited all the students’homes to take photos. The students havealso been taking cameras home to takephotos of their favorite places within thehome. . . .

“It is hard to describe my students’reaction to the photos sent from Vermont.I wish I had recorded their responses witha video camera. The students showed ex-treme interest, wonder, inquisitiveness,and happiness. We sat in a circle on thecarpet and passed the photos around. Thestudents reacted at times with completesilence, then oohing and aahing, giggling,and chatting. We didn’t even need to raiseour hands to speak, everyone was so ab-sorbed. . . .” ❦

International Connections

The following is an excerpt from theessay “Writing in the Pakistani Class-room: An Invitation to Change,” writtenby Principal Mohsin Tejani, a 1997 alum-nus of the Andover Bread Loaf WritingWorkshop. Mohsin, now in his third yearat the Bread Loaf School of English, wasrecently awarded a grant from Write toChange, a not-for-profit organization, tosupport writing for the communityprojects at his school in Karachi, Paki-stan. Mohsin is also a Director of ABL’sInternational Projects. In August 2000, heand Hazel Lockett co-directed the ABLMillennium Conference in Karachi.

“ABL is very much about commu-nity—we all grow and thrive in support-ive nonjudgmental, democratic, creativecommunities (which are usually hard tofind). Building these kinds of communi-ties is critical to the kind of teaching andlearning in ABL. . . .

“The liberatory pedagogy helps indi-vidual teachers to identify their strengthsand weaknesses, and to decide the pathand pace of professional developmentthey want to adopt. Hence it’s up to theindividual teacher in the program to de-cide what to do with the knowledge he orshe is generating (during the summerworkshop). To elaborate on this a bitmore, ABL opens doors to avenues, meth-ods, and approaches to education in gen-eral, and the teaching of writing in par-ticular. It does not, however, preach orimpose any particular methodology onlearning theory but lets the teacher decidewhat is good for his or her personality andclassroom.”

A dozen associates of the ABL Writ-ing Workshop were invited to Karachi,Pakistan, for a cultural exchange withforty teachers of the Aga Khan schools, aprogressive network of schools through-out Central Asia and East Africa. Theparticipants focused much of their activityon writing and learning how other cul-tures approach pedagogical issues. FourBread Loafers participated: TamarahPfeiffer, Hazel Lockett, Rich Gorham,and Sam Swope. Sam’s story about theexperience, including his photographs,was featured in the February, 2001, issueof Teacher Magazine. ❦

Andover Bread Loaf

Reprinted with permission from Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop News

Hugh Dyment has taughtYup'ik Eskimo students inwestern Alaska for elevenyears. His teaching experi-ence includes Englishliterature, English as asecond language, specialeducation, social studies,and remedial math. Hespends much time with hisfamily, subsistence huntingand fishing. Hugh willgraduate from Bread Loafthis summer.

The Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop (ABLWW), directed by Lou Bernieri ofPhillips Academy, Andover, MA, recruits teachers from the Lawrence, MA, area andabroad each summer for intensive writing workshops. Throughout this program teachersof Lawrence have collaborated with teachers from Pakistan, Kenya, India, andBangladesh.


Winter 2001

Lorrie JacksonLinden-McKinley High SchoolColumbus OH

Dear Joe, I am hapy you cante themante. I lik cante to. Will you manteback? From Ed

I was stumped when I read theabove note. A student in my class,Ed, is a friendly and talkative

freshman who can tell you what hewants to write, and what he saysmakes sense (I have changed thenames of students in this article inorder to protect their privacy). Ed’slearning disability, however, causeshis writing to be very difficult to un-derstand, with any words longer thanone syllable replaced with words suchas mante, cante, and hante. Yet Ed isjust one of many students with identi-fied special needs who participatedsuccessfully in a recent writingproject I carried out on BreadNet be-tween Cynthia Rucker’s students andmine. The unique characteristics ofour inclusion classes, not sur-prisingly, affected how we de-fined our own standards forclassroom work. With modifi-cations for special educationstudents, we discovered that allstudents can, as Bread LoafProfessor Jackie Royster says,achieve excellence in learningacademic content through in-teractive writing with peers.

This online writing ex-change centered on Homer’sOdyssey. Two of CynthiaRucker’s freshman Englishclasses from Maysville HighSchool in rural Zanesville,

Excellence for All and from All: A Look atStandards in One Inclusion Classroom

Ohio, and my two classes from Lin-den-McKinley High School in inner-city Columbus, Ohio, read excerptsfrom the epic poem and then wrotepoems, letters, short stories, and es-says. In addition, Vivian Axiotis, an-other Ohio English teacher who iscurrently on sabbatical writing poetryin Greece, emailed poems to our stu-dents and responded to their questionsabout Greece, writing, and poetry.

This writing exchange was thefirst one for Cynthia and me. Admit-tedly, we were ambitious with the vol-ume and quality of writing we ex-pected our students to generate. It be-came clear early on that we wouldneed to base more of our grading ofstudent work on the process (did youdo the assignment?) and less on prod-uct (is every comma where it shouldbe?). Yes, the pangs of guilt for low-ering our expectations indeed afflictedus, but we decided that high standardsin the classroom, at least for now,meant establishing a fluid and posi-tive dialogue between our studentsrather than achieving perfect writing.

What exactly are standards? Be-yond their definition as state- or lo-

cally-mandated expectations for aca-demic performance, standards alsorefer to our own expectations for per-formance in the classroom. Given thevariety of teaching philosophies andthe autonomy most of us have in theclassroom, it is not surprising thatteachers use many different ways todefine standards.

At times English teachers empha-size the quality of the product andmust therefore edit and reëdit studentdrafts until high expectations havebeen met. This is usually the casewhen we expect to publish studentwriting in a literary magazine or someother school publication. At othertimes, however, teachers may preferto let students do the editing. Peer ed-iting by students may not always beletter perfect, but the process of prac-ticing these skills for a real audience,such as in a BreadNet exchange, isvaluable nonetheless. Most teachersvary the way they teach writing, em-phasizing product and process at dif-ferent times according to how stu-dents are performing.

When Cynthia and I first discussedsetting standards for our exchange, we

had no idea what challengeswe would encounter withour inclusion classes. Weexpected to edit some textsbut let most be edited orreviewed by students, al-lowing the power of the“real audience” to help im-prove student work. From adiscussion at the fall 2000Ohio meeting for BreadLoaf teachers, we knewsuch an “audience-focused”view on standards wasfairly common. What madeour situation somewhat un-usual was the addition of a


Lorrie Jackson


Teacher Network

significant number of students receiv-ing special education services.

Inclusion can be defined simply asthe mainstreaming of students withspecial needs into a traditional class-room, ideally in roughly equal propor-tions. My inclusion class is co-taughtwith Tiffany Chavers, the chair of ourSpecial Education Department. Weteach a general education curriculumin a team-teaching style, modifying orpulling children out only when theneed is present. Our ultimate goal, asalways, is to ensure that each child ischallenged and is capable of meetingthe challenge.

A third of the students in one ofmy classes is identified as having spe-cific learning disabilities or mentalretardation (see end note). In addition,there are two other such studentsmainstreamed in my other class andthree or four more students in bothclasses who show signs of possiblespecial needs but have yet to be iden-tified as such. Cynthia has one studentdoing the exchange who receives spe-cial education services.

What impact does the mandate ofinclusion have on how we constructedour standards for our exchange? Lookback at the letter which begins thisstory. How would you grade that let-ter based upon your own standards inthe classroom? Most letters sent backand forth between pen pals were sim-ply reviewed, by Cynthia or me, forappropriate subject and language, andlittle editing was done. Yet, Ed’s let-ter could not be left as such; it wasincomprehensible. Other students hadsimilar struggles in their writing. Delland Marcia (not their real names), forexample, were overwhelmed by anassignment that asked them to writeshort stories that included themselvesand their exchange partners as charac-ters. The assignment was only fiveparagraphs and could have been a

simple rewrite of stories we had al-ready read that year, but these stu-dents were unable to make progress inthis assignment. How then do we fos-ter excellence for them while ensuringthe standards remain high? This im-portant question is central to effectiveteaching in inclusion classrooms, andit is one that is relevant to all teachersin classrooms where students’ abili-ties vary widely.

A number of modifications weremade to our exchange that facilitatedlearning for all students and ensuredstandards were high. These includedthe following:

Careful Pairing of Online WritingPartners. Cynthia and I spent a Satur-day afternoon over coffee, identifyingstudents who would need special at-tention and linking them with studentswho would have the maturity and sen-sitivity to work well with the DH orLD student. These pairings were en-tirely successful. Regular educationstudents in both classes, most of thetime, were unaware that their partnerhad special educational needs. Whena situation, such as a hard-to-read let-ter, made it obvious that the writerhad difficulties, the feedback given byhis or her partner was always support-ive and positive.

Observing and Utilizing TeachableMoments. Regular and special educa-tion students from both schools com-plained a few times about the errors,sloppiness, or inconsistency they sawin writings from their exchange part-ners. Cynthia and I used these in-stances to remind our students thatwe are all human and make mistakes.As we were quick to point out, no onewas immune to routine typos, but wecan learn from our mistakes and themistakes of others without being criti-cal.

Using Resources. When a studenthad difficulty communicating his orher thoughts on paper, both teachersattempted to find other means to getthe text written. For example, in myclass, my co-teacher Tiffany worked

one-on-one with Ed, typing histhoughts as they were spoken and en-abling him to have a product as neatand as correct as his peers. His ex-change partner got the same qualityletter as did the rest of his classmates.On another assignment, Tiffany cre-ated a “cheat sheet” on which para-graphs for a basic story were typed upwith blanks for main characters, ac-tions, events, etc. Having an inclusionteacher work together with the stu-dents to help them write just whatthey want to say is invaluable. Inclu-sion teachers, incidentally, are avail-able to help any student in the class,not just “their” students. Often, theinclusion teacher can provide newperspectives and ideas for everyone,not just those who have special needs.

Continuing Open Dialogue onBreadNet and in Person. Cynthiaand I never let one small challengewith a student or class prevent usfrom getting our exchange off theground. We were eager and ready totweak the system when needed so thatstandards were maintained whilemaking sure no students were steam-rolled in that quest for quality. Closecommunication between Cynthia andme was critical to our success.

Holding students to high standardsin the English classroom is nevereasy, and when a writing exchangeinvolves students who have difficultyin communication, reaching thosestandards may be more difficult. Butthe rewards are there. Anyone whohas ever taught an inclusion class, orsimply a class with one or more spe-cial education students, knows thatplacing a child in his or her least re-strictive environment brings benefitsin learning.

Setting and achieving standards inclassrooms like mine raise one impor-tant question: Am I willing to modifymy instruction to make the standardsreachable? If so, then every studentcan experience success in a regulareducation environment and becomemore self-confident. This in turn leadsto higher academic achievement in

Excellence for All . . .(continued from previous page)


Winter 2001

general. And that growing excellenceis precisely what BreadNet exchangesshould be about: high standards andways to achieve those expectations forall students at all times.

End Note: Currently, the Ohio Depart-ment of Education (ODE) defines aspecific learning disability as a disor-der of the basic psychological pro-cesses involved in understanding or inusing language, spoken or written, thatmanifests itself in an imperfect abilityto listen, think, read, write, spell, or todo mathematical calculations. Theterm also includes such conditions asperceptual disabilities, brain injury,minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia,and developmental aphasia. Mentalretardation, formerly called a develop-mental handicap, is defined by ODEas a significantly subaverage generalintellectual functioning existing con-currently with deficits in adaptive be-haviors and manifested during the de-velopmental period that adversely af-fects a child’s educational perfor-mance. IQ for a child with MR mustbe no greater than 80. ❦

Alaska’s 2001 Teacher of the Year is Patricia Truman, an eighth gradelanguage arts teacher at Palmer Junior Middle School, a school whereshe has taught for fourteen years. Truman has twenty-six total years of

experience as a teacher and was also Matanuska-Susitna Borough SchoolDistrict’s Teacher of the Year. Governor Tony Knowles made the announcementtoday during remarks to the Association of Alaska School Boards.

“Patricia Truman has the qualities and abilities of Alaska’s best teachers,who are working hard in their classrooms all over the state to improve the livesof children,” Knowles said. “She will do an outstanding job representing theteaching profession during the next year.”

“I am pleased to appoint Patricia to serve as Alaska’s 2001 Teacher of theYear,” said Rick Cross, Commissioner of Education and Early Development. “Iwill be submitting her name as Alaska’s candidate for the 2001 NationalTeacher of the Year competition in Washington, D.C. She puts children first andis on equal footing with candidates from all states to win the National Teacher ofthe Year honor.”

Truman has also taught in Fairbanks and Montana. She is one of ten teachersin Alaska who has earned certification by the National Board of ProfessionalTeaching Standards. She is a member of the Alaska State Reading Association,National and Alaska Councils of Teachers of English, Alaska State WritingConsortium, and the Bread Loaf Teacher Network. She has received a NationalEndowment for the Humanities Award and is a school consultant who provideslanguage arts training for teachers in other districts for the Alaska Department ofEducation & Early Development.

“Teaching is a skill that is never mastered; there is always a better way toteach or to explain a concept more thoroughly or more effectively,” Trumanwrote in her Teacher of the Year application. “Teaching is my aspiration toachieve the same level of thoughtfulness that I reach for every day.

“My most important accomplishments as a teacher cannot be listed on a re-sume, pasted in a scrapbook, or captioned under a yearbook picture. Those ac-complishments are intangible and immeasurable because I can never fully knowthe scope of my influence. My students do not immediately realize my effective-ness as a teacher. Many come back later to tell me. Some become writers; somebecome English teachers. More importantly, most are successful. Students’ suc-cesses are my most profound accomplishments,” she wrote.

A statewide selection committee appointed by Commissioner Cross recom-mended Truman from a field of four finalists. A screening committee earlier rec-ommended the finalists from a field of twelve applicants submitted by schooldistrict selection committees, which consist of parents, school administrators,teachers, students, and business and other community leaders. The AlaskaTeacher of the Year term begins January 1, 2001. ❦

Pat Truman Named AlaskaTeacher of the YearEditorial Note: The following is excerpted from a press release published on No-vember 10, 2000, on the Web site of the Office of the Governor of Alaska. Formore information go to http://www.gov.state.ak.us/press/00280.html. PatTruman is a member of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network and an alumna of theBread Loaf School of English.

Lorrie Jackson teachesninth grade English and awriter’s seminar atLinden-McKinley HighSchool in Columbus,Ohio. In addition, sheconducts an after-schoolpoetry workshop forurban students. A recipi-ent of an Ohio-RiseFellowship, she attendedBread Loaf’s Vermontcampus in the summer of2000.


Teacher Network

Tom McKennaUniversity of Alaska SoutheastJuneau AK

Editorial Note: A version of this ar-ticle first appeared in Standard Impli-cations published in 2000 by Univer-sity of Alaska Southeast in Juneau.

Anyone interested in hearing astory about teaching to Stan-dard A?

I didn’t think so.I often wonder about the vocabu-

lary we use to describe students’ ex-periences with the education we pro-vide for them. We talk about contentstandards, performance standards,benchmarks, key elements, rubrics,attainment targets, and high stakesassessments. We search for ways toisolate competencies and disseminate“best practices,” and in so doing wetalk to one another about lessons,

units, and structures needed to maxi-mize the potential of students. We talkabout students being “completely en-gaged” in a process of “being able toknow and do” this or that (and thusthey are at least a decade moreevolved from their predecessors, whowere “on task”). We teach to the stan-dards.

If we’re paying attention, though,our students will remind us occasion-ally to examine the language of stan-dards and accountability to determineto what extent the language truly de-scribes the meaning of students’work. Does the language we use ashigh school English teachers—and theeducational culture that that languagefosters—encourage students to seethemselves in the unfolding narrativeof their own potential?

And so I’ve chosen to tell a story,which is not exactly about teaching toStandard A (“A student should beable to speak and write well for a va-riety of purposes and audiences”),though indeed evidence of this stan-

dard and many others is implicit inthis story. I think the story is moreabout the complexity of responding toa student’s personal work. It’s aboutfollowing that student to a significantmoment of growth—her own self-selected “high stakes assessment.”

At eight o’clock the sun hasjust set behind the gray sil-houettes of the volcano and

its accompanying peaks, and a plati-num light fills the bay between thepinnacled horizon and the crab boats,the cannery, and the muddy streetcalled Broadway. An old trailer hometurned post office, the bar, two restau-rants, and a cluster of single-storyhouses frame the scene in mymemory. In the center of these build-ings is a weathered red warehousewith the unlikely phrase “RollerRink” above the door. A motleybunch of old trucks and newer cars—all of them mud-spattered—is as-sembled on the edges of the red build-ing, and the “driveway,” a sloppyeddy of the street’s mud flow, iscrowded with vehicles, too. Along theside of the building, two figures aresitting on a long creosote log,hunched over, facing away from thedoor. I am one of these two, and I ten-tatively reach my arm out stiffly toembrace the shoulder of my student,Karina. She pauses, as if startled, thenleans further forward burying her facein her hands. “Oh, my God! I’m notgoing back in there! I can’t.”

“You’re gonna blow ’em away!” Ihad told Karina earlier in the day in ahurried exchange in the hallway of thehigh school. Although she had neveracknowledged that she’d rise to mychallenge of reading her recently pub-lished piece at the community coffee-house, Karina’s tweed blazer and herneatly combed hair that Friday morn-ing told me what her decision was.

Karina: A Personal Perspective on HighStakes Standards and Growth

Tom McKenna (right) with Michelle Wyman-Warren and Dan Furlowat BLTN meeting in Taos, NM


Winter 2001

She smirked uncomfortably, herbraces showing for only a second, andas she walked down the hall, shelooked more like a college sophomorethan the young high school freshmanthat she was.

The coffeehouse events were arelatively new phenomenon in ourcommunity, and I think even the localarts council was surprised by theirpopularity. In a remote industrial fish-ing town, with a population domi-nated by transient blue collar workersfrom all over the Pacific Rim, eventhe most bohemian spirits weremoved by the range and depth of“performers” who turned out to sharetheir voices and their musical talentsbefore a supportive crowd. Callousedwelders shared the stage with bashful

children, longtime residents, newcom-ers, and published poets.

At our high school, freshmenrarely published in Winter Bay, theschool’s weekly literary magazine.This photocopied publication wasmanaged by sophomores in a Writingfor Publication class that I had devel-oped after a great experience as a stu-dent in a similarly-styled class taughtat Bread Loaf by writing professorand author Ken Macrorie. In oursophomore class, we had achieved arare balance between following rou-tine academic deadlines and what Ithink was intrinsic motivation amongstudents. Somehow, it became cool tobe published. We started every classwith a short model piece, discussed itsmerits for a few minutes, then doveinto freewriting in response to its

style, structure, or theme, for exactlytwelve minutes. At the end of eachweek, students would develop onepiece into a draft to be submitted tostudent editors, who would conferwith the writers and publish those fi-nal drafts that conformed to our in-creasingly sophisticated definition of“good writing.” Most highly valued inthe writing was truthfulness.

The weekly publication took off.Every Friday it was a text for each ofmy ninth through twelfth gradeclasses, and copies of the publicationwere practically ripped out of myhands as I offered them to kids rush-ing out of the building for the week-end.

Karina’s older sister was in thesophomore class, and her mom hadasked me if it would be okay if Karina

submitted a piece. An account of thedeath of her younger cousin the previ-ous summer in a nearby community,Karina’s piece read like an obituary.Her aunt was walking Karina’s cous-ins down the road when a bear sur-prised them. As the aunt tried to grabher three-year-old’s hand, little Ben-jamin broke away and the bear forsome reason attacked and killed him.Karina felt both devastated and guiltybecause she and some friends had nottaken him four-wheeling with themthat day.

After a tough week of negotiatingthe written comments of student edi-tors, and some one-on-one conferenc-ing with me, Karina had developedher story to express an astonishingemotional sophistication. The newversion registered the shocking qual-

ity of the news on a boring morningof cannery work, the chill beauty ofthe weather at the funeral, and the sur-real denial she and her sister experi-enced, thinking they might have seenBenjamin’s likeness darting from theside of his now empty house.

I was so proud of Karina for perse-vering through her grief, for applyinglessons she seemed to be learningfrom our reading of Steinbeck andfrom her older peers, that I practicallybegged her to read her recently pub-lished piece to the community at thecoffeehouse that night.

Probably seventy people had gath-ered in the dark hall when Karinacame up to the microphone in thespotlight. She followed a publishedpoet and writing professor and an ac-complished violinist. I imagine thestillness outside was as pure and rareas the stillness inside when she read.Her hands shaking, she at first stam-mered the title, a humorless pun onher late cousin’s last name: “BearsDon’t Eat Bears.” But she steadied asshe gave brush strokes of setting, thecannery drudgery, the coffee breaks,and finally her mother skidding up inthe truck, beginning the story andstraining to keep back her own tears.In a matter of a minute or two she hadcast a spell of silence so heavy that itbegan to choke her. “Benjamin . . .”Pause. “Benjamin is . . .” Silence.

Karina looked out at me for a longsecond, then hung her head andwalked blindly off the stage, throughthe crowd and out the door.

I don’t know how long Karina andI sat next to one another on that logwithout a word. What could I say? Irealized that I had conspired to put afourteen-year-old under a spotlight totalk about the recent death of a lovedone. Clearly, I had made the singleworst mistake of my career. My per-spective as a teacher—obsessed withgood writing, proud of my student’swell wrought work—suddenlyseemed small and callous. Would Iever ask my own child to do that?

Although the standards may be moving us in someways closer, we haven’t yet arrived at an adequate

common language of standards that articulates andvalues the kind of growth I observed in Karina.



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How had I decided that this kind ofpublic exposure would be a goodthing for such a shy and talentedyoung woman? It was Karina whobroke the silence as I handed her aKleenex and reached awkwardly totouch her shoulder. “They didn’t getit. They didn’t get any of it.”

“What?”“They didn’t understand a word I

was saying.”“Oh, my God, Karina!” Now it

was my turn for tears as I spontane-ously embraced her. “If you don’tthink . . . Karina, I’ve never been in aroom where a story did that to people.They get it. They can’t possibly forgetwhat they heard tonight.”

Karina looked up in genuine sur-prise. Silence again.

“So what do you want to do?” Iasked. The question was as much anaddress to myself as it was to Karina.

“I can’t walk away, but I can’t goback in there.” Silence.

My dilemma was genuine enough,whether to push her to save face andgo back and finish her piece or toavoid the risk of further vulnerability.I don’t think I logically resolved thesituation before the words startedcoming out of my mouth.

“Look, remember that poem Iasked you to help me revise lastweek? I’ve been trying to get up theguts to read it. Would you at leastcome up to the microphone with me,while I read?”

No response.“Please?”A frown, a wipe of her eyes with

the back of her wrist, a momentarysmile, a nod, and we walked back in.

A half-hour later, after I had read,Karina decided to try again, and shetook over the room with her story.This time she made it all the waythrough, stopping occasionally tosteady her breathing but carrying her-self forward with some of the same

determination she displayed on thebasketball court, where she was ayoung team leader.

In the long applause that followed,I didn’t notice that Karina had left.Immediately after the coffeehouse,several adults asked me to pass ontheir praise to Karina, saying they hadnever heard writing like that from ahigh schooler. A reporter from theAnchorage Daily News who happenedto be in town approached me andasked if I would put her in touch withKarina so that she might publish thepiece. When I called Karina at hometo tell her about all of the audience’scomments, she was pleased, but whenI mentioned the Daily News person,she interrupted.

“Mr. McKenna?”“Yeah?”“I’ll think about it. But is it okay if

we don’t talk about this piece for awhile?”

Recoiling from my enthusiasm, Irealized I was doing it again. “Ofcourse. How do you feel? I mean, amI pushing you too hard?”

“No, but I’d really like to spendsome time with my boyfriend.”

When I recall these events, Ido so with the false per-spective of memory.

Karina’s emotional response couldhave been at least slightly differentfrom how I remember it. It may havebeen a more painful experience thanI’m able to recall, or it may have beenmore of a breakthrough, a significantmoment of growth. It was certainly animportant moment of growth for meas a teacher as I came to identify thismost risky yet potentially productiveedge of my teaching. In our zeal tosee that students excel in their writ-ing, how do we negotiate the bound-aries between our students’ privatelives and the public selves that we’reasking them to construct through theirwriting? For me, this is still a twilightarea, one that I may approach withever more uncertainty. My memory ofKarina, however, encourages me topush on and cautiously explore.

Since teaching Karina, I must ad-mit that I’ve had mixed successeswith establishing the culture of sup-port and individual attention that Ibelieve functioned well enough to al-low us to take these risks together,and well enough to allow these stan-dards for sophisticated thinking tobecome the preconditions for almosteverything we would do. (In my mostrecent high school English teachingexperience, I had as many as 180 stu-dents during the year, with one “ad-vanced” class near or above forty forthe entire year.)

Much of the concern in policy-making circles in Alaska is now un-derstandably centered on the outcomeof high stakes assessments, especiallyin rural districts. Although the stan-dards may be moving us in someways closer, we haven’t yet arrived atan adequate common language ofstandards that articulates and valuesthe kind of growth I observed inKarina or myself in this example.Clearly, teaching with standards asongoing principles for sophisticatedthinking is an intensive and interac-tive endeavor. I’m realistic enough tounderstand constraints on school bud-gets, but I think it is crucial for us toconsider at what point our priority forthe “most-bang-for-the-buck” ac-countability might have the unin-tended consequence of promotingteaching geared to standards morethan to adolescents—those complex,emotional, entirely capable, and won-derfully unpredictable learners. ❦

Tom McKenna is a lan-guage arts and technologyteacher currently living inJuneau, Alaska, andworking at the Universityof Alaska Southeast. Hehas taught for eleven yearsin rural and urban Alaskaas well as Barcelona,Spain. Tom received anM.A. from the Bread LoafSchool of English in 1996.

Karina: A PersonalPerspective . . .



Winter 2001

Will MarinellThe Baldwin SchoolPhiladelphia PA

with Lou BernieriPhillips AcademyAndover MA

During the 1999-2000 schoolyear, through a partnershipbetween Phillips Academy,

Andover, and the Aga Khan Educa-tion Service, I had the unique oppor-tunity to teach at schools in Kenyaand Bangladesh. My main objectivewas to heighten cultural awareness bylinking classrooms in the Aga Khannetwork with those at Andover viaelectronic writing exchanges aboutculture and country. To prepare forlaunching these exchanges, I attendedthe Andover Bread Loaf (ABL) Writ-ing Workshop the summer before mydeparture. I knew from conversationswith ABL Director Lou Bernieri thatthe program stressed the importanceof writing for and about one’s com-munity, and that many teachers in thegreater Bread Loaf community werealready conducting successful elec-tronic writing exchanges. During anelectronic project workshop at BreadLoaf in Vermont, Lou and I outlinedthe curriculum for a poetry exchangebetween students at Andover and inKenya. Though we were enthusiasticabout the exchange’s potential, nei-ther of us anticipated the impact itwould have on our students or us.

This exchange, and a subsequentone we launched between our classesat Andover and in Bangladesh, in-spired us to place the teaching of cul-tural awareness and the creation ofwriting communities at the top of ourlists of educational priorities. Weworry that, because of their flexiblecurricular nature, electronic writingexchanges will be overlooked in our

Of Bombs, Blackness, and Beautiful Music

education system’s push to create aset of easily replicable, universal stan-dards. By highlighting some of thepowerful moments of our first ex-change, we hope to illustrate the ex-tent to which these projects can stimu-late creative writing and critical think-ing, and to offer persuasive testimonyfor making electronic exchanges acurricular priority in many educa-tional settings.

Our first exchange between stu-dents in Nairobi and Andover wasdivided into three two-week units:African poetry, African American po-etry, and poetry writing by the stu-dents themselves. Prior to the ex-change, students from both schoolsexpressed a fear and dislike of poetry.Prior to the project, I had even writtento Lou that my senior class was a “no-torious poetry-hating class.”

In an attempt to improve students’attitudes toward poetry, we facilitatedwriting exercises that encouraged stu-dents to take personal risks in theirwriting and to view poetry as a flex-

ible, liberating genre rather than apretentious, rigid one. The cross-cul-tural writing context encouraged sur-prising changes in attitudes. In anearly exchange, Ruhila (Nairobi) ex-pressed to Cynthia (Andover) the sen-timents of students in both countries:“There was a time when I couldn’tstand poetry, but now I love it!”

Though it would be flattering toconclude that brilliant teaching wasresponsible for Ruhila’s change ofheart, another single ingredient, em-powerment, was the cause. Long-con-ditioned to learning through datedBritish text syllabi and playing therole of passive, knowledge-absorbingstudents, the Kenyan pupils werethrilled with the chance to read andwrite about Africa and their ownlives. On both ends, students weremotivated by the fact that their audi-ence was a group of peers on a distantcontinent.

Our unit on African poetry broughtinteresting reactions from both sides.Students were fascinated by howsimilar the racial issues in Africa andAmerica were. The African poem,“Song Of Ocol” by Okot p’Bitek,brought the most powerful responses.Jamaican exchange student Katrina(Andover) was particularly moved byOcol’s position. She wrote:

I am going to tell you some-thing that I’ve always felt butnever really discussed out loud…When I read the poem, I was as-tonished at how it sounded as if anextremely honest and perceptiveJamaican could have written itabout Jamaica. The painful realityabout my homeland is that themindset of slavery and colonialdays has endured long after eman-cipation and independence. . . .Our endemic inferiority complexis Jamaica’s “chronic disease.” I

Will Marinell (continued on next page)


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believe we, as a people, need toovercome this battle first beforewe can develop as a nation.

It was apparent that students werelearning from each other and taking avested interest in the curriculum, con-firming what we suspected: powerfullearning occurs when students readand write about subjects that have rel-evance to their lives and when theywrite for a genuine audience.Throughout the exchange, many ofthe participants discovered and re-vealed important political, personal,and cultural sentiments for the firsttime in their lives. While this phe-nomenon can result from traditionalpedagogy, the intimacy of the ex-change catalyzed more breakthroughsthan we had previously witnessed inour classrooms.

The third exchange from theKenyan students brought a surprise:they included a poem about the bomb-ing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi.Aailia (Nairobi) wrote to Jennifer(Andover):

“In Memory of the BombBlast” expresses the feeling theentire nation had toward the hor-rific incident. . . . The lines that Ifound most touching were “Withopen arms and smiles we welcomeyou all, but with your arms youkill and mutilate us.” The Kenyanswere welcoming “with open arms”but the others used their “arms” todestroy our country. . . . “Whybring your wars to us?” was thebitter question on every Kenyan’smind, as many lost loved ones andeven those who did not felt thesorrow.

The Americans had to research thetragedy, for only a few of them evenvaguely remembered it. The Africanstudents’ “takeover” of the projectthrough the “In Memory of the BombBlast” poem stimulated the exchange.In addition to learning about the effect

of the bombing on the Kenyans, itprompted the American students tothink critically about the biases of theU.S. media’s coverage.

The exchange was in full flight bythe fourth week, when the studentsbegan studying the African Americanpoems. The Kenyans were pleasantlysurprised at the number of poems thatcelebrated Africa. Nicholas (Nairobi)wrote to Chris (Andover), “I guessthis is a common element in many ofthese African American poems—thepraising of Africa’s physical splen-dor—I guess I’m proud of it myself!”Nicholas’s sentiments were echoed bya number of the Kenyans; they did notknow how important Africa and itsculture were to African Americans.

The Kenyans’ ability to relate tothe African American poems in-trigued their U.S. counterparts. Whileslavery was a foreign notion to theKenyans, the reality of oppressionstill resonated from the days of colo-nialism. James (Nairobi) wrote to Teri(Andover) about Langston Hughes’spoem “Democracy”:

The fact that people are igno-rant bores the poet when he writes,“I tire so. . . .” The poet is angeredat the people’s passiveness. I findit interesting that the behavior ofsome Black Negroes in America isalmost exactly the same as the av-erage citizen in Kenya. It’s the at-titude of why fight a system thatcannot be defeated? Why fightcorruption if all are corrupt? Whyrisk your head today when you cansurvive like this for years? Thisattitude bored the poet just like itbores me. This attitude cannot betermed “passive resistance” butactive acceptance of existing evilsin society.

Throughout the exchange, and par-ticularly in the final weeks, studentswere encouraged to share originalwork. It was perhaps these passages,the ones that depicted personal or cul-tural revelation, that were the mostexceptional. Witness this letter fromVivienne (Nairobi) to Tiffany(Andover):

Dear Tiffany,I must say that I enjoyed this

project so much. It helped mequite a lot. . . . Last February, Ihappened to lose my dad and itreally broke my heart. When Mr.Marinell asked me to write a poemabout my sacred place, I wroteabout my balcony. It was the placeI used to sit with my dad and havechats. So when it was my turn toread out my poem, I did but couldnot finish because I broke out intears. Since that day, I have neverfelt the same. . . . My point is thatpoetry has been a healing tool forme because it helps me expressfeelings the easy way. I would liketo share this poem with you:

THE BALCONY

An ideal place to sit and relaxMost of all it is my meditation spotReminds me of all the times I shared with my dadA place where we could sit, talkAnd have some dad-daughter gossipThis is before the cruel hand of deathTook him away from meNever to see him again.Now it is not only a meditation spotBut a mourning spot tooSo every time I feel like I miss him and feel lowI go to that sacred spot.

—Vivienne

Though we’d traced the progressof our students’ writing and criticalthinking over the course of the term, itwasn’t until the end of the project,when we asked the students to evalu-ate the exchange, that we were able totruly measure its impact on them.Ruhila’s comments illustrate the pro-found experience the exchange of-fered her:

I’d never taken African poetryseriously before. . . . We used to

Of Bombs . . .(continued from previous page)


Winter 2001

always read Robert Frost . . . neverany African poetry. I realized Afri-can poetry really is good. I’vestarted liking my country betterafter this exchange. I used to hatethis country!

—Ruhila

Perhaps this excerpt of a conversa-tion between Muhammed and James(Nairobi) best illustrates the attain-ment of our project’s ultimate objec-tive, that of heightened cultural sensi-tivity:

Muhammed: When you startbridging gaps and educatingpeople from each side as to howpeople on the other side think,function, believe, it’ll help bringus together and stop all the dis-crimination and heighten ourawareness to the real problemsthat are going on.

James: (long pause) I think dis-crimination can be reduced. I don’tthink it will ever end. They saythat the world is getting smaller;people are learning more abouteach other, but people don’t haveto like each other. In this exchangewe’ve learned about the Ameri-cans, more about how their societyfunctions. Even with the increasein communication, it doesn’t sig-nify that people will start accept-ing each other, but I think it’swithin our capability. If everyonewere to judge one another by theircharacter . . . the goal of endingdiscrimination is to get people tolook at your character, not justyour color. I think the solution istime.

Muhammed: And education!

Having never attempted this typeof project before, neither Lou nor Icould have predicted the extent towhich cultural, political, and personalrevelations were possible. Amongother things, our students reminded usof their capacity to learn indepen-dently and from each other, and thatan instructor’s role is composed of

equal parts of instruction, inspiration,and organization. In reality, thoughLou and I offered students technicalpoetry lessons (we discussed style,rhyme, rhythm, meter, imagery, etc.)and feedback on their work, the stu-dents themselves ultimately createdthe language that made the discussionof culture possible. We merely al-lowed the dialogue to happen. Thoughthis type of learning through creativediscourse and negotiation cannot beeasily packaged and marketed by edu-cational boards, we think it an essen-tial part of a school’s curriculum.

The exchange has taught us thattechnical precision, expression, andcritical thinking need not be taughtsolely from textbooks in isolated con-texts; in fact, language skills are bestlearned in highly social contextswhere risk-taking is appreciated andthere are multiple opportunities forstudents to enter into an intense flowof communication. Likewise, culturalawareness and tolerance cannot betaught in isolation from others whoare different from us but are bestachieved through dialogue among adiverse variety of peers. Though thestudents’ poetry writing on both endsimproved in a technical sense, whatthey gained from embracing writingas a tool for expression is not easilyquantifiable and may not turn up onstandardized multiple-choice tests. Itis real, however, and worthy of beinga priority in education. ❦

Since graduating fromAmherst College in 1996with a degree in English,Will Marinell has taughtliterature and creativewriting and worked inthe independent filmbusiness. Most recently,he spent a year teachingEnglish in Kenya andBangladesh, experiment-ing with internationalelectronic writing ex-changes.

Lou Bernieri, a 1980Bread Loaf alumnus, isthe director of theAndover Bread LoafWriting Workshop and isa moderator of the BreadLoaf City TeacherNetwork. He is also ateacher and coach atPhillips Academy,Andover.

Though this type of learning throughcreative discourse and negotiation cannot

be easily packaged and marketed by educationalboards, we think it an essential part of a

school’s curriculum.


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Jason B. LeclaireBradford High SchoolBradford OH

A Frustrated Student

I was not surprised to see Ellen gri-mace in the hallway before school.Nor was I surprised when she

rubbed her temples and told me she hada terrible headache and an upset stom-ach. A couple of hours later Ellen ranup to me smiling and relaxed and ex-claimed, “It’s over!” She was relieved;she had just finished her most recentattempt to pass Ohio’s ninth grade writ-ing proficiency test.

Ellen is a senior at Bradford HighSchool. She has taken the writing profi-ciency several times but has neverscored high enough to pass. Threetimes she has missed the cutoff by onehalf of a point (I’ve changed her nameto protect her privacy). It’s not thatEllen has failed to prepare herself forthe test. It’s not because of an inabilityto write well enough. She can. Theweek before the most recent test, Ellenwrote in response to the practiceprompt: “Tell about a time when some-thing went wrong and you learned fromit. Be sure to include specific detailsand tell what you learned.” Her intro-duction began:

It was a nice day up till the copswere knocking on my door. I was atmy house with a friend of mine. Ev-erything was going fine. Then sheasked for something to drink. I said,“Sure, get something out of thefridge.” Instead, she got on top ofthe fridge and got into my mom’salcohol. From then on, the day wentdownhill.

This brief glimpse of Ellen’s workillustrates her proficiency as a writer,even according to state standards forthe ninth grade proficiency test. Aslisted in “A Resource Manual forTeachers of Writing,” a piece of writ-

ing earning the highest score is one thatfocuses on the topic with ample sup-porting details arranged in logical order,demonstrates solid development of con-tent from introduction to conclusion,shows a mature command of language,and contains correct sentence structurewith rare exceptions (9).

Ellen does all these things. She has acompelling opening, one that clearlyfocuses on the topic and engages areader. She illustrates an acceptablecommand of language and sentencestructure, if not extensive variety. Shemakes a nice transition from the “hook”into the body of her narrative. She alsouses a fairly complex overall structureby framing her story with the arrival ofthe police. Yes, there are shortcomingsin the piece. She punctuated dialogueincorrectly. And she could have morefully developed the scene with specificdetails. However, she has demonstratedclear proficiency in most important ar-eas.

Yet, even with the ability to write atan acceptable level, Ellen has notpassed the actual proficiency test. Theproblem is the pressure. It’s a highstakes test, and Ellen knows she won’tget a diploma if she doesn’t pass. Shecan write when relaxed. But the anxietyof taking the test causes her to freeze.To date, Ellen has been unable to pro-duce the same level of writing duringthe real exam; she’s so terrified of fail-ing and not graduating that she tries towrite what she thinks the judges want tohear. So inevitably, nerve-driven head-aches and nausea cause her to writestilted, flawed pieces, which keep herfrom demonstrating her true capability.Ellen is caught in a cycle perpetuatedby the pressure of a high-stakes test; sheis trying too hard to write to “their”standards.

A Frustrated Teacher

Ellen’s story is not all that differentfrom my own; my sense of identity as ateacher is under the same kind of pres-sure. Every time my students go to the

cafeteria to take the writing test, I de-velop a headache and an upset stomachbecause I fear my reputation as a teacherwill be determined solely by my stu-dents’ performance. If they do well, mybeliefs and methods are validated. I’mdoing a good job. If they do poorly, Imust be a poor teacher.

Especially in my first year of teach-ing, I wasn’t prepared to handle this kindof pressure. I tried in vain to avoid it bydevaluing the test itself. I claimed thetest didn’t measure what really matteredin writing: voice, power, purpose. I re-ferred to writing gurus like DonaldMurray, who says, “The student must begiven four freedoms—the freedom tofind his own subject, to find his own evi-dence, to find his own audience, and tofind his own form” (142). The profi-ciency test gave students two and one-half hours to respond to two prompts. Nofreedom there. Moreover, the topic theywere to write on had been decided by thetest makers. The student could find herown evidence, but the subject, form, andaudience were often already determined.I lauded Linda Rief, who once threw outher school district’s standardized testand “vowed [she] would never allow atest like that in [her] classroom” (121). Irationalized to take the heat off.

Unfortunately, my students sufferedwhen I had that attitude. They mirroredmy negativity and didn’t try to excel onthe test. Many of them failed. Dismiss-ing the proficiency test, I realized, was adisservice to students. So I switched tac-tics and went to the other extreme: over-preparation and teaching to the test.

The following year my students spentmonths preparing to write for the profi-ciency. We wrote neat, five-paragraphessays (with three supporting details, onein each paragraph) over and over just sothey could pass the test. Ninety-sevenpercent of them did. But in the process,they stopped enjoying writing, and manyof them wrote lifeless pieces that weregrammatically accurate and informativebut entirely uninteresting. By the end ofthe year, several students had writtenvariations of an explanatory essay titled

What Is Good Writing? Standard Deviation


Winter 2001

“Why I Don’t Like Writing.” They allhad five paragraphs and three reasons.I had to find a better way.

Listening to a Student

In the end, a student of mine re-vealed the answer I needed. PaulSmith, a fourteen-year-old eighthgrader wrote a short essay called “I’mNot a Writer” for his year-end portfo-lio. He used it to show he could writepersuasively, and when I first saw thetitle I couldn’t help thinking, “Here wego again . . . another ‘writing stinks’piece.” But I was surprised. Writingstunk, all right, but it wasn’t just an-other piece. Paul wrote:

I’m not a writer and Inever will become a writer. Idespise writing but I’m stillforced to do so. The reasonwhy I’m not a writer is: hor-rible handwriting, cripplingwriter’s block, bad story tell-ing. I don’t know how writingwill help me in my career as asecret arms designer for thegovernment or a person whodesigns nuclear fusion reac-tors. Sure, fusion hasn’t beeninvented yet, but I’ll be incollege until I’m 30! So it should beout by then.

Now please explain to me howwriting will help my career. I mighthave to write a report on fission re-actors, but I’m pretty sure how todo that. You just drag out threesmall, one-word details and turnthem into a paragraph.

Clever! Paul expressed his dislikefor formulaic writing and poked fun athaving to give three predictable detailsin the five-paragraph essay format. Atthe same time, he proved he was aplayful and compelling writer. Paul’svoice had passion; only he could havewritten this piece. In essence, Paul wassaying to me, “Forget what you wantme to write. I’m going to say what Iwant!” He was implicitly expressinghis need for the freedoms that DonMurray identifies as necessary condi-

tions for writing well. For that reasonalone it’s a remarkable piece. As al-ways, there is room for improvement.But it’s got fire. And it definitely con-vinces me that Paul is a writer eventhough he doesn’t feel like one whenhe’s writing the five-paragraph essay.

As I considered how to grade theessay, it occurred to me that Paul hadwritten a piece that both defied expec-tations and met them. He wrote in adifferent way than I expected. But heshowed his writing had the characteris-tics I was looking for, and they werethe same traits scored on the profi-ciency test: focus on topic, organiza-tion, development and support of ideas,

mechanics. What’s more, the correla-tion between Paul’s expressive writingand the state standards will be evencloser when Ohio institutes its newestversion of the proficiency, the HighSchool Graduation Qualifying Exami-nation (HSGQE). The HSGQE will gointo effect in two years and will bejudged on the same criteria as the cur-rent test with two additional categories:voice and audience consideration (55).Given Paul’s ability as a writer, hewould pass with flying colors.

The best part about reading Paul’spiece was that I finally realized the dif-ficulty that my students and I had withthe proficiency test. It had nothing todo with what the test evaluated; afterall, I was already looking for the samecharacteristics that the test was. It wasthe pressure of the high stakes test, thedoubt that teaching to the test raises inthe minds of students and their teacher.

But seeing Paul defy conventionwhile still proving himself an aptwriter reminds me I don’t have toteach to the test. If I teach writingbased on sound principles like thoseof Donald Murray, Peter Elbow, andNancie Atwell, the standards willtake care of themselves. That’s themessage I need to remember andsend to my students. If you learn towrite well, the proficiency test is nota problem. And if Ellen doesn’t passher test this time around, this iswhere we’ll start the next time: writewell what you know instead of tryingto write what someone else wantsyou to say. ❦

Works Cited

An Information Guide for theOhio High School Gradua-tion Qualifying Examina-tions. Ohio Department ofEducation, 2000.

A Resource Manual for Teachersof Writing. Ohio Depart-ment of Education, 1993.

Murray, Donald. Learning byTeaching. Montclair, NewJersey: Boynton/Cook, 1982.

Rief, Linda. Seeking Diversity.Portsmouth: Heinemann,1992.

Jason Leclaire and Bradford High students

Jason Leclaire has beenteaching English for fouryears at a combinedmiddle school/highschool in rural Ohio. Hegraduated from MiamiUniversity with a B.S. inEducation and haspresented workshops forthe Ohio Writing Projectduring the past twoyears. He has been anOhio-Rise Fellow atBread Loaf for twosummers.


Teacher Network

Maria OfferAngoon SchoolAngoon AK

Editorial Note: A version of this ar-ticle first appeared in Standard Impli-cations published in 2000 by the Uni-versity of Alaska Southeast in Juneau.

I sit at a cafeteria table chattingwith a group of parents at the lan-guage arts open house that I am

hosting. My plan is to get the schoolyear at Tukurngailnguq School off toa great start, so I invite parents to ameeting and ask for their input. I havea flip chart and different coloredmarkers ready so I can write downideas as they come up. One student’sfather voices his interest in commu-nity and school news written by stu-dents, so I write “School Newspaper”on the flip chart. Another parent ex-presses her idea of having studentswrite the history of the dance tradi-tions of this Yup’ik village on NortonSound. I listen to their suggestionsabout which elders can share theirknowledge of the local dance tradi-tions and about who can translatewhat they know into English. Wemunch on cookies and cake baked bythe seventh graders and sip coffee, butit is the parents’ ideas, which reflectthe needs and priorities of the com-munity, that I hunger for.

To spark further ideas from par-ents, I have displayed the books I readin a Native American Literature classthat I took last summer. I listen to thecomments from parents as theybrowse. Much attention is given toTwo Old Women (HarperPerennialLibrary, 1994) by Velma Wallis, aNative Alaskan from Fort Yukon, anAthabascan village at the confluenceof the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers,far inland from where we are now.Gladys Pete, the mother of four

middle school and high school stu-dents, tells us how she enjoyed read-ing the book, and how clearly it de-scribes the lives of the people in thatregion before contact with Russiansand Europeans. Gladys also tells sto-ries I have not heard, about howwomen in this village survived similarexperiences through times of famineand cold. The lives of people here onthe coast differed from the Athabas-cans, but similar stories about womenof great strength who survived harshwinters and sometimes abandonmentare known here. Gladys believes thatby reading Two Old Women studentswill be able to see through the eyes ofthe people who lived a long time agoand know the struggles and sacrificesthey endured. Through comparisonsof the challenges of present day lifewith those of an earlier time, shehopes students will develop a perspec-tive that will help them when facedwith difficulties in their lives.

One of the most positive addi-tions to my teaching camefrom these ideas that parents

shared with me at my first open houseat school. Not only did I learn fromthe parents but they learned that I wasopen to their ideas and suggestions,and that I was interested in makinglearning relevant for their children.Encouraged by Gladys’s suggestions,I offered the book Two Old Women asone of the four choices for readingcircles in my seventh and eighth gradelanguage arts class later that fall. Ilike to have students reading books ofchoice in small structured groups, asHarvey Daniels describes in his bookLiterature Circles, Voice and Choicein the Student-Centered Classroom(Statehouse Publishers, 1994). I usefive of the roles described by Daniels,including Literary Luminary, Illustra-tor, Character Captain, Connector andVocabulary Enricher. My studentsrequest reading circles with a cheer-

Listening to Voices: Integrating Standardsand Culturally Relevant Content

Maria Offer enjoying time with five-year-old Pauline Waskeyat the Waskeys’ fish camp on the Yukon River.


Winter 2001

fulness and yearning in their voices,something a novice English teacherloves to hear. Even those studentswho have been reluctant readers inother activities ask for reading circles.So I try to listen carefully to thesevoices and reflect on what they aretelling me.

The five students who chose toread Two Old Women formed an en-thusiastic reading circle. As I assignedthem roles, I mentally assessed theskills and interests of the students. Iasked Jacinta if she wanted to be theIllustrator, and she raised her eye-brows (a nonverbal affirmative signthat is very common in the region).She was soon engrossed in recreatingscenes from the book. She drew twowomen building their house with awooden framework covered by cari-bou skins. Jacintadrew another pictureof the women holdingspears to keep ThePeople who aban-doned them awayfrom their camp andtheir food caches.

When the otherstudents were finishedwith the assignmentson their role sheets,they also became in-volved in drawingpictures. Emily drewthe women cuttingsalmon and dryingthem on racks. I knewEmily loved fishcamp and helping hermom cut and dry salmon for winter,as it is the subject of much of herwriting. As students drew, I could seethey were connecting the scenes fromthe book with their own personal ex-periences with subsistence activitiesin a subarctic environment, and alsowith their innermost feelings andpainful emotions. In their drawings, Isaw loneliness, anger, fear, and hurtfrom abandonment. The scenes theydepicted were of defining moments,when characters moved from theirfeelings of loss and began to tap intotheir inner strength, and when thememory of hunting and fishing skills

aided their survival. Feelings werereflected on the artists’ faces as theydrew, and I noticed a sense of deter-mination and pride as they finishedtheir work.

Impressed with their drawings andthe connections they were making, Isuggested to a couple of students thatthey look at some of the conversationsin the story and dramatize a section ofdialogue. Students began discussingpassages at the end of the book, whichare packed with powerful emotions oflove, fear, and the remorse that ThePeople felt for leaving the two womenbehind. Shana created a new role as“Playwright” and began to type anintroduction to a play. A couple ofstudents helped and soon they hadturned the last two chapters of thebook into a piece of drama. The

whole class was involved, and I de-cided to extend the project for a fewmore days.

Rather than assign character rolesto each student, I let the reading circledecide how to assign characters intheir play to their fellow classmates. Ihad already realized that these twelve-and thirteen-year-olds, who havegrown up together, know each otherwell, and could assign roles bettermatched to their individual personali-ties than I could as a relative new-comer. Brent became Shru Zhuu, thegrandson of Ch’idzigyaak. Rufinaplayed the important character of the

mother of Shru Zhuu and the daughterof Ch’idzigyaak. Bryon was Daagooand Steven became the chief. Emilyand Jacinta became Sa’ andCh’idzigyaak, surviving not only theharsh winter and sparse game, buttheir feelings of loneliness and aban-donment as well.

Students were excited about recre-ating the scenes from the book. Theywanted to share the story with othersand chose to perform it for the firstand second graders, whom they tu-tored on a weekly basis. They carriedtheir props, which they made fromclassroom materials, and the class-room podium for Shana to use as shenarrated the play, down the hall andperformed the play for the youngerstudents and their teachers. They laterperformed their interpretation of Two

Old Women for parentsand other family mem-bers.

Reflecting back onthis activity, I believethe format of the readingcircles led to successfullearning experiences be-cause it combined inde-pendent reading strate-gies and cooperativelearning. Another crucialelement that added to itssuccess was my givingstudents additional timefor artwork and drama.Through this creativeexperience, I hope thesestudents will continue tosee reading not only as a

pleasurable activity but also as onethat will enrich their lives in manyways. Through their drama and art-work, they not only connected withliterature, but also bonded with eachother and their past in new ways.

In order for this project to be asuccessful learning activity, I felt itwas important to give my students thefreedom to make some of the deci-sions. My job was to provide guid-ance and support within the organized


As part of Maria Offer’s literature unit,Yup’ik students sketched Ch’idzigyaak and her grandson,

characters from Two Old Women .


Teacher Network

framework I had developed. I allowedtime for student input and freedom forthem to follow their own directions tomeet their individual goals. Studentcreativity blossomed as they becameimmersed in the project and madeconnections to their own lives, theirvillage, and the forces of nature in anorthern climate. I did not tell the stu-dents that Two Old Women was rec-ommended by parents, but I thinkthey, like their parents, are in tunewith the values and priorities of thecommunity, more than I may ever be.I will continue listening to the voicesof parents and others in the commu-nity, as their student. I need to hearwhat they say, and share their knowl-edge within the school setting, so thateducation can be an interactive pro-cess.

The challenge for me in my roleas teacher in this village hasbeen to connect all that I

learned from parents to lessons andprojects rooted in the Alaska State

Maria Offer is workingtoward a master’s atBread Loaf. She hastaught adult educationand has spent two yearsteaching high schoollanguage arts in Yup’ikvillages. Maria says,“Teaching in a villageoffers many challengesand rewards. Studentsare very knowledgeableabout their culture andsubsistence skills intheir unique environ-ment, and they arewilling to share thisknowledge.”

Content Standards. In the end, thiswas not overly difficult. In fact, withthis particular project, by incorporat-ing both parents’ and students’ ideasand directions, I addressed additionalEnglish language arts standards be-yond those I had originally designed itto address, namely, Standards A andB: “A student should be able to speakand write well for a variety of pur-poses and audiences” and “A studentshould be a competent and thoughtfulreader, listener, and viewer of litera-ture, technical materials, and a varietyof other information.” Withstudent input we were alsoable to address Standard A6and Standard B3: “When ap-propriate, use visual tech-niques to communicate ideas;these techniques may includerole playing, body language,mime, sign language, graph-ics, Braille, art, and dance”and “Relate what the studentviews, reads, and hears topractical purposes in thestudent’s own life, to theworld outside, and to othertexts and experiences.” Be-cause I gave the students re-sponsibility in developing the play,they also demonstrated Standard C:“A student should be able to identifyand select from multiple strategies inorder to complete projects indepen-dently and cooperatively.”

From the beginning, the readingcircles met the social needs of theseYup’ik middle school children. Asthey performed the play for otherclasses and their families, they devel-oped valuable speaking skills. I triedto provide many and varied opportu-nities for verbal expression, so all stu-dents would develop confidence andskill in speaking in front of others.For example, a student who was cho-sen for one of the leading roles in theplay appeared to be very shy. I thinkher peers chose her for the lead be-cause her inner strength comple-mented the personality of one of thebook’s main characters. If she wasnervous about speaking in public, herdetermination to share a good story,

Listening to Voices . . .(continued from previous page)

one that she enjoyed, was strongerthan her timidity in the end.

I am glad I invited the parents tocome and share their ideas with me. Iplan on inviting the community toanother “language arts open house,”and I will continue to listen on a dailybasis to what parents and students aresaying. Sometimes what I learn isgleaned from these formal, arrangedmeetings with parents at school. Mostoften, though, my learning is part ofdaily life. I meet parents at the store,the post office, in their homes, and

walking along the village roads. I joinin village subsistence activities suchas picking berries, setting salmonnets, and walking to the beach to ob-serve the community activity when ahunter has killed a whale. I watch aschildren play string games and listento the stories that go along with thesegames. I travel by boat to fish camp,eat seal meat cooked over an openfire, and gather aiyuk for tea. I listento stories at the community hall andwatch the traditions of the Giveawayand the First Dance during the winterpotlatch. The more I live in the vil-lage, the more I learn. What is impor-tant, I feel, is maintaining opennessand respect for the ideas of this com-munity that I call home. ❦

The challenge for me in thisvillage has been to connect

all that I learned fromparents to lessons and

projects rooted in the AlaskaState Content Standards.


Winter 2001

Lou BernieriPhillips AcademyAndover MA

Hazel LockettClifford J. Scott High SchoolEast Orange NJ

In June, 2000, Bread Loaf invitedthirteen urban teachers to attendBread Loaf and initiate the Bread

Loaf City Teacher Network(BLCTN). The thirteen urban Fellowsattended the Bread Loaf Vermont andNew Mexico campuses. These teach-ers were supported by generous grantsfrom Middlebury College (eightteachers), the Plan for Social Excel-lence, Inc. (four teachers), and aMiddlebury alumnus (one teacher).BLCTN’s moderators are HazelLockett and Lou Bernieri.

In his letter to BLCTN teachers,Jim Maddox stated, “Our immediategoal is to forge unity among the thir-teen teachers in Vermont and NewMexico so you will all have a com-mon sense of what you will be doingwhen you go back to your class-rooms.” In typical Bread Loaf fash-ion, the thirteen teachers not only metbut exceeded this goal. ThroughBLCTN meetings in Vermont andNew Mexico, the urban teachers so-lidified the network among them-selves and began developing a visionthat will define and guide it in thenext few years.

Although BLCTN is an integralpart of BLTN, one of the first discus-sions in the BLCTN meetings focusedon defining “urban,” specifically inregard to the differences between ur-ban education and rural education.While it may be true that urban andrural public education have moresimilarities than differences, there areseveral things that distinguish the ur-ban setting from the rural one. As Jim

Bread Loaf in the Cities

Randels and Lisa Richardson (NewOrleans) pointed out at the confer-ence preceding the 2000 summer ses-sion in Vermont, the density of popu-lation and availability of communityresources (libraries, museums, busi-nesses, community organizations)offer urban teachers and studentspartnership opportunities that maynot be available in rural settings. RichGorham (Lawrence, MA) noted thatthe multiplicity of languages andethnicities in urban schools is anotherresource available to urban teachersthat is not often available to ruralones. Interestingly, density of popula-tion and ethnic and linguistic diver-sity are often seen as disadvantages inurban education. Clearly, BLCTNteachers share an educational visionthat could influence other urban edu-cators and policy makers. Perhapsone early goal of BLCTN should beto articulate this vision and the educa-tional practices that emerge from it.

In order to get a sense of the urbanareas and populations in BLCTN, theurban Fellows generated separate stu-dent and teacher surveys to gatherdata. These surveys were distributedand collected during the school yearand will be examined by a team ofteachers at Bread Loaf in the summerof 2001.

The most important work ofBLCTN teachers during the summerof 2000 was the working partnershipsthey created. These partnerships tookthe form of planned classroom col-laborations among themselves andbetween BLCTN and other BLTNteachers, both nationally and interna-tionally. In addition, BLCTN teacherscreated their own teacher researchconferences (such as the one onteaching English as a second lan-guage, which was led by BetsyKimball from Lawrence, MA). Theteacher collaborations are clearly atthe heart of the network, for the urbanFellows agreed that classroom tele-

communications projects and teacherresearch should drive BLCTN as theydrive BLTN.

In their meetings and network con-versations, the urban Fellows are al-ready learning as much as possibleabout each other through BreadNetcommunication and site visits. Theoverarching aim that Jim Maddox de-tailed in a letter to BLCTN partici-pants is to obtain adequate funding tosupport periodic meetings and the ex-pansion of BLCTN to several cities,with two to three school sites per city.

One particular advantage BLCTNhas as it begins to define itself and itswork is that it has two major siteswhere networks within the networkalready exist. In New Orleans, JimRandels and Lisa Richardson havebeen directing a remarkable and in-spiring project, Students at the Center,which began at one school and isslowly spreading to others in the city.In Lawrence, MA, Mary Guerrero,Betsy Kimball, Rich Gorham, HazelLockett, and Lou Bernieri have beendirecting the Andover Bread Loaf pro-gram, a professional development net-work with members in every school inLawrence. These two sites offer modelprojects and curricula for BLCTN par-ticipants to build upon.

In an open letter to other BreadLoaf urban teachers, Jim Randelsnoted that promoting democratic edu-cation in urban schools is a primarygoal, and the process of reaching itwill be “long-term and cumulative.”Discussions on this topic will be ofcentral importance at our continuingconferences and meetings. Like allBLTN teachers, the urban Fellows seethemselves as teacher-activists, educa-tors who find it impossible to separateissues of equality and justice fromteaching and learning. ❦


Teacher Network

Patricia Watson at Bread Loafin Vermont, 1998

Patricia C. WatsonKentucky Valley Education CooperativeHazard KY

How close am I?” inquiredDerrick, a seventh grade stu-dent, as we compared his

writing selections to the criteria of theKentucky Holistic Scoring for Writ-ing. Derrick wanted to meet the “pro-ficient” rating, and through our con-ference sessions, he knew some revi-sion was needed before his writingwould meet the standards to which wecompared his work.

Like Derrick, many Kentucky stu-dents are interested in doing theirbest, so they are taking ownership oftheir learning, striving to meet clearexpectations established to reachKentucky’s “proficient” goal, whichis anticipated for all students by 2014.Movement toward this goal began in

1990 with the passing of Kentucky’sEducational Reform Act (KERA). Atthat time, I was teaching high schoolsenior English. As KERA establishednew standards, I was challenged toteach with specific performance goalsand academic expectations. Fortu-nately, the demand for change wasaccompanied by a commitment fromthe state to give teachers the neces-sary training to help them createchange.

Kentucky’s educational goals andpresent standards for learning affecteveryone working in public education.All Derrick’s teachers, for example,must engage in ongoing professionaldevelopment and continue to createnew teaching strategies to accommo-date the diverse learning styles of in-dividual students. Now more thanever, principals and school leaders aresetting clear expectations for studentsand teachers and linking those expec-tations to defined goals, reviewchecks, teacher professional growthplans, and assessment.

With the close of 1999 and the be-ginning of 2000, Kentucky legis-lated three levels of scholastic au-dits to improve teaching andlearning in low-performingschools. An audit examines stu-dents’ academic performance,a school’s learning environ-ment, and the general effi-ciency of the school. The term“audit” was debated heavilybecause of the potential nega-tive connotations of the word.But the word stuck becauseleaders wanted schools to un-derstand that the scholasticaudit is serious businesswhere there is marked aca-demic decline. Being part of ascholastic audit team, how-ever, can be a very positiveexperience, for the work is

characterized by teamwork, coopera-tion, sharing of information, and sen-sitivity to stakeholders. As I see it,Kentucky’s scholastic audit is a toolto ensure that teaching and learningoccur at high levels. For example,Standard 2 addresses assessment andrequires teachers to continuouslymonitor and change practices asneeded in order to have an impact onstudent learning. In other words, in-stead of waiting for annual state as-sessment results to tell us how we aredoing, continuous monitoring meansthat we will take the responsibility toexamine our own work and immedi-ately implement the changes that arenecessary to improve student learning.

During summers at Bread Loaf, Ilearned a great deal about examiningmy own pedagogy from professorsDixie Goswami and JoBeth Allen,who prompted me to “re-view” myteaching by examining the work ofmy students. I began to understandhow important it is to engage stu-dents, who, after all, have the greatestinvestment in the activities of theclassroom. I also learned how criticalit is to engage my fellow teachers andshare questions and insights.

Sharing my thoughts, practices,and beliefs about students as partnersin teaching and learning has been on-going through email exchanges withsome of my Bread Loaf friends andcolleagues, especially Robert Baroz,from Middlebury, Vermont. Roberthas engaged his students as enthusias-tic classroom researchers with clearexpectations for their role in the work.Through our continued online dis-course, Robert and I share what worksin the classroom. It is interesting tofind similarities between what Robertis doing in Vermont and what Ken-tucky teachers are doing. For ex-ample, as the current school year wasbeginning for Robert (now a principal

A Teamwork Approach to ImplementingCurriculum Standards and School Reform


Winter 2001

in a private school), he sent his schoolagenda to me via email, outlining aplan to have his faculty collectivelyrewrite the school’s mission state-ment. This writing project was part ofhis faculty’s professional develop-ment activity at the beginning of the

school year. In Kentucky, I had justcompleted a training session withteachers in which we discussed how amission statement can be used tounify a faculty and promote collabora-tive relationships.

Since I was last a student at BreadLoaf in the summer of 1998, my jobtitle has changed, and the educators Iserve have changed, too. I am a mem-ber of Kentucky’s Highly SkilledEducators (HSE) program, serving atwo-year term. Educators in the HSEprogram are carefully selected andplaced in individual schools, usuallywhere assessment scores indicate lowperformance or decline. In my case, Iwas placed with an HSE partner in anexperimental pilot program housed atthe Kentucky Valley Educational Co-operative; our goal is to foster leader-ship in a region serving thirteenschool districts.

We encourage district and schoolleaders to initiate nontraditional pro-fessional development approaches,many of which I observed at BreadLoaf: study groups, teacher collabora-tion, development of shared units ofstudy, professional reading circles viaemail, and mentoring relationshipsamong teachers. As a result of myBread Loaf experiences, I have begun

to encourage teachers to look at stu-dents’ work, especially student writ-ing portfolios. In these analysis ses-sions, I observe that teachers takegreater interest and make a greatereffort to understand the specific needsof their students and, usually, estab-

lish goals to meetthe needs. Whenthis happens, myrole is to facilitatethe process andthen to follow upas a resource.

Teacher talk isa powerful toolwhen it is seen asa necessary ingre-dient for achievingschool-widechange, whether itis talk betweentwo teachers, be-

tween an administrator and a teacher,or between a teacher and a student,like Derrick. In my work, I observethat “talk” fosters the sharing of effec-tive practices and encourages teachersto take ownership and make decisionsfor appropriate “next steps,” ratherthan depending on others to decide forthem. Through such talk we become acommunity of learners, accepting thechanges needed to help us teach chil-dren like Derrick.

As I write this article, I have com-pleted two scholastic audits in twolow-performing schools. My teammembers and I grew very close as weworked sixteen to eighteen hours aday during the week-long process,interviewing stakeholders, observingclassroom teaching and overall schooloperations, and gathering data. Thework was challenging. We went asprofessionals with respect for eachperson whom we interviewed, valuingtheir knowledge and expertise andproviding them with feedback thatwould positively affect student learn-ing.

During each audit, we generatedenough information to fill a documentabout an inch thick. As I paused forreflection, I realized what a wealth ofinformation the scholastic audit docu-

Patricia Watson isserving a two-year termas a Highly SkilledEducator at the KentuckyValley EducationalCooperative at Hazard,Kentucky, providingprofessional develop-ment training to teacherswithin a region of thir-teen school districts.Upon completing herHSE term, she willreturn to her position inFloyd County as districtcoordinator for writingand reading. Patriciaattended Bread Loaf as aKentucky Department ofEducation Fellow.

ment contains for school improve-ment. I know how much I had learnedby engaging in the process. In myopinion, the audit is one of the besttools we have for looking at ourschools and improving the teachingand learning.

Such in-depth reviews are a new,complex and effective procedure, in-dicating that Kentucky is seriousabout meeting standards. Clear rubricsand other instruments now exist forassessing our progress. With the ini-tiation of the audits, analysis of find-ings, and follow-up that’s offered tothe schools, we will see ongoingschool improvement for all students—for Derrick as well as other eager,bright children who deserve an educa-tion equal to that of any child at anyschool in Kentucky. It is up to teach-ers and other educational leaders toseize every resource to provide thehighest quality of education for them. ❦

Being part of a scholastic auditteam, however, can be a very positive

experience, for the work ischaracterized by teamwork,

cooperation, sharing of information,and sensitivity to stakeholders.


Teacher Network

Mary LindenmeyerWindow Rock High SchoolFort Defiance AZ

In Hard Times, Charles Dickensdescribes the exalted status offacts at the school where Mr.

Gradgrind is schoolmaster: “Every-thing was fact . . . and what youcouldn’t state in figures was not.” Mr.Gradgrind, a fact-loving drudge, drillshis students in definitions. One stu-dent offers the following factual defi-nition of a horse: “Quadruped.Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namelytwenty-four grinders, four eye-teethand twelve incisive. Sheds coat inspring; in marshy countries, shedshoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiringto be shod with iron. Age known bymarks in mouth.” But when the city-bred student sees a horse on the sideof the road one afternoon, he has noidea what it is. He knows the facts butcan’t put them together. This humor-ous incident from Dickens’s novelillustrates a doubt that has haunted myteaching of history. With confidence,I know my students can recite histori-cal facts, but do they see the historicalmeaning of them? Do they see historybeing played out in their lives? Dothey believe their thinking shapes his-tory?

After my first summer at the BreadLoaf School of English in Vermont, Ieagerly returned to Window RockHigh School in Fort Defiance, Ari-zona, to test some of these questions.During the previous year, I had been ademanding teacher, I believe, stickingto the textbook and drilling my stu-dents on the facts of history. AfterBread Loaf, however, things were go-ing to be different. I planned to usethe textbooks less and instead encour-age my students to become criticalthinkers and readers of history

through reading primary source mate-rial and literature.

My intent was to try out the teach-ing methodology of educational theo-rist Paolo Freire, and my studentswould begin an “inquiry into the so-cial consequences and personal con-texts” of history. My hope was forstudents to see that history was the actof a people writing their own unfold-ing story, not a series of static facts tobe learned for a test. I hoped to facili-tate their learning rather than simplydispense facts. And I hoped my stu-dents would engage in the dialogue ofhistorythrough thestudy of litera-ture. Little didI know thatthis would beas much achallenge formyself as formy students.

I remainedfirm in my in-tention to ex-cite and en-gage my stu-dents in his-tory, and Iplanned to useBreadNet asthe vehicle toexplore theMiddle Agesin a learning exchange with MorganFalkner’s college preparatory litera-ture students in Rio Rico, Arizona,located nine miles from the Mexicanborder. Morgan’s students were read-ing Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee inKing Arthur’s Court. In the exchange,my history students would discuss thehistory of the Middle Ages with thestudents in Rio Rico, and Morgan’sstudents would discuss the literaturethey were reading. My second goal

was to give my students a sense ofownership of their learning, whichaccording to Freire would empowerthem in choices they make in theirlives.

The greatest challenge was toconvince my students they had to domore than simply “give back facts”memorized from the textbook. Ac-cepting this change was difficult forthese advanced students, who hadgrown comfortable in “textbook-driven” classes. They weren’t used tocoming up with questions from theirreading whose answers were not in atextbook. I kept having to assure themthat reading, thinking, writing, andrewriting were a form of learning.

Being AP students, they all wantedA’s. How were they to earn A’s, theywondered, if I didn’t test them onfacts? After much discussion, weagreed that if they were to be the in-struments of their learning, they wereto be partly responsible for determin-ing their grades for the first quarter.They would base their decision on theArizona Six Trait Rubric for writing,on group evaluation of their work, andon my input.

A Cross-Disciplinary BreadNet Exchange:Moving beyond the Facts

Mary Lindenmeyer working with studentsat Window Rock High School


Winter 2001

Now that they accepted the chal-lenge to change, how was I to preparethem? In the first classes, I introducedthem to the ideas of Paolo Freire andhis notion that education should beintrinsically motivated and rest in thehands of the learner. I explained thatknowledge should focus on the self insociety and move towards change ofthe status quo. Our classroom becamea mini-revolution in learning, thoughthis learning experience had its ownshare of pain.

For the first time in my teachingcareer, the students were more inter-ested in questions than in answers,and they came to me for resources,not for answers. The classroom dy-namics changed, too. Students wereup and about in the classroom askingother groups, “What do you think?”and “What are you writing?” As theyasked their questions, they movedfrom group to group—collecting foodfor thought (as well as candy, chipsand something to drink). I monitoredtheir work and became convinced thateven in the midst of all this noisy ac-tivity, they were on task.

Their writing exchange with RioRico kept them on task and chal-lenged them to think outside the box.In small groups, they worked hard,writing responses to challenge the RioRico students. The responses takenfrom their evaluation of the exchangerevealed that some self-reflection hadtaken place: “We all know that thethings we say and even the way weact around authority figures, such asour teachers, are completely differentfrom the way we act around our peers.Some of our most brilliant thoughtsform when communicating with ourown age group.”

The exchange with Rio Rico alsochallenged my students’ abilities towrite. Afterward, they reported, “Theexchange has helped us find a newway of writing that we thought wasimpossible. When we wrote to thestudents of Rio Rico, we wrote abso-lutely differently from what we wouldusually have written for our teachers.We were familiar and comfortablewith the way we wrote.” These stu-

dents painstakingly worked on theirdrafts to insure that their message wasclear to the audience in Rio Rico. Thethesaurus was frequently consulted asthey searched for the right word,achieving clarity in their writing.

In their study of Twain’s A Con-necticut Yankee in King Arthur’sCourt, my students demonstrated anunderstanding of Freire’s belief thatthe learner is responsible for his orher own learning. My students deter-mined categories of research relatedto life during the Middle Ages. Theyestablished deadlines, reserved time inthe library, and decided how eachgroup would evaluate the researchwork. There were times when theyrelaxed in class, but their work wasalways done on time. Giving up con-trol proved difficult for me, however,and at times I exerted my authority,but they told me, “You said we wereresponsible for our learning and ourgrades. We’ll get the job done.”

Using Twain’s classic as a bridgeto the Middle Ages engaged my stu-dents in their understanding of an-other historical period. They met thechallenge and told me in evaluations,“The literature allowed us to visualizethe setting of the time. In Twain’sclassic we saw how people at thattime acted and lived from day to day.We not only had to look at the histori-cal events and people but at the litera-ture as well.” Another group of stu-dents wrote, “Unlike a textbook, apiece of literature serves as both his-torical facts and just fun reading. Inhistory textbooks, all that is providedare facts and important people. A text-book shows us the surface of history,not what is underneath.”

Had I achieved my goal of pre-senting history in a new way? Did mystudents take ownership of their learn-ing? My students responded: “Wefind this new way of learning moresuccessful. Textbooks are lifeless andoften unchallenging because they area repetition of reading and answeringquestions chapter after chapter. Usingliterature as our ‘textbook’ stretchesus and helps us think more critically.”

They learned to read, write, and thinkcritically.

Using BreadNet to exchange ourwriting with the Rio Rico studentsgave my students a forum where theirvoices were valued. Too often in thepast these voices were silenced by afear of disagreeing with their teacheror their peers in class. The BreadNetforum opened up possibilities: theyrealized they had thoughts of value,and they no longer had to parrot backmere facts.

Did Freire’s methods help my stu-dents meet the Arizona standards? Ibelieve so; Freire is about exercisingfreedom to learn, and my students hadthe freedom to choose their reading,to ask provocative questions, and toformulate ideas and communicatethem in writing for an authentic audi-ence, who also responded in writing.These three departures from a text-book-based curriculum are woventhroughout the Arizona standards.Seventeen of my twenty-two studentsmet the writing portion of the Arizonastandards. The five who did not meetthem were within striking distance.While I was not teaching strictly tomeet the Arizona standards, this stu-dent-centered, student-directed ap-proach to learning met with success inits first attempt. In the study of his-tory, if students know how to makemeaning, the facts will follow. ❦

Mary Lindenmeyer hastaught on the NavajoReservation for fourteenyears. She holds amaster’s degree inhistory and plans tocomplete a master’s inEnglish at Bread Loaf in2003. Mary is depart-ment chair for historyand coordinator of theVisions Program atWindow Rock HighSchool.


Teacher Network

Lou McCallCentral High SchoolGallup NM

Gallup, New Mexico, is a toughlittle place characterized bypuzzling dichotomies. Its

population, not much over 20,000,swells on some days to 100,000people, in their cars, in stores, or juststopping for gas. A commercial meccafor many of the surrounding Indianreservations, Gallup is cut in half by I-40 (formerly Route 66), one of thebusiest freeways in the U.S. Othertraffic enters from another busy north/south route. It’s this juncture thatgives Gallup its Navajo name, “theplace where there is a bridge,” a de-scription perhaps more metaphoricalthan anyone realizes.

When I moved to Gallup I had noidea that technology would enable meto construct a bridge for my students,allowing them to leave disillusionmentbehind and move forward to success-ful educational experiences. When Iapplied for a jobteaching in the pub-lic schools, somecynics warned methat I would be en-tering a ThirdWorld country.Prior to coming toGallup, I had nevertaught in a publicschool system. Thefact that technicallyI wasn’t certifieddidn’t seem tobother anyone.Teachers come andgo, and our person-nel office is a verybusy place. Galluphas many of thesame social prob-lems as larger urban

areas, and yet the term “rural” betterdescribes the area. Nowhere are theramifications of these dichotomiesmore keenly felt than in Gallup’s pub-lic schools.

The variety of languages and cul-tures represented by Gallup studentspresents some truly daunting chal-lenges to educators. Most students areNative American (the majority areNavajo) or Hispanic. Many have notgrown up using English as their firstlanguage; some live without runningwater or electricity. Concern for edu-cation sometimes does not seem to bea priority for those struggling to sur-vive.

A small alternative school for “theproblem kids,” Central High Schoolwas formerly considered a dumpingground for discipline problems. Re-cently, though, the school’s reputationhas improved in the educational com-munity. Our state evaluation agencysuggested our school be the modelschool for the district. Other alterna-tive schools have sprouted in the area,partially due to the success of CentralHigh.

One of our successful programs isNews 101, created by CBS affiliate

KRQE in Albuquerque. News 101provides video production opportuni-ties for high school classes in theSouthwest. Locally, our program issponsored by the DWI (Driving WhileIntoxicated) Task Force of McKinleyCounty. To start the program for the1998-99 school year, this agencygranted the school approximately$30,000 to buy equipment, with thestipulation that the class produce pub-lic service announcements (PSAs) forthe prevention of substance abuse.

As the instructor of video produc-tion, communications, and languagearts at Central High School, I was ea-ger for my students to seize this op-portunity. One of my students’projects, a four-minute teen drama onwhether cigarettes are cool, wasawarded second place in an antismok-ing contest called “The Truth Unfil-tered,” part of the International Stu-dent MTV Awards. A class visit to aradio station produced a thirty-secondradio PSA against smoking, whichwon third place in the audio categoryof the same contest. The successfulcompletion of their video projects—and their winning awards—helped totransform the News 101 students. Un-

like other schoolswe do not offerextracurricularactivities, and wehave no sportsprogram. With ataste of successthrough the News101 program, stu-dents, some ofwhom felt likeoutsiders or mis-fits in the tradi-tional publicschool, were readyfor more.

I was not sur-prised at how thestudents respondedto using technol-ogy. Some hadlittle interest in

Lou McCall (kneeling, center) with studentsfrom Central High School’s video production class

Bridging the Gap with CommunicationTechnology


Winter 2001

academics but lit up like light bulbswhen they plugged into anything elec-tronic. After years of being a grind,school was now fun, challenging, andsocial, and the curricular content thataddressed risky behavior made sensein the context of their lives. Everytime we acquired new equipment,such as a camera or scanner, the stu-dents forgot that they didn’t like to

read and solved problems by consult-ing the user’s manual. Many of mystudents did not have the communica-tion skills to take a phone message ormake a polite business call. Yet bycontacting technical support and set-ting up interviews with local businesspeople, they improved these skills,developed a sense of competence, andfelt less alienated from the educationsystem. I have seen them blossom tre-mendously with the use of the Internetand video cameras.

One outcome of the success of ourNews 101 program is that we started ajournalism class. Our school newspa-per, The Fast Times, is a sixteen-page,color tabloid that addresses somethorny social issues, not what mostpeople would expect from a highschool publication.

This year our newspaper class ofNavajo, Zuni, and Hispanic studentsis working with Mike Mayo’s middleschool journalism class in the Bostonarea, using BreadNet to conduct awriting exchange. The project is

called “From Rez to Red Line,” andthe journalism students from each ofthe schools will be contributing ascorrespondents to the newspaper atthe other school. The schools haveremarkable similarities and differ-ences. Many of the urban studentscome from other countries, are eco-nomically disadvantaged, and arelearning English. Many students inGallup, near the Reservation, experi-ence similar problems in a rural envi-ronment.

The skills I found myself teachingand the subjects the students were re-searching (healthy versus risky behav-iors) were innovative and effective forreaching youth who hadn’t been suc-cessful in traditional educational set-tings. The language and context ofAmerican textbooks were like foreignturf to them; I found our school’s al-ternative program very effective fordrawing out unhappy teens. Thehands-on, gratifying process of pro-ducing a product, such as a video or anewspaper, was a viable way for themto learn communication skills. At thesame time, they were internalizing thelessons about making smart, healthychoices.

However, as a new teacher, Iknew there was somethingmissing. As time went by I

realized that the success my studentshad was entirely fortuitous. I did notknow anything about strategies, as-sessments, standards, or benchmarks.I was busy as a new teacher gettingthrough each day and loving it, hop-ing students were learning importantlessons. When required to producecurriculum maps for my classes toillustrate how I was integrating stan-dards-based learning, I froze. The jar-gon of standards seemed written incode. In the summer of 2000, a newer,less complex set of standards wasadopted by the New Mexico Board ofEducation. This set was far less in-timidating than its predecessor. Pref-acing the standards were ten guidingprinciples about learning and teachingwhich underlie all the content stan-dards and offer good advice for anyteacher. They were comprehensive

and much easier to understand. Istarted to crack the code.

My own classes, with which I wasstill experimenting, provided vital op-portunities to think about standards,or possibly even exceed them. One ofthe language arts content standardssays simply, “Students will use litera-ture and media to develop an under-standing of people, societies and theself.” That works. When my journal-ism students correspond with studentsin Boston and submit articles to theirnewspaper, they are indeed usinghigh-tech media to explore otherpeoples and other societies. In theprocess, they learn much about them-selves. And my video students whoproduce PSAs to prevent substanceabuse are applying “grammatical,metaphorical, or rhetorical devices toinform and persuade others,” anotherperformance standard.

In all schools, where every teacherbuilds a bridge, I see that integratingstandards-based education is invalu-able. I am now at the point where Iappreciate the standards as a guide todrive my curriculum. I’m not teachingfrom a “cookbook” that someone elsewrote, but I’m finding ways to makeconnections between my methods andthe standards. From there it is a smallstep to write lesson plans that teach tothe assessment. ❦

Lou McCall earned abachelor’s degree in finearts in filmmaking fromthe Art Institute of Chi-cago in 1985 and iscurrently working on amaster’s in teaching atWestern New MexicoUniversity. She recentlycompleted her first sum-mer in the Bread Loafprogram at the NewMexico campus. Herinterests include paintingand poetry.

The subjects thestudents were

researching wereinnovative and

effective for reachingyouth who hadn’tbeen successful in

traditionaleducational settings.


Teacher Network

Chris BensonBLTN EditorBread Loaf School of English

CHRIS: Can you describe the struc-ture and parameters of an exchange?

GAIL: They vary widely. I have hadall my students involved in exchangesbefore, up to one hundred that is, andthat’s probably too many. I have doneexchanges linking students across thecurriculum and across grades. Lastyear I set up an exchange between aneighth grade class and a sixth gradeclass. I like to set up exchanges thatlast for twelve weeks, but I knowteachers who have had exchanges forthe entire school year. It depends onwhat you are looking for. The twelve-week exchange seems to be the mini-mum amount of time needed to allowexchange partners to form enoughtrust to respond to written work and toaccept the responses constructively. Ittakes a while to develop such a rela-tionship. In a twelve-week exchange,the students exchange about ten re-sponses. It’s a sustained and focusedproject.

CHRIS: Do you always use literatureas the focus of the writing in the ex-change?

GAIL: Not always. I have designedwriting exchanges between mymiddle school students and universitystudents who are preservice teachers.In that case, the purpose of the ex-change was to provide information topreservice teachers and to allow themto get to know a student. For my stu-dents, of course, the exchange pro-vided an audience for their writing.And my students were encouraged tothink critically about their educationand their goals. They asked, for ex-ample, “What courses did you take inhigh school?” or “How are classes incollege different from the classes youhad in high school?” or “Here’s thecareer I’m thinking about. Do youhave any suggestions about courses Ishould take?” Even though my stu-dents are four years away from col-lege, they’re very interested in theanswers to those questions.

CHRIS: Do you have specific writingprompts each week for your students,or do you allow them to write what-ever is on their minds?

GAIL: My first exchange was open-ended, and my eighth graders andeven most of the university studentshad difficulty with that aspect. Thestudents talked about The Titanic thefirst week, and they talked about it thesecond week, and they talked about itthe third week. We seemed to bestuck, and the correspondence gotshorter and shorter. Students eventu-ally lost interest in the project becausethe purpose for the communicationwas missing. So, I began giving ex-tended writing prompts, which pro-vide the structure that the studentsneed initially. I ask the students torespond to a topic by writing twoparagraphs, but they are free to writemore, and as the exchange goes for-ward, the students voluntarily begin towrite about other things. I also allow

“free” responses periodically so theycan write about anything they want to.Students are always being made towrite on topics chosen by theirteacher, and students tire of a steadydiet of assigned topics, which is whyso many students don’t like to write.So I try to give them a blend: writingprompts for structure when they needit and freedom to write on topics oftheir own choice because they needthat too.

CHRIS: Do you think it helps if youknow the teacher on the other end ofthe exchange beforehand?

GAIL: Yes, I do. If you personallyknow your colleague on the other endof the exchange, you know a lot abouthis or her methods and philosophyand whether you will have compatibleactivities in the project; otherwise,you will have to figure that out in theprocess of doing the exchange. Soknowing your colleague on the otherend saves time. I’m not saying that

Aligning Electronic Exchanges withStandards: An Interview with Gail Denton

Editorial Note: Gail Denton’s stu-dents enjoy a variety of electronicwriting exchanges, including partner-ships with other middle school stu-dents, university students, preserviceteachers, and volunteer adults in herhome community. At the 2001 Confer-ence of the South Carolina Council ofTeachers of English, I interviewedGail concerning her use of electronicexchanges in the middle school cur-riculum.

Gail Denton at the 2001 Conferenceof the South Carolina Council

of Teachers of English


Winter 2001

you can’t do a successful exchangewithout knowing the other teacherpersonally, but I think the likelihoodof having a successful exchange isincreased if you do. I have dozens ofstudents involved in exchanges rightnow, and at some point somethingwill go wrong—it always does. Andwe have to be willing to adjust, re-group, and go forward. Sometimesthat flexibility is difficult to achieve ifyou don’t know the person. I’ve seenit from both sides, and I think thatknowing the person is helpful.

CHRIS: How do exchanges figure inthe standards movement? Is it hard tojustify an exchange in the curriculum?

GAIL: I think one reason teachers areintimidated by the standards is thatthey think curriculum standards aresomething new, something extra.They aren’t really new. Good teachershave always had goals and objectives,which are linked to class activities,and those activities are linked to as-sessment of students’ work. The emailexchange is just another classroomactivity that is linked to goals and ob-jectives. There has been more empha-sis on standards lately. I've looked atprevious exchanges to determine theiralignment with standards. In eachproject, exchange activities supportmore than forty percent of the primarycurriculum standards. If the curricu-lum standards are used in planning anexchange, however, the percentagecan climb to more than eighty percent,and standards can help the teacherplan a more well-rounded languagearts program for the students. I don’tsit down with the standards and thinkof an activity for each one. But I referto them periodically to make sure Iam giving my students all I can, and,ultimately, that step enriches the pro-gram. Referring to the standards as aguide prompts me to think more cre-atively about email exchanges as alearning activity. It also helps me seewhat I may be inadvertently omittingfrom the curriculum. I don’t think thatall classroom instruction has to bealigned with the standards, however.We have to give some decision-mak-

ing rights to the teacher because theteacher knows the particular studentin a particular environment at a par-ticular time—and that may not needto be dictated by a standard. For ex-ample, in the last year I have beentrying to work out how to use a voicerecognition computer program so thatstudents who are extremely deficientin the language arts area can be in-cluded in more of the class activities.Well, I don’t see anything specificabout using a voice recognition pro-gram in the standards, but does thatmean I shouldn’t use it? Of coursenot. I use the standards as a guide indesigning a more complete courseof language arts for the year, but thestudents’ needs must always be theprimary consideration.

CHRIS: Which standards are ad-dressed in the process of doing anexchange?

GAIL: The most obvious area is inwriting. The whole writing processcan be covered with an exchange. Stu-dents compose a draft and then go tothe computer lab to revise, type, andemail their messages. When theirpartners respond, they will respond inturn, so they are practicing readingcomprehension in the process. Alsoan exchange is a form of publishingthe students’ work, and that is recom-mended in the standards. You reallyget everything in the writing processthrough an exchange.

CHRIS: What about literature?

GAIL: Let’s say, for example, in classwe discuss a character’s motivation.And maybe we do this in small groupsin the classroom, but that could bedone just as well with an exchangepartner on line. If we do it on line inan exchange forum, we are getting theliterature analysis, and we are hittingsome of the technology standards, too.We are also reaching an audience be-yond the classroom, and I think that’sextremely important. My students arevery interested in what students be-yond our school are thinking. Theyare very interested in knowing what

activities those other students are do-ing at their schools, and what theythink about the literature.

CHRIS: Does the exchange slowdown the study of literature or thepractice of writing?

GAIL: It does slow it down, whichcan be a disadvantage: if my classgoes to the computer lab this week topost messages, and our exchange part-ners go next week, then two weekscan pass between the correspondence.And if we’re covering a novel in threeweeks, perhaps the correspondenceisn’t quite as meaningful. So I like forthe exchanges to occur more fre-quently. The answer is obvious: weneed more computers that are acces-sible more frequently. I’d like to ex-plore the possibility of obtaininggrants to purchase keyboardingnotepads or laptops that students canuse in the classroom on a regular ba-sis because scheduling time in a com-puter lab is difficult. I want my stu-dents to have frequent written ex-changes, with clear purpose, and withaudiences beyond our classroom. ❦

Gail Denton is an eighthgrade language artsteacher at RiversideMiddle School in Greer,South Carolina. Agraduate of FurmanUniversity with abachelor’s degree inEnglish and a master’s ineducation, Gail hastaught in GreenvilleCounty for fourteenyears. She regularlypublishes articles onclassroom research andrecently became co-director of the UpstateWriting Project.


Teacher Network

BLTN State Meeting ReportsAlaska

The most exciting Alaskan news isthat BLTN Fellow Pat Truman hasbeen named Alaska’s Teacher of theYear (see article on page 17). The en-tire BLTN network extends its con-gratulations to Pat.

The most important issue in thestate is the Alaska High School Quali-fying Exam, which is in its secondyear of implementation. At statemeetings and on line, Bread Loafersare discussing issues relating to therelease of the first results of the test.Alaska Bread Loafers were active inthe test committees that convenedduring summer 2000. Student scoreswere particularly low in writing andmath. Talk is already being generatedat the state level concerning the impli-cations of the test and the possibilityof postponing it as a requirement forgraduation in 2002.

Alaska Bread Loafers are awaitingthe publication of Standard Implica-tions, a book about best practices in-cluding fourteen narratives by BreadLoafers. Work began on the projectunder the guidance of Scott Christianat a writers’ conference in February,2000. Annie Calkins and Scott editedthe book and it is being printed cur-rently. Another writing conference forBread Loafers is planned for February22-25, 2001, with hopes of producinganother collection of edited narrativesand essays on educational topics.

Scott Christian is currently work-ing on a grant project focused on pre-paring indigenous teachers. JoAnnRoss Cunningham and Pauline Evonare mentor teachers in the project.

Linda Volkman, Pat Truman, andSondra Porter teamed to create a classon teaching writing and meeting statestandards. Linda and Sondra are cur-rently teaching the course in the Mat-Su District.

The annual Alaska Literacy/Read-ing Conference was held in mid-Octo-ber in Juneau, and Bread Loafers were

present in abundance at every presen-tation. Most of the group met for din-ner at the Fiddlehead Restaurant afterthe conference to plan an audio orface-to-face meeting in the spring.

Arizona

The Arizona BLTN fall meetingwas held in Sierra Vista, Arizona, onSeptember 23, 2000. It was hosted bythe Sierra Vista School District. Spe-cial guests were Dixie Goswami, Su-perintendent Renae Humburg of Si-erra Vista, and Window Rock HighSchool student September Etsitty.September and her teacher, MaryLindenmeyer, shared the experiencesgained during the Plato Exchange, atelecommunications exchange be-tween Morgan Falkner’s students inRio Rico and Mary’s in Fort Defi-ance. Dixie led discussions on thechanging face of BLTN, cultural as-pects of an exchange, and assessment.Renae Humburg shared her thoughtson the growing role of superinten-dents and administrators in BLTN andhow they have supported BLTNteachers. Ceci Lewis organized andoversaw the Arizona English Teach-ers Association (AETA) Fall Confer-ence on September 22 and 23 at Ft.Huachuca. Many educators, includingBread Loaf teachers and administra-tors from Arizona and New Mexicoattended. Dixie Goswami was thekeynote speaker. Juanita Lavadie, Su-san Stropko, Renae Humburg, andother Bread Loafers made presenta-tions at the conference. TombstoneHigh School student Seren Heldayand Window Rock High School stu-dent September Etsitty presented withDixie Goswami. Susan Miera, JoyRutter, Terry Kimball, Sylvia Saenz,Mary Lindenmeyer, Vicki Hunt, andKaren Humburg attended the confer-ence.

Colorado

Colorado Bread Loafers met fortheir fall meeting on September 30,2000, in the western slope communityof Montrose, Colorado, where newFellows finally had the chance tomeet veterans. The first meeting ofthe 2000-2001 school year includedseven new fellows, and energetic dis-cussions ensued about “best prac-tices” in language arts classrooms.

Colorado Fellows shared plans forelectronic writing exchanges held inthe fall and discussed using page-to-stage classroom activities to enrichthe study of literature. Tentative planswere made to convene in Denver withstudents for a drama workshop. En-listing the assistance of the BreadLoaf ensemble and other professionaltroupes interested in working withschools was discussed.

Discussion of uniting the BLTNFellows of Colorado led to plans for astatewide BLTN exchange to addressa component of the Colorado StudentAssessment Program test, which allColorado students take in February.Students involved in the exchangewill pick their best five pieces of writ-ing and share why they chose them.

The highlight of the meeting wasan engaging presentation by LucilleRossbach and her students Terri andDan who presented their work in thePass the Poetry exchange, a writingexchange including Tammy VanWyhe, her students, and ChrisBenson.

Plans were made to prepare aBread Loaf/Colorado presentation atthe Colorado Language Arts confer-ence in Colorado Springs on March 8-10. A group of Fellows will presentthe effects of Bread Loaf classes ontheir teaching, the uses of BreadNet,and the impact of classroom ex-changes on students’ abilities in read-ing and writing.


Winter 2001


Georgia

The Georgia fall BLTN meetingwas held December 1, 2000, at UnicoiState Park in Helen, during the week-end of the Georgia Conference of En-glish Teachers. The following werepresent: Dixie Goswami, ChrisBenson, Judy Kirkland, CarolynColeman, Julie Rucker, RosettaCoyne, Terri Washer, and CathyMagrin.

Discussion centered on the possi-bility of attending the national BLTNmeeting in Santa Fe in May. SeveralFellows expressed interest in attend-ing meetings with the South CarolinaBLTN group in the spring.

Carolyn Benson assembled aGeorgia report that includes GeorgiaFellows’ exchange proposals and con-tact information. The report was dis-tributed at the meeting.

Each member summarizedprogress with writing exchangesplanned for this year. Rosetta Coynereported she had won the Woman ofAchievement Award in Valdosta, andshe was invited to speak at the Geor-gia Teacher of the Year program inMay to highlight her work at BreadLoaf. Julie Rucker reported that shewill be the conference director for theGeorgia Council of Teachers of En-glish (GCTE) meeting. Alan Perry ofGCTE attended the meeting to discussadditional program proposals for theFebruary conference. After the meet-ing, Terri Washer, Julie Rucker, andothers worked with Chris Benson on aproposal to NCTE.

Kentucky

Kentucky Bread Loafers met Oc-tober 21, 2000, in Louisville withmembers of the Department of Educa-tion and Dixie Goswami as guests.Funding for 2001 for Bread Loaf Fel-lows was a key item of discussion atthe meeting. Starr Lewis from Ken-tucky Department of Education spokeabout the roles she sees Fellows as-suming, as regional writing consult-ants, as cluster leaders, and in con-

junction with the various WritingProject affiliates in Kentucky. Fel-lows reported on the progress of theirvarious exchanges and had time todiscuss successes, setbacks, and pos-sible new directions.

Tim Miller and Joan Haigh wereinvited to attend the state Writing Pro-gram Advisory Board Meeting heldon November 6, 2000, to thank theboard for its support of Bread LoafFellows and to present information onprofessional development opportuni-ties available through Bread Loaf.The importance of the collegial natureof the summer programs, the networkof contacts made there, and the ongo-ing exchanges were part of the morn-ing discussion.

In December at the conference“All Children Can Learn,” Kentuckyteachers reviewed how education re-form has changed Kentucky schools;Starr Lewis was a panelist at this con-ference and several Bread Loaf Fel-lows attended. On February 9 and 10,2001, the Kentucky Council of Teach-ers of English conference was held inLouisville, and Bread Loaf Fellowspresented a panel discussion aboutusing technology to set up effectivestudent writing exchanges with realaudiences. Kentucky Bread Loaf Fel-lows held their spring state meetingduring that weekend.

Mississippi

Mississippi Bread Loafers are in-volved in exciting projects. ReneeMoore is active in a conference online about the advantages and disad-vantages of separating Englishcourses for advanced and gifted stu-dents. Renee was also invited to par-ticipate in the teacher research projectadministered by Bob Fecho at theUniversity of Georgia; in additionRenee is working on a chapter to beincluded in a book edited by ChrisBenson, Bette Davis, and KarenMitchell. Peggy Turner has workedwith Susan Miera (NM) on The Cru-cible and is now doing a Huck Finnexchange with Julie Rucker (GA) and

Susan. Her students also responded toshort stories by students in JoannRoss Cunningham’s classes in Alaska.Patricia Parrish’s students continuedtheir involvement in “Going Wild,” anature writing exchange, with SylviaSaenz’s students in Arizona. Missis-sippi BLTN members plan to meet inMarch with Dixie Goswami and oth-ers to develop funding strategies tobring more Mississippi teachers toBread Loaf.

New Mexico

New Mexico members of theBLTN held their fall meeting in Taoson October 28, 2000, with twenty-one members present. Bread Loaf Di-rector Jim Maddox attended and pre-sented plans for moving the NewMexico Bread Loaf campus to the In-stitute of American Indian Arts inSanta Fe. Other presentations at themeeting ranged from portfolio assess-ment of student writing, to onlinetechnical problems, to New Mexico’smovement toward exit examinations,to the New Mexico Council of Teach-ers of English. A highlight of themeeting was the presentation byBread Loafer Dan Marano who en-couraged everyone to attend the TaosFilm Festival in the spring. Membersoverwhelmingly voted to hold thespring meeting in conjunction withthe Bread Loaf Annual Conference inSanta Fe in May, 2001.

State BLTN moderator DanFurlow urged all New Mexico Fel-lows to contact their representativesconcerning the legislature’s educa-tional agenda, including the publicschool budget and teacher pay in-creases. All New Mexico Fellowswere encouraged to use the “NewMexico Politics” folder within thestate conference folder, on BreadNet,to keep each other informed of thisyear’s political negotiations in SantaFe.


Teacher Network

Ohio

Ohio members of the Bread LoafTeacher Network met at South HighSchool in Columbus on Saturday, Oc-tober 28, for their fall meeting. Atten-dance was wonderful with only sixmembers unable to attend. ScottChristian, Dixie Goswami, and ChrisBenson attended the meeting and withEva Howard visited several Fellows’schools on the two days prior to themeeting: Elizabeth Bruner in Dayton,Elizabeth Nelson in Springfield,Cynthia Boutte in Akron and CynthiaRucker in Zanesville. Dan Good ofthe Ohio Department of Educationattended the meeting as well.

The Ohio Fellows reported at theSaturday meeting that they were en-thusiastically participating in writingexchanges on line within the state ofOhio as well as with other BLTNmembers in Alaska, Arizona, Colo-rado, Georgia, Kentucky, NewMexico, South Carolina, Vermont,and one with a teacher on sabbaticalin Greece.

Plans for a spring meeting are un-derway. This meeting will includestudents showcasing their work formembers of the network and otherinterested people at the state depart-ment. Another item on the springagenda is to develop strategies to be-gin to address in writing issues relatedto Ohio’s state standards. Visits byBLTN staff to the schools of othermembers of the Ohio-Rise Fellowswill complement the meeting.

South Carolina

The South Carolina fall meeting ofthe BLTN was held at WaccamawHigh School in Pawleys Island, Octo-ber 13–14. Important issues discussedincluded the announcement from the

South Carolina Department of Educa-tion that $5,000 fellowships will beoffered for three teachers who wish toattend BLSE during the summer of2001 as well as $2,500 to returningFellows. The returning Fellows willalso be aided by matching funds fromBLSE with a supplement from Writeto Change.

Another important agenda itemwas the discussion of an outreachstrategy within the state to bringteachers to day-long workshops inwriting and technology, as well as aweek-long workshop for credit for theinclusion of additional teachers inter-ested in learning techniques for onlineconferencing. Plans were discussedfor involving the BLTN Fellows incollaboration with other state organi-zations, such as South Carolina Coun-cil of Teachers of English (SCCTE),to strengthen “teacher voice” in edu-cational issues.

The South Carolina Fellows metagain on Friday, January 20, 2001, atthe annual meeting of the SCCTE todiscuss recruiting teachers to applyfor Bread Loaf fellowships. Middleschool teachers were especially en-couraged to apply. They also plannedthe final meeting of the school year,which will take place on April 21,2001, at Northwest Middle School inTravelers Rest, and will include pre-sentations by South Carolina students.

Vermont

The Vermont BLTN Fellows metin November in Middlebury at St.Mary’s School. Several important is-sues were on the agenda. The firstwas a discussion of strategies for ap-proaching Vermont’s Department ofEducation for funding to bring teach-ers to Bread Loaf and to provide pro-fessional development for teachers. Asecond item on the agenda was initiat-ing outreach efforts by the VermontBLTN group to bilingual schools inLawrence, Massachusetts. The groupalso expressed interest in planning avisit to the school founded by NancieAtwell in Maine. Finally, the group

discussed pros and cons of in-serviceand professional development prac-tices at Vermont schools.

Governor Howard Dean and Edu-cation Commissioner David Wolkhave made a commitment to teachertraining and professional develop-ment, and the Vermont BLTN grouptook initial steps to take a leadershiprole in the state’s initiatives, espe-cially those involving teacher-re-search and integrating technology intothe language arts curriculum.

BLTN StateMeeting Reports


The annual spring

meeting of the Bread

Loaf Teacher Network

will be held at the

Radisson Santa Fe, in

Santa Fe, New Mexico,

Friday through Sunday,

May 4-6, 2001. Over

sixty Fellows from all

parts of the Network

and the U.S. will attend

the three-day event.


Winter 2001

Readers interested in the curriculum standards of the ten target states of the BLTN may find them and related materialthrough links on the Web sites listed below.

Alaska: http://www.eed.state.ak.us/qschools/standards.html

Arizona: http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/contentstandards.htm

Colorado: http://www.cde.state.co.us/index_stnd.htm

Georgia: http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/qstd-int/homepg.htm

Kentucky: http://www.kde.state.ky.us/oapd/curric/Publications/Transformations/trans.html

Mississippi: http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/curriculum/

New Mexico: http://sde.state.nm.us/divisions/learningservices/schoolprogram/standards/csnb.html

Ohio: http://www.ode.state.oh.us/ca/Ohio_standards.htm

South Carolina: http://www.state.sc.us/

Vermont: http://www.state.vt.us/educ/stand/page3.htm

Alaska—Sondra Porter, University of Alaska Southeast, Sitka AK

Arizona—Karen Humburg, Tombstone High School, Tombstone AZ

Colorado—Maria Roberts, Peetz Plateau School, Peetz CO

Georgia—Harlem Middle School, Harlem GA

Kentucky—Joan Haigh, Danville High School, Danville KY

Mississippi—Patricia Parrish, Sumrall Attendance Center, Sumrall MS

New Mexico—Dan Furlow, Clayton High School, Clayton NM

Ohio—Eva Howard, Preble Shawnee Middle School, Camden OH

Jason Leclaire, Bradford High School, Bradford OH

South Carolina—Ginny DuBose, Waccamaw High School, Pawleys Island SC

Vermont—Douglass Boardman, Lamoille Union High School, Hyde Park VT

Coordinator of Moderators—Karen Mitchell, University of Alaska Southeast,Juneau AK

Co-directors of Bread Loaf City Teacher Network—Lou Bernieri, Phillips Acad-emy, Andover MA; and Hazel Lockett, Clifford J. Scott High School, EastOrange NJ

Curriculum Standards Available On Line

BLTN Moderators for 2000-2001


Teacher Network

Announcements

On February 3, 2001, at the OliverSchool (a Bread Loaf CommunityWriting and Publishing Center), inLawrence, MA, the Andover BreadLoaf Lawrence Teacher Network incollaboration with BLTN and theLawrence Public Schools offered aprofessional development conferencefor 125 teachers and administratorsfrom throughout the city. The confer-ence, facilitated by ABL Director LouBernieri , was titled “Inspiring Writ-ing.” Beverly Moss was the keynotespeaker. Andover Bread Loaf andBLTN guests included DixieGoswami, Jim Maddox, HazelLockett, Robert Baroz, TraciSaxton, and Mike Mayo.

Janet Atkins and Anne Shealypresented “The Life around Us” atSCCTE in Charleston, January, 2001.Their presentation recounts a telecom-munications exchange on the poetryof Denise Levertov and Mary Oliver,funded by NEH and Bread Loaf.

Dean Woodring Blase published“A New Sort of Writing: E-Mailin the E-nglish Classroom” in theNovember 2000 issue of EnglishJournal.

Bread Loaf professor Bob Fechocoordinated the University ofGeorgia’s “Practitioner or TeacherResearchers as Inquiring Travelers,”funded by Arthur Vining Davis. Thegrant supports inter-school visitsamong over sixty-five teachers duringschool year 2000-01. The followingBread Loafers participate: JanetAtkins , Chris Benson, MaryBurnham, Kate Carroll , ScottChristian , Bette Davis, Karen

Mitchell , Renee Moore, MarcellaPixley, Rosie Roppel, and EllenTemple.

Gail Denton presented a session atSCCTE in Charleston, January 20,2001. She will present “Mystery andMagic” at the NCTE conference inBirmingham in March, an arts andEnglish integration project. Gail willserve as co-director of the recentlychartered Upstate Writing Project forSouth Carolina.

Mary Guerrero was named theLawrence, Massachusetts, Teacher ofthe Year.

Eva Howard received theAshland Golden Apple Achieveraward in the summer of 2000. At theNational Board Certified TeacherMeeting in Orlando in October, 2000,she presented “A Slice of Bread Loaf:Using Technology to Motivate Reluc-tant Middle School Students” and“University Partnerships and NationalBoard Facilitation.”

Vicki Hunt was named ExecutiveSecretary of the Arizona EnglishTeachers’ Association.

Ceci Lewis was conference coor-dinator for the Arizona EnglishTeachers’ Association, which tookplace on September 23, 2000, in Si-erra Vista.

The Navajo Nation Rural SystemInitiative awarded Mary Linden-meyer a grant to travel with a team ofteachers from Window Rock HighSchool to visit Lincoln Park HighSchool in Chicago, Illinois, to explore

integrated interdisciplinary teamteaching. Mary also received aMichael Jordan Grant to purchasespeakers, overhead projectors, a digi-tal camera, a scanner, and other tech-nical equipment.

On September 8, 2000, ten mem-bers of the Native Writers Group helda public reading of short stories andpoetry at the Tuzzy Library in Bar-row, Alaska. Mary Jane Litchardcoordinated the reading.

In fall of 2000, Patricia Parrishwas awarded National Board Certifi-cation in the area of Early Adoles-cence/English Language Arts. InJanuary, 2001, she received the AlanR. Barton Excellence in TeachingAward, given by Mississippi Power.

Tamarah Pfieffer was named tothe Executive Board of the ArizonaEnglish Teachers Association asNorthern Arizona Director.

“What about Our Girls? Consider-ing Gender Rules with Shabanu” waspublished by Colleen Ruggieri in theJanuary, 2001, issue of English Jour-nal. She presented “Chapbooks andChange” at the 2000 fall conferenceof the Ohio Council of Teachers ofEnglish and Language Arts(OCTELA). She has also been ap-pointed to serve as the SecretaryOCTELA for the upcoming year.Colleen was named as Ohio’s Out-standing High School Language ArtsEducator for 2000-2001 school yearby the Ohio Council of Teachers ofEnglish Language Arts.


Winter 2001

FELLOW SCHOOL SCHOOL ADDRESS

Alaska

Christa Bruce Schoenbar Middle School 217 Schoenbar Rd., Ketchikan AK 99901Marilyn Bock Palmer High School 1170 W. Arctic Ave., Palmer AK 99645Rob Buck Benson Secondary School 4515 Campbell Airstrip, Anchorage AK 99507

Bread Loaf FellowsSince 1993, the following teachers have received fellowships to study at the Bread Loaf School of English through generous support

from the Annenberg Rural Challenge, the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, the Educational Foundation of America, MiddleburyCollege, the Plan for Social Excellence, Inc., and the state departments of education of Alaska, Kentucky, Ohio, and South Carolina.

Anne Shealy received a $6,000grant from the South Carolina Depart-ment of Education to improve readingabilities of seventh grade students.

Molly Sherman received a $1,000grant from the Fairbanks North StarSchool District for “Stories IntoSounds,” a series of student writingprojects that will be turned into radioessays. Molly is teaching fifth grade

this year at Wood River Elementaryin Fairbanks.

Tammy Van Wyhe's article en-titled “A Passion for Poetry: BreakingRules and Boundaries with OnlineRelationships” appeared in the No-vember 2000 issue of English Jour-nal. The article details the first sev-eral months of a BreadNet exchangeinvolving students in Kenny Lake,

Alaska, and Idalia, Colorado. ChrisBenson served as online poet in resi-dence.

Terri Washer presented “InternetExchanges: Real Classroom Ex-changes” and “Can This Be Done inthe English Classroom?” at the No-vember, 2000, NCTE Conference inMilwaukee.

Special AnnouncementsThe Greenville County School

District in South Carolina will pro-vide fellowships of $5,000 for fiveteachers to attend Bread Loaf in 2001,beginning a three-year partnershipthat will bring at least thirty teachersto Bread Loaf. The partnership ex-tends an existing network of SouthCarolina teachers, many of whom arefunded by the South Carolina StateDepartment of Education. BLTNstaff and experienced members of thenetwork will offer workshops onteaching with technology and demon-strations of BLTN partnerships andexchanges to Greenville Countyteachers.

BLSE received a generous re-search conference grant from theSpencer Foundation to support studiesand publication on teacher research onlanguage and cultural diversity as apositive resource in schools and com-

munities. In June 2000, at BreadLoaf-Vermont, about seventy-fiveteacher researchers and their mentorsmet to report on their inquiries, toform research teams and to developresearch aqendas around issues oflanguage and cultural diversity, espe-cially as they are reflected inBreadNet exchanges. A number ofteacher research conferences are inprogress on BreadNet; a group ofteacher researchers will meet March 1at a special session preceding thePenn Ethnography Forum to analyzedata they have collected so far. Re-search for Action will host the BreadLoaf teacher research session inPhiladelphia, led by Eva Gold of RFAand several members of the BreadLoaf faculty and staff. Susan Lytle,Diane Waff, Marty Rutherford, andJudy Buchanan will join the group.Inquiries will continue on BreadNet,and the Bread Loaf teacher research-

ers will meet in May in Santa Fe or atone of the four Bread Loaf campusesduring the summer of 2001. Elec-tronic and print publications areplanned.

The Ohio Department of Educa-tion will continue a partnership begunin 1999 by providing fellowships fortwenty-two Ohio teachers to study atBread Loaf in 2001. Ohio-Riseteachers are increasingly visible asresources in the state and throughoutthe network.

Professional development andclassroom practice are designed withOhio standards and assessment inmind: a major emphasis is on docu-menting benefits to teachers and stu-dents. A spring meeting to begin theprocess of publishing Ohio-Riseteachers’ narratives about their BLTNwork is being planned. ❦


Teacher Network

Patricia Carlson Lathrop High School 901 Airport Way, Fairbanks AK 99701Scott Christian University of Alaska-Southeast Bill Ray Center, 1108 F St., Juneau AK 99801JoAnn Ross Cunningham Haines High School P.O. Box 1289, Haines AK 99827Shona DeVolld Kenai Central High School 9583 Kenai Spur Hwy., Kenai AK 99611Samantha Dunaway Nome Beltz High School P.O. Box 131, Nome AK 99762Hugh C. Dyment Bethel Alternative Boarding School P.O. Box 1858, Bethel AK 99559Pauline Evon Kwethluk Community School Kwethluk AK 99621Patricia Finegan Schoenbar Middle School 217 Schoenbar Rd., Ketchikan AK 99901Sue Hardin Petersburg High School Box 289, Petersburg AK 99833Allison Holsten (formerly of) Palmer High School 1170 W. Arctic, Palmer AK 99645M. Heidi Imhof Nome Elementary School P.O. Box 131, Nome AK 99762Fargo Kesey Egegik School General Delivery, Egegik AK 99579David Koehn (formerly of) Barrow High School P.O. Box 960, Barrow AK 99723Joe Koon Bethel Regional High School P.O. Box 1211, Bethel AK 99559Danielle S. Lachance Hydaburg City Schools P.O. Box 109, Hydaburg AK 99922Andrew Lesh (formerly of) Akiuk Memorial School Kasigluk AK 99609Mary Litchard Ilisagvik College P.O. Box 749, Barrow AK 99723Susan McCauley Glacier View School HC 03 Box 8454, Palmer AK 99645Geri McLeod Glacier Valley Elementary School 10014 Crazy Horse Dr., Juneau AK 99801Sandra A. McCulloch Napaskiak Bia Elementary School General Delivery, Bethel AK 99559Ali Gray McKenna Juneau Douglas High School 10014 Crazy Horse Dr., Juneau AK 99801Taylor McKenna Schoenbar Middle School 217 Schoenbar Rd., Ketchikan AK 99901Rod Mehrtens Matanuska-Susitna Borough Schools 125 W. Evergreen, Palmer AK 99645Norman Milks Saint George School 1 School St., Saint George AK 99591Karen Mitchell University of Alaska Southeast 11120 Glacier Hwy., Juneau AK 99801Natasha J. O’Brien Ketchikan High School 2610 Fourth Ave., Ketchikan AK 99901Maria Offer Angoon School P.O. Box 295, Angoon AK 99820Mary Olsen Sand Point High School P.O. Box 269, Sand Point AK 99661Clare Patton Revilla High School 3131 Baranof Ave., Ketchikan AK 99901Prudence Plunkett Colony High School 125 W. Evergreen, Palmer AK 99645Sondra Porter University of Alaska Mat-Su Campus Trunk Rd., Palmer AK 99645Karin C. Reyes Juneau Douglas High School 10014 Crazy Horse Dr., Juneau AK 99801Mary L. Richards Gruening Middle School 9601 Lee St., Eagle River AK 99577Rosie Roppel Ketchikan High School 2610 Fourth Ave., Ketchikan AK 99901Dianna Saiz Floyd Dryden Middle School 10014 Crazy Horse Dr., Juneau AK 99801Jill E. Showman Voznesenka School P.O. Box 15336, Fritz Creek AK 99603Sheri Skelton Shishmaref School General Delivery, Shishmaref AK 99772Janet Tracy East Anchorage High School 4025 E. Northern Lights, Anchorage AK 99508Patricia A. Truman Palmer Middle School 1159 S. Chugach, Palmer AK 99645Kathleen Trump Susitna Valley Junior/Senior High School P.O. Box 807, Talkeetna AK 99676Tamara VanWyhe Kenny Lake School HC 60 Box 224, Copper Center AK 99573Linda Volkman Colony Middle School HC 01 Box 6064, Palmer AK 99645Trevan Walker Ketchikan High School 2610 Fourth Ave., Ketchikan AK 99901Claudia Wallingford (formerly of) Gruening Middle School 9601 Lee Street, Eagle River AK 99577Joanna L. Wassillie Tuluksak High School Togiak AK 99678


Winter 2001

Arizona

Priscilla Aydelott Monument Valley High School P.O. Box 337, Kayenta AZ 86033Timothy Aydelott Monument Valley High School P.O. Box 337, Kayenta AZ 86033Evelyn Begody Window Rock High School P.O. Box 559, Fort Defiance AZ 86504Sylvia Barlow Chinle Junior High School P.O. Box 587, Chinle AZ 86503Sabra Beck Marana High School 12000 Emigh Rd., Marana AZ 85653Kyril Calsoyas Seba Dalkai School HC 63 Box H, Winslow AZ 86047Celia Concannon Rio Rico High School 1374 W. Frontage Rd., Rio Rico AZ 85648Jason A. Crossett Flowing Wells High School 3725 N. Flowing Wells Rd., Tucson AZ 85705Morgan Falkner Rio Rico High School 1374 W. Frontage Rd., Rio Rico AZ 85648Christie Fredericks Tuba City Public High School P.O. Box 67, Tuba City AZ 86045Chad Graff (formerly of) Monument Valley High School P.O. Box 337, Kayenta AZ 86033Karen Humburg Tombstone High School P.O. Box 1000, Tombstone AZ 85638Amethyst Hinton Sainz (formerly of) Catalina Foothills High School 4300 E. Sunrise Dr., Tucson AZ 85718Vicki V. Hunt Peoria High School 11200 N. 83rd Ave., Peoria AZ 85345Beverly Jacobs Marana High School 12000 Emigh Rd., Marana AZ 85653Nancy Jennings (formerly of) Ganado Intermediate School P.O. Box 1757, Ganado AZ 86505Rex Lee Jim Diné College Tsaile AZ 86556Terry D. Kimball Patagonia High School P.O. Box 254, Patagonia AZ 85624Cecelia Lewis Tombstone High School P.O. Box 1000, Tombstone AZ 85638-1000Mary Lindenmeyer Window Rock High School P.O. Box 559, Fort Defiance AZ 86504Jill Loveless Globe Junior High School 501 E. Ash St., Globe AZ 85501James Lujan Ganado Intermediate School P.O. Box 1757, Ganado AZ 86505Paisley McGuire Patagonia High School P.O. Box 254, Patagonia AZ 85624Jody K. McNelis (formerly of) Santa Cruz Valley Union H. S. 9th and Main St., Eloy AZ 85231Kevin T. McNulty (formerly of) Calabasas Middle School 220 Lito Galindo, Rio Rico AZ 85648Janet Olson (formerly of) Chinle Elementary School P.O. Box 587, Chinle AZ 86503Robin Pete Ganado High School P.O. Box 1757, Ganado AZ 86505Tamarah Pfeiffer Ganado High School P.O. Box 1757, Ganado AZ 86505Lois Rodgers Patagonia High School P.O. Box 254, Patagonia AZ 85624Joy Rutter Window Rock High School P.O. Box 559, Fort Defiance AZ 86504Sylvia Saenz Sierra Vista Middle School 3535 E. Fry Blvd., Sierra Vista AZ 85635Stephen Schadler Rio Rico High School 1374 W. Frontage Rd., Rio Rico AZ 85648Nan Talahongva (formerly of) Hopi Junior/Senior High School P.O. Box 337, Keams Canyon AZ 86034Judy Tarantino Ganado Intermediate School P.O. Box 1757, Ganado AZ 86505Edward Tompkins Lake Havasu High School 2675 Palo Verde Blvd., Havasu City AZ 86403Risa Udall St. Johns High School P.O. Box 429, St. Johns AZ 85936Maria Winfield Sierra Vista Middle School 3535 E. Fry Blvd., Sierra Vista AZ 85635

Colorado

Renee Evans Miami Yoder School District 420 S. Rush Rd., Rush CO 80833Stephen Hanson Battle Rock Charter School 11247 Road G., Cortez CO 81321Sonja Horoshko (formerly of) Battle Rock Charter School 11247 Road G., Cortez CO 81321Ginny Jaramillo (formerly of) Guffey Charter School 1459 Main St., Guffey CO 80820Mary Juzwik (formerly of) Ganado Middle School 6717 S. Boulder Rd., Boulder CO 80303John Kissingford (formerly of) Montrose High School P.O. Box 10500, Montrose CO 81402


Teacher Network

Joanne Labosky (formerly of) Lake George Charter School P.O. Box 420, Lake George CO 80827Douglas Larsen Crestone Charter School P.O. Box 400, Crestone CO 81131Nancy Lawson Montrose High School P.O. Box 10500, Montrose CO 81402Joan Light Montrose High School P.O. Box 10500, Montrose CO 81402Melinda Merriam Delta High School 1400 Pioneer Rd., Delta CO 81416Jimmie R. Phillips Cedaredge Middle School 360 N. Grand Mesa Dr., Cedaredge CO 81413Bonita L. Revelle Moffat County High School 900 Finley Ln., Craig CO 81625Maria Roberts Peetz Plateau School 311 Coleman Ave., Peetz CO 80747Lucille Rossbach Idalia High School P.O. Box 40, Idalia CO 80735Sharilyn Smith Cheraw High School P.O. Box 159, Cheraw CO 81030Heidi J. Walls Durango High School 2390 Main Ave., Durango CO 81301

Georgia

Carolyn Coleman West Laurens High School 338 Laurens School Rd, Dublin GA 31021Rosetta Coyne Brooks County Middle School Quitman GA 31643Jane Grizzle Ware County Middle School 2301 Cherokee St., Waycross GA 31501Judith Kirkland Harlem Middle School 375 W. Forrest St., Harlem GA 30814Catherine K. Magrin Union County High School 446 Wellborn St., Blairsville GA 30512Elizabeth McQuaig Fitzgerald High School P.O. Box 389, Fitzgerald GA 31750Julie Rucker Irwin County High School 149 Chieftain Circle, Ocilla GA 31774K.C. Thornton Ware County Middle School 2301 Cherokee St., Waycross GA 31501Terri Washer Crossroads Academy 5996 Columbia Rd., Grovetown GA 30813

Kentucky

Scott E. Allen Sebastian Middle School 244 LBJ Rd., Jackson KY 41339Joan M. Altman Nelson County High School 1070 Bloomfield Rd., Bardstown KY 40004Lea Banks (formerly of) Washington County High School 601 Lincoln Park Rd., Springfield KY 40069Sheryl M. Ederheimer Butler Traditional High School 2222 Crums Ln., Louisville KY 40216M. Patricia Fox Scott High School 5400 Taylor Mill Rd., Taylor Mill KY 41015Alison Hackley Grayson County High School 240 High School Rd., Leitchfield KY 42754Joan Haigh Danville High School 203 E. Lexington Ave., Danville KY 40422Laura Schmitt Miller Meade County High School 938 Old State Rd., Brandenburg KY 40108Timothy J. Miller Worthington Elementary School 800 Center St., Worthington KY 41183Peggy Dinwiddie Otto Hancock County High School 80 State Route 271 S., Lewisport KY 42351Rebecca A. Slagle Fern Creek Traditional High School 9115 Fern Creek Rd., Louisville KY 40291Patricia Watson Floyd County Schools Prestonburg KY 41653

Mississippi

Brad Busbee (formerly of) Ocean Springs High School 406 Holcomb Blvd., Ocean Springs MS 39564William J. Clarke (formerly of) Shivers High School P.O. Box 607, Aberdeen MS 38730Leslie Fortier Jones Junior High School 1125 N. 5th Ave., Laurel MS 39440Carolyn Hardy R. H. Watkins High School 1100 W. 12th St., Laurel MS 39440Myra Harris Pascagoula High School 2903 Pascagoula St., Pascagoula MS 29567


Winter 2001

William E. Kirby Hattiesburg High School 301 Hutchinson Ave., Hattiesburg MS 39401Sharon Ladner Gautier High School 4307 Gautier Vancleave Rd., Gautier MS 39553Judith Lawrence Kemper County High School P.O. Box 429, Dekalb MS 39328Renee Moore Broad Street High School P.O. Box 149, Shelby MS 38774Terri Noonkester (formerly of) Hawkins Junior High School 523 Forrest St., Hattiesburg MS 39401Patricia Parrish Sumrall Attendance Center P.O. Box 187, Sumrall MS 39482Patsy Pipkin Oxford Junior High School 409 Washington Ave., Oxford MS 38655Peggy Turner Saltillo High School Box 460, Saltillo MS 38866Penny Wallin (formerly of) Jones Junior High School 1125 N. 5th Ave., Laurel MS 39440

New Mexico

Kim Bannigan (formerly of) Rio Rancho High School 301 Loma Colorado, Rio Rancho NM 87124Anne Berlin Church Rock Elementary School 43 Challenger Rd., Church Rock NM 87311Wendy Beserra (formerly of) Deming Public Schools 501 W. Florida, Deming NM 88030Veronica C. Bowles Pecos Elementary School P.O. Box 368, Pecos NM 87552Jennifer K. Brandt Pojoaque High School 1574 State Rd. 502, Santa Fe NM 87501Erika Brett Gadsden High School 6301 Hwy. 8, Anthony NM 88021Carol Ann Brickler Pecos Elementary School P.O. Box 368, Pecos NM 87552MaryBeth Britton Pecos High School P.O. Box 368, Pecos NM 87552Dorothy I. Brooks (formerly of) Ojo Amarillo Elementary School P.O. Box 768, Fruitland NM 87416Lorraine Duran Memorial Middle School Old National Rd., Las Vegas NM 87701Ann Eilert (formerly of) Los Alamos High School 300 Diamond Dr., Los Alamos NM 87544Karen Foutz Newcomb Middle School P.O. Box 7973, Newcomb NM 87455Daniel Furlow Clayton High School 323 S. 5th St., Clayton NM 88415Emily Graeser Bernalillo High School P.O. Box 640, Bernalillo NM 87004Janice Green Mosquero Municipal Schools P.O. Box 258, Mosquero NM 87746Annette Hardin Truth or Consequences Middle School P.O. Box 952, Truth or Consequences NM 87901Diana Jaramillo Pojoaque High School 1574 State Rd. 502, Santa Fe NM 87501Susan Jesinsky (formerly of) Santa Teresa Middle School P.O. Box 778, Santa Teresa NM 88008Glenda Jones Pojoaque High School 1574 State Rd. 502, Santa Fe NM 87501John Kelly Shiprock High School P.O. Box 6003, Shiprock NM 87420Roseanne Lara Gadsden Middle School Rt. 1, Box 196, Anthony NM 88021Juanita Lavadie (formerly of) Yaxche School Learning Center 102 Padre Martinez Ln., Taos NM 87571Leslie Lopez Native American Preparatory School P.O. Box 260, Rowe NM 87526Jeffery M. Loxterman Tohatchi Middle School P.O. Box 322, Tohatchi NM 07325Timothy Lucero Robertson High School 5th & Friedman Streets, Las Vegas NM 87701Carlotta Martza Twin Buttes High School P.O. Box 680, Zuni NM 87327Betty Lou McCall Gallup Central High School 325 Marguerite St., Gallup NM 87301Theresa Melton Tse’Bit’ai Middle School P.O. Box 1873, Shiprock NM 87420Arlene Mestas Bernalillo High School P.O. Box 640, Bernalillo NM 87004Alma Miera (formerly of) Memorial Middle School 947 Old National Rd., Las Vegas NM 87560Susan Miera Pojoaque High School 1574 State Rd. 502, Santa Fe NM 87501Gary Montaño (formerly of) Carlsbad High School 408 N. Canyon, Carlsbad NM 88220Deborah Morillo (formerly of) Laguna Middle School P.O. Box 268, Laguna NM 87026Barbara Pearlman Hot Springs High School P.O. Box 952, Truth or Consequences NM 87901Jane V. Pope Lovington High School 701 W. Ave. K, Lovington NM 88260MacNair Randall Pojoaque High School 1574 State Rd. 502, Santa Fe NM 87501


Teacher Network

Virginia Rawlojohn Estancia High School P.O. Box 68, Estancia NM 87016Stan Renfro Wingate High School P.O. Box 2, Fort Wingate NM 87316Lisa K. Richardson Alamo-Navajo Community School Alamo NM 87825Chad C. Rucker Tohatchi High School P.O. Box 248, Tohatchi NM 87325Zita Schlautmann Bernalillo High School Box 640, Bernalillo NM 87004Norma Sheff Hatch Elementary School Hatch NM 87937Philip Sittnick Laguna Middle School P.O. Box 268, Laguna NM 87026Lauren Thomas Sittnick Laguna Middle School P.O. Box 268, Laguna NM 87026Bruce R. Smith Jemez Valley High School 8501 Highway 4, Jemez Pueblo NM 87024Marilyn Trujillo Taos Day School P.O. Drawer X, Taos NM 87571Helen N. Wintle Wingate High School P.O. Box 2, Fort Wingate NM 87316Michelle Wyman-Warren Mountainair High School P.O. Box 456, Mountainair NM 87036Terry Wyrick Pojoaque High School 1574 State Rd. 502, Santa Fe NM 87501

Ohio

Vivian M. Axiotis Boardman High School 7777 Glenwood Ave., Youngstown OH 44512Dean Blase Indian Hill High School 6845 Drake Rd., Cincinnati OH 45243Cynthia Boutte Riedinger Middle School 77 W. Thornton St., Akron OH 44311Elizabeth Bruner Miami Valley School 5151 Denise Dr., Daytona OH 45429Joanna M. Childress Washington County Career Center Rt 2, Marietta OH 45750Judith Ellsesser South Webster High School P.O. Box 100, South Webster OH 45682Anne Elrod Chagrin Falls High School 400 E. Washington St., Chagrin Falls OH 44022Jason Haap Purcell Marian High School 2935 Hackberry St., Cincinnati OH 45206Jamie Heffner New Richmond Exempted Village Mid. Sch. 1135 New Richmond Rd., New Richmond OH 45157Eva Howard Preble Shawnee Middle School 5495 Somers Gratis Rd., Camden OH 45311Lorrie C. Jackson Linden-McKinley High School 1320 Duxberry Ave., Columbus OH 43211Jason Leclaire Bradford High School 712 N. Miami Ave., Bradford OH 45308Elizabeth Nelson Shawnee High School 1675 E. Possum Rd., Springfield OH 45502Amanda O’Dell Lakewood High School 4291 National Rd., Hebron OH 43025Su Ready Seven Hills Middle School 5400 Red Bank Rd., Cincinnati OH 45227Cynthia Rucker Maysville High School 2805 Pinkerton Rd., Zanesville OH 43701Colleen Ruggieri Boardman High School 7777 Glenwood Ave., Boardman OH 44512Bernard Safko Solon High School 33600 Inwood Dr., Solon OH 44139Michael Scanlan Ripley Union Lewis Huntington Jr./Sr. H. S. 1317 S. Second St., Ripley OH 45167Mickie Sebenoler South High School Urban Academy 1160 Ann St., Columbus OH 43206Jennifer Skowron Wooster High School 515 Oldman Rd., Wooster OH 44691Sara Thorburn Mansfield Senior High School 314 Cline Ave., Mansfield OH 44907Mandy G. Walden Wooster High School 515 Oldman Rd., Wooster OH 44691

South Carolina

Janet Atkins Northwest Middle School 1606 Geer Highway, Travelers Rest SC 29690Michael Atkins Blue Ridge High School 2151 Fews Chapel Rd., Greer SC 29651Polly E. Brown Belton-Honea Path High School 11000 Belton Hwy., Honea Path SC 29654Victoria Chance Travelers Rest High School 115 Wilhelm Winter St., Travelers Rest SC 29690Raymond Cook Goose Creek High School 1137 Redbank Rd., Goose Creek SC 29445


Winter 2001

Diane M. Crenshaw Dixie High School Box 158 1 Haynes St., Due West SC 29639Gail R. Denton Riverside Middle School 615 Hammett Bridge Rd., Greer SC 29650Ginny DuBose Waccamaw High School 2412 Kings River Rd., Pawleys Island SC 29585Monica M. Eaddy (formerly of) Mayo High School 405 Chestnut St., Darlington SC 29532Nona Edelson (formerly of) Waccamaw High School 2412 Kings River Rd., Pawleys Island SC 29585Barbara Everson Belton-Honea Path High School 11000 Belton Hwy., Honea Path SC 29654Doris Ezell-Schmitz Chester Middle School 112 Caldwell St., Chester SC 29706Anne Gardner (formerly of) Georgetown High School P.O. Box 1778, Georgetown SC 29442Joyce Summerlin Glunt (formerly of) Hunter-Kinard-Tyler High School Box 158, Norway SC 29113Linda Hardin Beck Academy of Languages 302 McAlister Rd., Greenville SC 29607Tracy Hathaway (formerly of) Robert Smalls Middle School 43 Alston Rd., Beaufort SC 29902Corinthea A. Jones Marlboro County High School 951 Fayetteville Ave., Bennettsville SC 29512Priscilla E. Kelley Pelion High School P.O. Box 68, Pelion SC 29123Nancy Lockhart Homebound Tutor, Colleton School District P.O. Box 290, Walterboro SC 29542Robin Gibson Calhoun Falls High School Edgefield St., Calhoun Falls SC 29628Carolyn Pierce Cheraw High School 649 Chesterfield Hwy., Cheraw SC 29520Anne Shealy John Ford Middle School P.O. Box 287, Saint Matthews SC 29135Betty Slesinger (formerly of) Irmo Middle School 6051 Wescott Rd., Columbia SC 29212Elizabeth V. Wright Ronald E. McNair Junior High School Carver St., Lake City SC 29560

Vermont

Cristie Arguin Northfield High School 31 Vine, Northfield VT 05663Douglass Boardman Lamoille Union High School Rt. 15, Hyde Park VT 05455Kurt Broderson Mt. Abraham Union High School 9 Airport Dr., Bristol VT 05443Mary Burnham Waits River Valley School Rt. 25, East Corinth VT 05040Mary Ann Cadwallader (formerly of) Mill River Union High School Middle Rd., North Clarendon VT 05773Suzannah L. Carr Waits River Valley School Rt. 25, East Corinth VT 05040Katharine Carroll Middlebury Union High School Charles Ave., Middlebury VT 05753Moira Donovan Peoples Academy 202 Copely Ave., Morrisville VT 05661Jane Harvey Brattleboro Union High School 50 Fairground Rd., Brattleboro VT 05301Ann Larkin Orwell Village School Main St., Orwell VT 05760Margaret Lima Canaan Memorial High School 1 School St., Canaan VT 05903Suzane Locarno Hazen Union School Main St., Hardwick VT 05843Judith Morrison Hinesburg Elementary/Middle School Hinesburg VT 05461Kathleen Otoka Springfield High School 303 South St., Springfield VT 05156Bill Rich Colchester High School Laker Ln., Colchester VT 05446Emily Rinkema Champlain Valley Union High School CVU Rd., Hinesburg VT 05461Matthew C. Schlein Vergennes Union High School 50 Monkton Rd., Vergennes VT 05491Gretchen Stahl Harwood Union High School RFD 1 Box 790, Moretown VT 05660Ellen Temple Camels Hump Middle School Brown Trace Rd., Richmond VT 05477Vicki L. Wright Mt. Abraham Union High School 9 Airport Dr., Bristol VT 05443Carol Zuccaro St. Johnsbury Academy 1000 Main St., St. Johnsbury VT 05819


Teacher NetworkWinter 2001

At Large

Jane Caldwell Board of Cooperative Educational Services Dix Ave., Hudson Falls NY 12839Pamela Edwards Chaparral High School 414 E Ojai Ave., Ojai CA 93023Jean Helmer Belle Fourche High School 1113 National St., Belle Fourche SD 57717Christine Lorenzen Killingly Intermediate School Upper Maple St., Dayville CT 06241Michelle Montford Kelly Middle School 25 Mahan Dr., Norwich CT 06360John Rugebregt Maria Carrillo High School 6975 Montecito Blvd., Santa Rosa CA 95409Peggy Schaedler East Hampton Middle School 19 Childs Rd., East Hampton CT 06424James Schmitz Kennedy Charter Public School P.O. Box 472527, Charlotte NC 28247Mohsin Tejani Aga Khan School Aga Khan Rd., Kharadhar Karachi Pakistan

Urban Teacher Fellows

Gabri’lla Ballard Frederick Douglass Sr. High School 3820 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans LA 70117Emma Brock Anne Beers Elementary School 36 Alabama Ave. SE, Washington DC 20020Craig Ferguson Newlon Elementary School 361 Vrain St., Denver CO 80219Richard Gorham Lawrence High School 233 Haverhill St., Lawrence MA 01840Mary Guerrero HK Oliver School 183 Haverhill St., Lawrence MA 01841Elizabeth Kimball Arlington School 150 Arlington St., Lawrence MA 01841Michael Mayo Nativity Preparatory School 30 Raynor Circle, Roxbury MA 02120Shana Morrison Newlon Elementary School 361 Vrain St., Denver CO 80219Erica Rogers Clifford J Scott High School 129 Renshaw Ave., East Orange NJ 07017Thomara Speight DC Scores 1612 U St. NW, Ste 405, Washington DC 20009Robert Tiller McMain Secondary School 5712 S. Claiborne Ave., New Orleans LA 70125Julie Welch-Bucceri Leonard School 60 Allen St., Lawrence MA 01840

Documents

Winter 2001 - Middlebury