|
“MnWE News”
Early Summer,
Post Conference
Issue
May-June 2019
View this email
in your browser
or view previous
issues.
In this issue:
1.
WHAT HAPPENED AT
APRIL 5-6
CONFERENCE?
2.
SHOULD WE TEACH
COLLEGE READING
IN OUR OWN
COURSES?
3. KEYNOTE
ON DIVERSITY &
CHILDREN’S LIT:
WHAT WAS SAID?
4.
“I READ IT BUT
DON’T UNDERSTAND
IT” KEYNOTE:
WHAT WAS SAID?
5. About
MnWE:
Forwarding the
News,
Joining/Leaving,
Representatives
If you are a
MnWE
representative,
chair of a
department, or
Writing/English
Coordinator,
please forward
this email to
colleagues in
English,
Writing,
Reading, ESL,
and related
fields. Many new
faculty and
writing tutors
may not be on
the email list.
If you are a
long-term member
of this
listserv, thank
you
for your
continued
participation.
If you are new,
welcome! Our
listserv emails
go to over 1500
English,
Writing, and
related Upper
Midwest faculty.
To join, send a
request to the
editor at
richard at
jewell dot net.
Next Conference:
“Civic
Engagement
through 21st
Century
Literacies”
Minnesota State
University-Mankato,
Fri.-Sat., March
20-21, 2020
Our website is
at
www.MnWE.org.
You are welcome
to attend our
next
Committee
meeting Fri.,
Sept. 20,
3:30-5:30 pm in
UMN’s Nolte
Center 235; or
ask me–richard
at jewell dot
net–how to
Skype in to the
meeting. –
Richard Jewell,
Editor
1. WHAT HAPPENED
AT THE APRIL 5-6
CONFERENCE?
The
April 5-6
Conference on
“Connecting
Reading and
Writing” was a
great success in
terms of the
lively
discussions
based on the
strong keynotes
and plenaries,
excellent
breakouts, and
variety of
institutions
represented. We
had 140
presenters and
attendees from
forty-six
universities,
colleges, and
high schools in
five states.
Presentations
offered both
practice and
theory in the
pedagogy of
teaching reading
and on teaching
writing and
literature in
general.
The
consensus among
most presenters,
plenary
speakers, and
keynoters was
that more
teaching of
reading is
needed in our
English and
writing courses,
and culturally
broader readings
and writings
also are needed.
In addition, top
names in the
pedagogy of
teaching college
English and
writing have
been calling for
such teaching
for decades.
Such teaching,
said our
presenters, is
easily within
the purview of
college teachers
if we are
willing to learn
new approaches.
This is true for
writing,
critical
thinking, and
literature,
introductory or
advanced, across
the curriculum.
2. SHOULD WE
TEACH COLLEGE
READING IN OUR
OWN COURSES?
Conference
presenters,
plenary
speakers, and
keynoters–as
well as
researchers–suggested
we can no longer
just assign
students to “go
research,” “go
read your
texts,” or “go
think critically
about your
readings.”
Instead, we need
to say, “Let me
offer you better
ways of
textbook,
literary, and
critical
reading.”
This
includes,
according to our
many presenters,
better reading
of textbooks,
research
resources, and
literature more
clearly, easily,
and critically
at all levels.
In addition,
they say, we use
our own
techniques of
reading,
research, and
critical
thinking at a
mostly
unconscious
level; as a
result, we need
to recover our
awareness of how
they work within
us to understand
how to teach
them to
students. This,
our presenters
told us, is true
whether we are
teaching
students to read
introductions
and topic
sentences, to
read literature
better by
understanding
its cultural
roots, or to
read critically
for
understanding
and discussion.
The Chronicle
of Higher
Education
also reports
research
demonstrating
these needs and
colleges and
universities
across the U.S.
responding.
---
Chronicle of
Higher Education:
(1)
“The
Fall, and Rise,
of Reading.”
Researchers, a
Harvard
professor, and
others report
far less K-12
reading and a
need to teach
better college
reading skills.
(2) “Why
One University
Went All Out on
Teaching Reading.”
U.Cal.-Santa
Cruz creates a
required college
reading course
in addition to
its required
writing courses.
Also
recommended:
(3) National
Council of
Teachers of
English:
Sullivan et al.,
ed. Deep
Reading:
Teaching Reading
in the Writing
Classroom.
---
3.
KEYNOTE ON
DIVERSITY &
CHILDREN’S LIT:
WHAT WAS SAID?
Friday’s
keynoters were
author and
Minneapolis
Community and
Technical
College Teaching
Professor
Shannon Gibney,
and Associate
Professor of
Library and
Information
Science at St.
Catherine
University Sarah
Park Dahlen. In
their
presentation,
“Diversifying
Books,
Especially for
Children,” they
explained how
children’s
literature until
recent years had
few books about
children of
color, and only
is changing now,
and too slowly
for the
increasing
number of
children of
color in school
systems. Dahlen
and Gibney also
explained how
they felt so
marginal as
people of color
in their own
academic
communities, and
how much they
appreciate all
the college
students of
differing
cultures and
colors now
coming into many
colleges, where
representing all
cultures and
colors in
readings is ever
more important.
---
Resources
from Dahlen and
Gibney for
“Diversifying
Books,
Especially for
Children”:
-
http://readingwhilewhite.blogspot.com/p/resources-for-further-reading-websites.html
-
https://socialjusticebooks.org/
-
https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/
- To follow
great diversity
work in youth
literature, look
up #DiversityJedi
on Twitter.
---
4. “I READ IT
BUT DON’T
UNDERSTAND IT”
KEYNOTE: WHAT
WAS SAID?
Saturday’s
keynoters were
Shirley Johnson,
Interim Dean and
Department of
Reading Teaching
Professor, North
Hennepin
Community
College; and
Linda Russell,
Department of
Reading,
Minneapolis
Community and
Technical
College
(Teaching
Professor
Emeritus). Their
presentation, “I
Read It but
Don’t Understand
It,” described
how introductory
college courses
could help make
students much
better college
readers.
Introductory-writing
teachers
especially can
help, as they
already teach
research and
writing.
However, helping
students better
read needs a
conscious
deconstruction
of our own
unconscious
reading skills.
Russell and
Johnson detailed
simple methods:
pre-reading
(skimming an
article or book
before reading
it), finding
thesis and topic
sentences,
examining clues
for good
research
resources, et
al.
---
Resources
from Johnson and
Russell for “I
Read It but
Don’t Understand
It”:
Brown et al.
Making It Stick:
The Science of
Successful
Learning.
Cambridge,
MA: Belknap
P.
Harste and
Carey.
“Comprehension
as Setting.”
Harste and
Carey. New
Perspectives
on
Comprehension.
Bloomington:
Indiana U.
Hanford. Why
Aren’t Kids
Being Taught to
Read?
Podcast.
AmericanPublicMedia.org.
Heath and Heath.
Made to
Stick: Why Some
Ideas Survive…. New
York: Random
House.
Pearson et al.
Developing
Expertise in
Reading
Comprehension.
Champaign: U.Ill.
Shanahan and
Shanahan.
“Teaching
Disciplinary
Literacy.”
https://shanahanonliteracy.com/publications/teaching-disciplinary-literacy
Mar. 27,
2019.
Sullivan et al.,
ed. Deep
Reading:
Teaching Reading
in the Writing
Classroom.
Urbana:
NCTE.
Tovani.
I Read It,
but I Don’t Get
It:
Comprehension
Strategies….
Portland, ME:
Stenhouse
P.
Wexler. “Why
We're Teaching
Reading
Comprehension In
a Way That
Doesn't Work.”
Forbes.
www.forbes.com.
Mar. 27, 2019.
Willingham.
The Reading
Mind: a
Cognitive
Approach…. San
Fran.:
Jossey
Bass.
---
---
5. ABOUT MNWE
(repeated in
each newsletter):
VIEW OUR
NEWSLETTERS:
For new and old
issues, click
here: “MnWE
News.”
FORWARDING/JOINING:
Please forward
this email to
others,
especially if
you are a MnWE
representative
listed below.
Your newer
full-time and
adjunct faculty
members,
graduate
students, and
writing center
tutors may not
receive it.
If you
are not on the
listserv and
would like to
join it, simply
send your
request and
email address to
richard at
jewell dot net.
WHO WE ARE:
“MnWE” is
“Minnesota
Writing and
English,” a
volunteer
organization
started in 2007.
MnWE has a
coordinating
committee, a
listserv, and an
annual spring
conference. All
activities are
by and for
college,
university, and
college-in-the-high-schools
English and
writing faculty,
graduate and
undergraduate
students, and
related academic
and literary
scholars,
writers, tutors,
and others in
the Upper
Midwest. Our
purpose is to
bring together
these
communities in
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Iowa,
and North and
South Dakota.
Our
website is
MnWE.org;
our geographical
center is
Minneapolis-St.
Paul. Over 2000
faculty, tutors,
and graduate
students are on
our listserv.
Our listserv
members come
from state
universities,
public and
private two-year
colleges,
private colleges
and
universities,
high schools,
and the
Universities of
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, North
Dakota, and
other public
universities.
Our activities
are led by a
large, active
committee of
representative
volunteers.
GRADUATE
CREDIT:
Anyone may earn
one graduate
credit from
Southwest
Minnesota State
University for
attending one
MnWE Conference
day and writing
a related
research paper
(up to three
times). For
questions about
this course—“Eng
656: MnWE
Practicum”—please
contact
lisa dot lucas
at smsu dot edu
or see
www.smsu.edu/academics/programs/english/?id=11637
.
HOW TO REMOVE
YOURSELF FROM
THE LIST:
If you want to
be removed from
this listserv,
please do so
yourself,
following
directions at
the very bottom
of this email.
If you try
without success,
then send an
email to
richard at
jewell dot net
indicating (1)
this problem,
(2) your
specific email
address copied
from the
directions at
the bottom of a
MnWE mailing,
and (3) your
request for
removal.
FORMATTING,
INVITATION, &
CREDITS:
These listserv
emails usually
are formatted in
a simple way
using html. If
you cannot read
them, please go
to the link at
the top right to
see them on the
Web.
If you
have any
questions, we
invite you to
email any of the
coordinators on
the MnWE
Committee. You
also are always
invited to
attend any of
our five MnWE
Committee
meetings per
year. In
addition, you
are invited to
offer
suggestions—or
volunteer your
leadership—for a
special or
double section
at the annual
conference.
This
newsletter is
written
primarily by
Richard Jewell
without
copyright so
that anyone may
quote,
paraphrase, or
forward any or
all of it
freely, unless
otherwise noted.
We ask only that
you give credit
to the “MnWE
Newsletter”
and/or “www.MnWE.org“;
and when you use
material that
has been quoted
or paraphrased
in this
newsletter from
other sources,
please be sure
to give proper
credit to the
original
source.
---
---
Richard Jewell,
General
Coordinator
Larry Sklaney,
Conference
Coordinator
Danielle
Hinrichs,
Program
Coordinator
Gordon
Pueschner, Site
Floor
Coordinator
Ellen Zamarripa,
Treasurer &
Volunteer
Coordinator
Jana
Rieck,
Communications
Coordinator
Vanessa Ramos,
NHCC, 2019 Site
Coordinator
Kirsti
Cole, Minn.
State-Mankato,
2020 Site
Coordinator
richard at
jewell dot net
- (612) 870-7024
larry dot
sklaney at
century dot edu
- (651) 747-4006
danielle dot
hinrichs at
metrostate dot
edu - (651)
999-5960
gordon dot
pueschner at
century dot edu
- (651) 686-4468
ellen.zamarripa
at mail dot
waldenu dot edu
janaL dot
rieck at yahoo
dot com
vramos at nhcc
dot edu
kirsti
dot cole at mnsu
dot edu
MnWE.org
Minnesota
Writing &
English
A Consortium of
Colleges &
Universities
|
Mission:
Transforming
writing and
English
into teaching
and learning experiences using methodologies
that serve students best
Vision:
Bringing
scholarly ideas
and practical
pedagogy
together
to create our
futures
.JPG)
Donald Ross of
the University
of
Minnesota and
Taiyon Coleman
of St. Catherine
University run a
breakout session
about
literature. In a
later year, they
jointly provided
a MnWE keynote.
Geoffrey Sirc of
the University
of Minnesota
runs a small
breakout after
his keynote
presentation.
Many University
of Minnesota
faculty have
given
presentations at
MnWE, as well as
faculty and
graduate
students from
many other
universities,
colleges, and
high schools.
MnWE started in
2007.
The cofounders
were Richard
Jewell, here
giving a welcome
after lunch, and Donald
Ross, second
picture above.
MnWE has drawn
presenters from
Minnesota, the
states and
province around
it, and at least
five other
states and
countries.
During a 2016
breakout,
Beata Puschner
presents on improving
classroom
inclusion of ELL
students. MnWE
attracts a
variety of
people in other
departments and
positions, too,
from ESL and
Reading to
Library Science
and
college-in-the-high-schools
faculty.
|
