More NWP Sites and Directors, New and Renewed

By: Art Peterson
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 9, No. 1
Date: 2004

Summary: As part of an ongoing series, this issue profiles Marjorie Condon, director of the Buzzards Bay Writing Project; JoBeth Allen, Linda Boza, and Bob Fecho, co-directors of the Red Clay Writing Project; and Diane Penrod, director of the National Writing Project at Rowan University.

Marjorie Condon, Director
Buzzards Bay Writing Project
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

In writing project lore, one hears the proverbial tale of Jim Gray, the National Writing Project's founding director, getting on the phone to surprise some enthusiastic but obscure toiler in the fields of literacy education with the announcement, "We want you to start an NWP site."

But that's not quite the way it happened for Marjorie Condon, director of the newly established Buzzards Bay Writing Project at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. It was Condon who took the initiative to start a writing project site, and her efforts were nothing if not persistent. "I became aware of the writing project more than 20 years ago when I attended a three-week seminar taught by a teacher-consultant," she said. "Although it was not an invitational institute, it was still completely different from any academic or professional development course I had ever taken." Condon wrote a short story, a fresh experience for one whose main reason to pick up a pen had been to create curriculum documents. "I worked on it every day sharing it with my fellow students as I went along, and finally publishing it in our writers' anthology. I also read and discussed books on writing that helped me to be reflective about what I was learning through my own writing. I never forgot what that course taught me about writing and the teaching of writing."

Marjorie Condon

So it is not surprising that three years ago when Condon took over the executive directorship of the Center for Teaching and Learning at her university, she moved to establish a writing project site. Alas, her first application didn't make the cut. But she was assuredly not down for the count. "NWP gave us a lot of encouragement and support. The Boston Writing Project, whose director, Joe Check, had already been a great mentor to us, was given a grant to help our center run a two-week mini–summer institute."

This institute was successful, and Condon followed up with a writers retreat in the fall. Her perseverance and commitment were rewarded. In September 2002, her second application to the writing project was approved. And now, NWP is lucky to have her. Condon brings a breadth of experience to her work that allows her a special understanding of how literacy programs in the schools should work. She began her career as a junior high school English teacher in Fall River, Massachusetts, then, for many years, worked as a curriculum and staff developer, moving on to become assistant superintendent of schools for curriculum and instruction. "Our district did exciting things during that time," Condon said. "I undertook a comprehensive revision of the language arts program to emphasize authentic reading and writing over textbook-based instruction. We sought out national models and introduced many new approaches based on current research."

Having realized her goal of establishing a writing project site, Condon had some fresh ideas for ways to supplement Buzzards Bay's first invitational summer institute. "We took a day trip to Martha's Vineyard and wrote everywhere, on the ferry, around the island, and at the famous open-air tabernacle at Oak Bluffs. Children's author Caroline Lesser joined us for a workshop on developing observational skills." All the while Condon kept her eye on the NWP teachers-teaching-teachers model. "What made me feel best," Condon said, "was the comment from the new teacher-consultants that they had never felt as valued and respected as experts in their own profession."

As with many other new site directors, Condon sees as her greatest challenge the building of an inservice program. "Our teacher-consultants are very talented, and we're eager to get them into their schools and communities to provide professional development programs. At the same time, the schools in our region are eager for inservice programs in writing. They are under intense pressure to perform well on the state's high-stakes testing, which emphasizes writing in all subject areas and requires students to do sophisticated thinking and problem solving. Our challenge is to offer the school districts programs that address this need but that also stay true to our philosophy. I do believe districts will be open to the writing project model, as they have already tried short-term, formulaic approaches to improved writing and thinking that have yielded only marginal results."

Condon thinks she knows what these rival efforts are doing wrong. "With them it's the program and materials at the center. With us, it's students and teachers. How else," she wondered, "are you going to restore enthusiasm for writing?"

JoBeth Allen, Linda Boza, and Bob Fecho, Co-Directors
Red Clay Writing Project
University of Georgia, Athens

When three strong writing project advocates in the persons of Bob Fecho, JoBeth Allen, and Linda Boza connected recently on the campus of the University of Georgia, Athens, the commitment and conditions were right to reestablish a writing project site at a location where one had not existed for many years.

JoBeth Allen

The trio of new co-directors had a lot going for them. "We drew on the encouragement by a new dean, supportive department heads, and excellent colleagues at the university and in the local schools. Many of these people brought enthusiasm and expertise to the planning team that led to the establishment of the site."

These three leaders are now putting to the test the claim of many directors: "There's enough work here for three people." The co-directors know they have their job cut out for them. To cite one example: "We face the great challenge of establishing professional development opportunities in school districts that, due to budget cuts, might not be able to seek the kind of professional development we can offer."

But whatever lies ahead, these three new co-directors bring with them a combination of experience and talent that suggests they will be up to the task.

Fecho has been involved with the writing project since the first summer institute of the Philadelphia Writing Project. His participation with the Philadelphia project rekindled him professionally, sending him on the road as a teacher-researcher at the local, national, and international levels and putting him on the track to a doctoral degree and to publication in numerous books and journals.

"Now, I want to provide an opportunity for teachers in the Athens area to have similar options and advantages," Fecho said.

Linda Boza

Having worked at the University of Georgia since 1986, JoBeth Allen, a former teacher of preschool and elementary children, had been providing professional development in many local schools.

"I knew there was a great need for teachers sharing their knowledge and their struggles about literacy teaching and learning. I'd been reading about the good work of the writing project my entire career. It seemed the most fruitful avenue for developing the kind of teacher leadership that is the hope of an education system seriously threatened today."

Linda Boza, who currently works as the instructional specialist at Clarke Central High School in Athens, moved to that community in 2002. Like Fecho, Boza, who had participated in the Central Florida Writing Project, came to Georgia already implanted with the writing project gene. With many professional responsibilities, five children, and a husband, Linda appreciates the creative jolt that her writing project leadership has given her. "It's renewed my own interest in my writing," she said.

Bob Fecho

As it might be expected, when three leaders of this caliber get together, the idea of renewal comes up often. Boza offered this example: "Before our first summer institute, we struggled with the term teacher demonstration. We knew it has been used to honor teacher knowledge, but to us the term implied a presentation. We wanted a term that suggested something more interactive. We eventually came up with the term teaching and learning exploration that helped us establish inquiry-based discussions that included a wealth of exciting practices yet led to dialogue, debate, reflection, and detailed suggestions from other participants in the summer institute."

One can imagine just how lively that discussion was. "In our first summer institute, we had a dynamic mix of experience, race, religion, class, sexual orientation, subject areas, age, gender, and beliefs about literacy and learning. We managed to complete our first institute by building not only on the expertise of everyone in the room, but on their struggles, questions, and issues as well."

Diane Penrod, Director
National Writing Project at Rowan University
Rowan University, New Jersey

Drawing on a paraphrase from the Grateful Dead, Diane Penrod, director of the National Writing Project at Rowan University in New Jersey, admits to a "long, strange history." Hers is the type of background that allows her to see the challenges of working with a fledgling writing project site as one more opportunity to demonstrate grace under pressure.

Here's a capsulated version of what Penrod has done with her life: She worked as a copywriter and a media buyer; she's done corporate sales focusing on education marketing. She's earned higher degrees in secondary education and linguistic analysis as well as a Ph.D. in American literature/composition and cultural rhetoric. She's taught "everything from sales techniques and public speaking to writing in an urban literacy center." She's instructed classes in semantics, women's studies, research, and first-year composition. She's published two books (with two more forthcoming in 2004), nine articles or book chapters, and "some flash fiction and poetry." All this, while finding time to watch a lot of Yankees games.

When, in 1987, Penrod decided to become a teacher, she was attracted to what she calls "alternative educational experiences" like NWP. "I was teaching college-level students and came to realize that writing was a way to focus on language arts/English studies. I was drawn to what was happening with NWP."

Diane Penrod

Now, as a teacher in the Department of Composition and Rhetoric at Rowan, Penrod has found herself at the right place to make a writing project site happen. "My department's goal is to become a regional center for writing in New Jersey. Our campus is known for its long history of providing excellent teacher preparation. I discussed the idea of joining NWP with my department chair and our administration and they charged me with the task of becoming a National Writing Project site."

With the site in place, the challenges began. How would the new site bring in teachers for its first summer institute? "The southern New Jersey area is vast, and people need reasons to venture two-and-a-half-hours commuting time during the summer, especially when the Atlantic Ocean is 10 minutes away," Penrod noted.

The writing project at Rowan embarked on a concerted effort to get the word out. They placed newspaper articles, promoted word-of-mouth contacts through colleagues who had educational projects in local schools, and sent out flyers. The publicity worked. "We now have an energetic group of teacher-consultants who are spreading the word. Already we've generated a mailing list of people who want to be considered for the 2004 summer institute."

But Penrod hasn't been waiting around. There's been a five-week workshop at a local charter school and a one-day workshop on writing in Atlantic City. There are plans for a business writing workshop and a visit by George Hillocks to the site's winter conference. There'll be a spring event featuring established poets and fiction writers. Also, "[w]e want to develop a summer youth writing camp in the next two years as well as a preservice teacher program to show these teachers in training why it's important to teach writing at all grade levels and in all disciplines," said Penrod.

In these efforts Penrod is getting a lot of help. She said, "I think for those people considering applying to become a site, the first thing to consider is recruiting a team that can work together. I'm fortunate to have a great co-director in Bill Connolly, who provides the important connection to K-12 teachers. And then I've got Netty Walker, our external communications person. She makes the clocks run, the newsletters go out on time, and the meetings happen."

And, a few months ago, Penrod acquired a different kind of help. "I got the word that our provost has made our NWP site an ongoing line item in the university budget. She's allocated $20,000 a year. She believes in what we are doing here on campus. Our own hope has been to make the Rowan site a place where teachers can come to recharge and rekindle their passion for writing."

With this assistance from the university, and with the committed and talented work of her colleagues and teacher-consultants, this goal is becoming a near reality rather than a distant hope.

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