Appalachian Writing Project’s annual writing conference

at UVa-Wise Sept. 9

Educators will learn fresh ideas for teaching writing at every level from kindergarten to college during the Appalachian Writing Project’s annual writing conference on Saturday, Sept. 9, sponsored by The University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

The event, “WRITE Down the Road!: Fresh Ideas for Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum K-College,” begins at 9 a.m. at UVa-Wise and continues until 3 p.m. The cost of the conference is $45 for those who pre-register by Sept. 5 and $50 for those who register on the day of the conference. The registration fee includes lunch and entertainment. Registration at the conference will begin at 8 a.m. in the Chapel of All Faiths and will last until 9 a.m.

Participants will have their choice of 20 workshops throughout the day. Workshop topics include “Digital Storytelling,” “Appalachian Dialect in the Writing Classroom,” “Book Arts,” “Research: A New Model,” “Writing Strategies for Emotionally Disturbed Students,” “Math + Writing = A Connection that Works!,” “Adapting in a Diverse Classroom,” and many more. All workshops are geared toward the Virginia Standards of Learning.

Award-winning playwright Ron Short will provide entertainment during lunch, from 12:30 to 1:30 in the Chapel of All Faiths. Short, a UVa-Wise alumnus, is a talented musician and has been the driving force behind Appalshop’s Roadside Theater in Whitesburg, Ky., for nearly three decades.

The Appalachian Writing Project, part of the Center for Teaching Excellence at The University of Virginia's College at Wise, is a local site of the National Writing Project (NWP). Since its inception in 1974, the NWP has spread to 185 regional learning communities, which are comprised of school-university partnerships. The National Commission on Writing has high praise for the National Writing Project because its model of teacher education is collaborative and its track record remains superb. NWP believes that quality teaching comes from sharing best practices and exploring together the problems of assessment.

For more information, contact Amy Clark, director of the Appalachian Writing Project and assistant professor of rhetoric and communication at UVa-Wise, at aclark@virginia.edu. To register, contact Jennifer Partin at 276-376-4530 or via e-mail at jlp8w@uvawise.edu. Registration forms are available at the Appalachian Writing Project website located at http://people.uvawise.edu/awp.

Posted August 8, 2006