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Writing to the future ...
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Missoula Writing Collaborative
residencies will serve students ages 8-18 at these schools during 2011-12:
Missoula
Big Sky High School
C.S. Porter Middle School
DeSmet School
Chief Charlo Elementary School
Cold Springs Elementary School
Franklin Elementary School
Hawthorne Elementary School
Lewis and Clark Elementary School
Lowell Elementary School
Paxson Elementary School
Rattlesnake Elementary School
Russell Elementary School
Beyond
Arlee School, Flathead Reservation
Lone Rock School, near Stevensville
Florence Elementary School
Ovando School
Smith School, Helena
Central School, Helena
We are very grateful to Missoula County Public Schools for providing funding for our Fourth Grade Program. Thanks to this support, every fourth grade classroom in the District will experience creative writing instruction for 12 weeks.
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But can they spell??
At the Montana Festival of the Book, held in Missoula in October, MWC writers discussed with area teachers how to inspire kids to write from the heart while teaching them the tools of the trade. Some of the best comments came from high school students in the audience who remembered having Missoula Writing Collaborative writers teach in their classrooms in fourth or fifth grade. They explained how as young writers they loved to go wild on the page, then later extended that enthusiasm to technical details, even, in some cases, developing a passion for editing! We might recruit them to work on this newsletter.
(Panel members, left to right: Jason Neal, MWC Board President and Panel Moderator, MWC Writer Mark Gibbons, MWC Writer Alex Alviar, Big Sky High School English Teacher Lorilee Evans-Lynn, Lowell School Fourth Grade Teacher Carole Addis, and MWC Artistic Director Sheryl Noethe.)
Conclusion?
Kids who view writing as both serious business
and joyful endeavor in the early grades are likely to go on to master the mechanics of the craft. What they learn to care about, they will want to do well.
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POETRY MOVES
Poems by Missoula kids will be displayed on Mountain Line buses all year, thanks to Poetry in Motion, a joint project of the Missoula Writing Collaborative and the Poetry Society of America. Through the efforts of University of Montana graduate MFA student Laurel Nakanishi and funding from Humanities Montana, commuters will enjoy a literary ride.
Mayor John Engen shared some memories of his early writing days with aspiring poets at the Transit Center kick-off on Oct. 7, where young writers joined UM creative writing students at the microphone.
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Welcome UM Campus Corps Interns Catherine Bailey, Sean Cleary, and Brian Pillion, all MFA graduate students in Creative Writing. They will observe and assist this year in the classrooms of the following resident writers:
Alex Alviar
Anne Bauer
David Cates
Mark Gibbons
Fred Haefele
Robert Lee
Sheryl Noethe
Caroline Patterson
Marnie Prange
Deborah Slicer
Jeremy Smith
(We wish good luck to Chris Dombrowski, on leave to teach at Interlochen, and we look forward to Jennifer Greene's new role with the MWC as visiting artist. )
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Reading at the UM Payne Center, Nov. 16
Salish poet Victor Charlo will read his work at The Payne Family Native American Center on the University of Montana campus, beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16. He will be joined by his daughter April Charlo, who will translate into Salish, and Poet Laureate and MWC Artistic Director Sheryl Noethe. The event is free. Donations to the Missoula Writing Collaborative are welcome. This reading kicks off the annual fundraising campaign of the MWC. We hope to see you there!
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Lone Rock School Fifth Graders at the MAM |
Twenty-five schoolkids from Nancy LaBuff's fifth grade class at Lone Rock School were inspired by MWC's Marnie Prange to write about the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum on November 10.  "Self Portrait, Monument Valley" After Ansel Adams I am photographing a storm of lightning. I see beautiful flashes of light. The lightning makes the sky look like torn paper. Cody Vincent, Fifth Grade, Lone Rock School
"Moonrise"
After Ansel Adams
The moon and crosses, then the snow on the mountains,
they are glowing in the night. It is so quiet in the night.
The only thing that you hear is a coyote in the distance,
then some spirits at night talking and whispering
back and forth to each other under the black sky.
Louis Wandler, Fifth Grade, Lone Rock School
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Shop at the Caras Nursery Christmas Store, 2727 3rd St. West, Missoula, on Sunday, November 13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and your purchases will help support the Missoula Writing Collaborative. Stop by our table and learn about our work teaching kids to love to write.
Thank you, Caras Nursery.
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