Feel free to download and distribute widely!

After NCTE’s first National Day on Writing, NCoW asked WPA members to “Tell Us about your National Day on Writing.”

The National Day on Writing has come and gone; but the spirit that inspired it, we hope, is still with us. Here’s one way to keep that spirit alive:

[. . .]

One day is not enough to celebrate literacy; let’s keep the momentum going by sharing the various celebrations of Oct 20th and ideas for making each day in the future a “day on writing.” We hope you’ll join in with this important WPA initiative. [more]

NCoW received a variety of contributions we hope to feature as part of our upcoming campaign: writing worth celebrating!

Here’s a preview:

From Neumann University in Ashton, Pennsylvania . . .

Gail Corso reflects upon her experiences with the National Day on Writing, from planning to goals to the day’s activities to lessons for next year’s NDoW. Of particular interest for us were the powerful ways in which a community got together to write together. A young girl suffering from a terminal illness had requested a Special Gift of Writing, and NDoW provided the opportunity. Corso and her team shared the story and the supplies, and Neumann University came together to deliver writing to this special girl. Her story teaches me something extraordinary about writing: writing is powerful, community-building, tangible, ongoing. This National Day on Writing is one Neumann University is unlikely to forget. After reading Corso’s reflections, neither will you. Take a look [pdf].

From University of Tennessee-Knoxville

UT-Knoxville celebrated NDoW with UT Writes, a powerful call across the campus to “express yourself,” which Jenn Fishman captured on camera and contributed to the National Conversation on Writing. Through her lens, Fishman shows us the lively, interactive, and socially-oriented dimension of NDoW with multiple, hands-on activities.

Check out the archives for more from NDoW at UT-Knoxville [jpg]. Thanks, Jenn!

From Michigan State University-Flint

Stephanie Roach celebrated the NDoW in the classroom with an empowering and interesting assignment that responds directly to the House Resolution on NDoW itself. As Stephanie describes it,

In Fall and Winter semesters I had first year students taking our first semester writing course read the House Resolution on the National Day on Writing as the assignment for the second day of class, and we discussed the endorsed professional view of what makes writing important. Student readily agreed that writing was important but felt that writing was not always that easy. So the class built their own resolution. Students jotted down their ideas on a notecard in the form: Whereas {insert statement about why you think writing is important}, But whereas {insert statement about why you think writing is hard}. Every student came to the front of the room, introduced themselves, and shared their part of the resolution on the document camera.

View student responses at the NCoW archives. Insightful, important, powerful.

From Eastern Michigan University

For years, the First-Year Writing Program at Eastern Michigan University has served as a model for many of us determined to celebrate writing in public and across the campus. The National Day on Writing at EMU extended that ongoing celebration even more. You have to see this! Linda Adler-Kassner contributed EMU’s informative NDoW website, which presents an array of participants’ displays including writings, interviews, and photos. Participants had the opportunity to engage in writing activities such as Writing Marathons, Writing Corps, and Roving Reporters. By all accounts, this first EMU celebration of the National Day on Writing was a success. Available in the NCoW archives [htm]. Take a look!

The above National Day on Writing website is also a part of NCTE’s National Gallery of Writing.

So how did you celebrate the first National Day on Writing? How will you celebrate the next? NCoW wants to know!

–Shannon Carter (Coordinator for the NCoW Archives at Texas A&M-Commerce)

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Texas A&M-Commerce is proud to serve as host for the official NCoW archives. View the archives at our Digital Collections.

NCoW.org/site is hosted by Glenn Blalock at Comppile.org. While Texas A&M-Commerce has no direct access to the site, we work closely with CompPile to deliver your contributions and ideas. Please keep them coming!

For questions about the National Conversation on Writing, contact NCoW Chair Dominic DelliCarpini (dcarpini@ycp.edu) or Network for Media Action Chair Darsie Bowden (dbowden@depaul.edu).

Well, here’s how I got involved.  

It happened one day in November at an NCTE session in NYC back in 2007. I’d heard of NCoW before and thought I’d like to be involved, but I didn’t really know what that might mean for me or the programs I represent.

That day I knew. Immediately and viscerally.  Or at least I thought I knew. Boy, was I wrong. And completely right. <more>

“Featured Session—Reading, Writing, Composing: The Movie(s)” (Linda Adler-Kassner, Session Chair and organizer) was a film festival of sorts, videos about writing and writers from all walks of life and across the country. My little film “Standardized” meant a lot to me, so I was very glad to share it .But far more impressive were excerpts from documentaries about high school students and their expectations about college writing (in Pennsylvania, by DelliCarpini), working class college students and their experiences with literacy (in Michigan, by Bump Halbritter with Julie Lindquist), faculty and undergraduates at a university on the Mexican border (in Texas, by Colin and Jonnika Charlton), and first-year writers celebrating student writing (also in Michigan, by Krause).

Then came Bowden and Vandenberg’s 18-minute, slick, professional, and persuasive video  NCoW’s inaugural video Who is a Writer? What Writers Tell Us (2007). 

This collection of interviews with writers from across the country shows viewers to understand that everyone is a writer. Everyone! Coupled with the other stories about writers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Texas and Linda AK and Dominic’s introductory discussion of NCoW’s origins and purpose, I couldn’t help but get I involved.

That day I began to understand what was so darn special about this project.

It had voice. It had passion. It was activist. It was political. But it was also quite practical. And heck, I love movies. I love making videos and I sure as heck love watching videos. Videos about writing and writers? All the better!

I had to get involved. 

But how?

After our panel, NCoW founder Dominic DelliCarpini suggested that what the project needed next was an institutional home.

A home? I could help give NCoW a home!

It was actually an excellent time to try to bring such a project home with me to Texas A&M-Commerce.  

Converging Literacies Center (CLiC) at Texas A&M-Commerce

In the last year, our then brand new Converging Literacies Center (CLiC) had yielded, among other things, a highly productive and generative relationship with our library. Perhaps even more importantly, Greg Mitchell (library director, regular collaborator, and CLiC committee member) had established, just months before, a series of digital collections and systems on which we could build this new archive. Through the Converging Literacies Center (CLiC), I’d also been able to create some wonderful relationships with the various facets of technology services on our campus. And, and, and!

I just had to try, first approaching the group responsible for NCoW (the Council of Writing Program Administrators-Network for Media Action). . .

. . . then my own campus representatives.

The Converging Literacies Center is an integrated model for writing programs, bringing together the writing center with first-year writing with graduate coursework with original research and support for the teaching and study of 21^st century literacies. In 2007, we were just getting started. Just the month before that life-changing film festival, in fact, we’d brought in an outside consultant to conduct a feasibility study for this proposed project (then already in progress) and Dickie Selfe (bless him!) offered an enthusiastic yes along with his formal report.

It seemed to me that the National Conversation on Writing could help us determine how this integrated model might work to serve a national audience.  If only I were to bring it home. 

My colleagues and key administrators agreed (enthusiastically!), and WPA thrilled us by agreeing as well.

In July 2008 we signed a Memorandum of Understanding, making A&M-Commerce NCoW’s institutional home for three years.

I couldn’t be more excited. Or terrified!

What had I gotten myself into? What had I gotten our campus into?

In the year since we signed this contract, we’ve discovered almost exactly what we’d gotten ourselves into: a complex web of exciting, important, and productive relationships across our own campus and, in fact, across the country. At conferences like the National Writing Project and the National Council for Teachers of English. At National Writing Project sites like the new Coastal Bend Writing Project at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Online through submissions and NCoW queries.

In short, I’ve gotten myself into an enviable position here, at least from my perspective: I get to hear a greater number, variety, and quality of stories about writing and writers than I’d ever heard before. Far more than I’d ever had access to before. 

And now I am more convinced than ever: writing is everywhere, and everyone is a writer.

 You share your stories with us, and we get to share them with the world!

Stories that matter. Stories that can help change the national conversation on writing. Stories that are beginning to change the national conversation on writing, in combination with highly visible initiatives like NCTE’s National Day on Writing! (don’t forget about the important WPA gallery; WPA is a national partner with NCTE’s National Day on Writing)

Here’s what’s happened with NCoW at A&M-Commerce since we brought it home in July 2008:

1. NCoW Archives: We’ve built an archive for these stories, catalogued by Adam Northam, MLS—A&M-Commerce’s Digital Collections Librarian. Stored in the WorldCat-owned database for digital collections called CONTENTdm  and completely searchable through any of their systems or even via Google. (funded by A&M-Commerce’s Gee Library and supported by CLiC)

2. NCoW submission processing: In close collaboration with the indispensible Glenn Blalock, we’ve developed systems for obtaining consent forms and submission information, all of which are processed by our NCoW Graduate Assistant Angela Kennedy (MA student in English).  (GA funding provided by A&M-Commerce’s Department of Literature and Languages and supported by CLiC)

3. NCoW videos: We’ve developed video to be used in the current campaign (“Who Said Johnny Can’t Write?) and among our promotional materials (“Everyone Is a Writer”)—the former was developed by Luca Morazzano, a PhD student and member of the CLiC team here at A&M-Commerce. Luca is also primarily responsible for the “Everyone Is a Writer” video. I pulled together the images, developed the storyboard, and ended up with a video that was slow, rather repetitive, and far too long (seven minutes!).  Luca took the same images and the same storyboard and cut the time in half—yielding a far slicker, punchier, more interesting and more useful video invitation to potential NCoW contributors. (Luca is a CLiC GA funded though the Department of Literature and Languages)

What a marvelous team I have!

4. Joe Shipman and Michael Lewandowski in Instructional Technology here on my campus developed the second incarnation of the NCoW website (http://orgs.tamu-commerce.edu/ncow), which we just loved and led to our promotional materials.

5. “We want your story?”

Riffing off Joe and Michael’s website design, Marketing Services here at A&M-Commerce developed some promotional materials for NCoW in the form of a very slick postcard. We printed them here, generously funded by the Council of Writing Program Administrators. Distributed them at NCTE and NWP 2008, CCCC 2009, and anywhere else folks would let us.

6. Spotlight On: I’ve been able to retrieve, help categorize and, through the wonderful Glenn Blalock, make available a great number and variety of NCoW submissions—at our new “Spotlight On” feature.

7. New Submissions: With the incredible one-one-one support of our CLiC team, especially the always available and patient Sylwester Zabielski (MA student) and great equipment made available for checkout by the Department of Literarture and Languages and  Gee Library, our graduate students have been able to produce and make available a great variety of materials that help us better understanding of writing and writers: video, podcasts, interviews, photoessays, collages, journal entries, photographs.

So have students, faculty, and community members across the country.

In the last year and a half, I’ve had the sincere pleasure of helping grow, shape, reshape, and rethink yet again this activist and increasingly important project—in the company of some of the smartest and most creative and committed teachers and scholars I’ve ever had the good fortune to work with.

Dominic DelliCarpini, who came up with this incredible and important project—more than four years ago now! Endlessly committed to social justice and more responsive teaching practices, Dominic has been an absolute joy to work with and learn from.

Linda Adler-Kassner, always a force for justice and getting things done! Linda was the one who got me involved in NCoW originally, inviting me to join the exciting NCTE panel that introduced me to NCoW more completely and to people like Dominic and the rest of the NCoW team. Her scholarship has always been important to my own work. Her activism and administrative skills have made this project all the more important to me and my crew here.

Darsie Bowden and Pete Vandenberg who, among other things, wowed me with the NCoW inaugural video Who Is a Writer? What Writers Tell Us. Nothing has helped me introduce NCoW and it’s role/potential quite as well as this smart compilation of interviews from writers across the country.  The conversations that have followed any viewing of that film are worth recording and archiving themselves, and these experiences speak to the value of this film in changing the national conversation on writing.

Stephanie Roach, whom I met for the fist time when she was presenting an earlier version of what has since become our first NCoW campaign. At the WPA conference last July, her presentation and that of her colleagues really helped me see the real-world applications of this project. Thinking of her presentation—a rhetorical analysis of the influential article “Why Johnny Can’t Write” (Newsweek 1975)—in conversation with Linda’s book The Activist WPA (2008), which I had just been reading on the plane a day or two before I heard Stephanie’s talk–.

I thought about the importance of framing the argument and how well her project worked to frame the argument NCoW appeared to be making. I also thought about how well her reading would work with a visual accompaniment—film!

So I asked this virtual stranger if she’d be interested in working with me on such a video and, perhaps, making use of it—or a version of it—in the National Conversation on Writing. If she’d mind recording her reading and sharing that with me. We’d overlay video and go from there.

She was. She did. We did (eventually). And immediately, while we were still in Denver for the WPA conference in fact, Stephanie and her panel joined the NCoW steering committee. We featured her Johnny project at the NWP presentation we did the following November. Her presence from the very beginning was SUCH a presence. Her generousity. Her clarity. Her mind!

And now, with Dominic, she’s authoring our fist campaign. In addition to so much else.  What a visionary!

And Glenn Blalock. Everyone who has ever had the good fortune to work with Glenn knows exactly how vital he is to everything composition and rhetoric. I’ve know his name for years, of course. Many years before I actually met him. With Comppile and his tireless service smartening up the information flow in our field—well, we owe him so very much. For this and so much more.  

But until I joined on with NCoW, I had never had the opportunity to work so closely with this generous and humble and brilliant man. I can’t say how much I’ve learned from him in this last year and half. How much has happened because he knew how to cut through my extreme tendency to complicate the hell out of things—especially in those first six months or so.

In the last six months, Glenn has—by himself—redesigned NCoW’s interface FIVE times. Almost every one of these was a significant redesign. A brand new site. Each incarnation of the site got us closer to understanding what NCoW could be. What it should be.

He purchased the ncow.org domain for us and stores all of this on the Comppile server at no cost to any of us. He collects and processes all the video made available at his site and he has written tons of prose for us and done an amazing amount of programming to support the interface you see at ncow.org now.

I don’t know how this could have happened without Glenn. The fact is, I really don’t think it could.

Without the whole team. This team. And now you!

And the Steering Committee for the WPA-NMA.

NCoW is an initiative of the Council of Writing Program Administrators-Network for Media Action. Before NCoW, I had not had the good fortune of working with the NMA Steering Committee.

What a team! What action-oriented, focused, smart and passionate group. They get things done!

I got involved with NCoW for a million different reasons, most of which I didn’t even know when I first got involved with NCoW. I spent a year getting to know the project and figuring out how to serve the project. I pulled together a history , which seemed important given the number of years leading up to my joining.

But it has become something that I don’t think any of us anticipated. Better, smarter, more important. With your help. With your great ideas. And with a team like this.

Why did I get involved with NCoW? Who knows! But I am. I’m in deep now. 

Why should you get involved with NCoW? Who knows! But we hope you will. 

Together, we will change the national conversation on writing. It’s happening already. Can you feel it?

Check out http://www.literaciesoise.ca/Index.html . . . The Canadian “Festival of Literacies”

You’ll find podcasts from literacy workers, oral histories (presented in text and in video), fantastic reports (like those on how folks with limited formal education learn [they learn a lot!], literacy experiences of sex workers and the literacy workers who work with them, etc), and a number of other very interesting projects. I’m learning so much!

From their homepage: 

——

Welcome to the Festival of Literacies.

We are a place to celebrate the creation and mobilization of knowledge 
about literacy practice and literacy research.

Our formal partnerships are these: http://orgs.tamu-commerce.edu/ncow/partnerships.asp

We are developing partnerships with many other organizations, which should be formal very soon. But we need more! And we will be working hard to make NCoW a place where said partnerships are true partnerships–symbiotic, generative!

We’d love to partner with student publications (newspapers, journals, websites, magazines), recurring events (celebrating student writing via poetry readings, CSW events, and the like), programs, schools, classrooms, community literacy projects, and the like.

Who should we contact? What about projects/publications/events (etc) in which you are involved? Can we partner with you? Let us know! You can contact us via this blog or shoot me an email directly at Shannon_Carter@tamu-commerce.edu

I’ll be following up on several contacts made at the recent NWP/NCTE meetings, including organizations representing student journalists (crucial!). I’d love to add more possibilities to this list.

Keep those great ideas coming!

–Shannon