2018 Writing & Thinking Conference

Join us for the 2018 Writing & Thinking Conference October 5-6!

We are thrilled that you will be joining us for the 6th Annual Writing & Thinking Conference: A Master Class with Dr. Sheridan Blau. We are looking forward to seeing each of you. Rather than experiencing several workshops, this format will allow us time to write with Dr. Blau, whose writings are seminal in the field of English Education. You'll be proud of the writing that comes from writing with other master teachers and consider what these workshops mean for our students' development as writers.

What you need to know

Arrive by 1:00 on Friday in order to find the room, get settled, and have time to visit. The workshop will begin promptly at 1:30. Glass Hall is on the west side of campus. Bear Park South will be your best bet for parking.

We'll have light refreshments and time to network with friends of the Ozarks Writing Project, COAL, COE and Missouri State.

We will have copies of his handouts, which you can also find under the handouts tab. We will provide a notebook and writing utensils for you as well.

You should have received an email with a couple of attachments.

1. a parking pass to print and place on your dash in a yellow lot on Friday and a blue lot on Saturday.
2. a map. Friday parking will work best at Bear Park South on the west side of campus, off Holland. Saturday parking will be off National and Bear Boulevard on the east side of campus.

A special thank you to our sponsors:

• Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
• College of Education
• Department of English
• Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning

This interview was recorded for the Missouri State Journal program on KSMU Radio.

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"OWP has transformed the way that I teach writing. Before OWP, I didn't know that teaching writing could be so fun, that students could be so engaged, and that the results of my professional learning with the Writing Project would be so dramatic."

Laurie Buffington, Communication Arts, Laquey High School

Accommodations

If you are planning on staying in Springfield overnight, there are a few nearby hotel options listed below.

Hotel Vandivort

University Plaza Hotel

Holiday Inn Express & Suites

RSVP

Please RSVP by September 22 by replying to the email you received to confirm your attendance.

Graduate Credit Available

Graduate credit will be offered at a reduced rate of $139.50 per credit hour.

Degree-Seeking

Students currently enrolled in a graduate program can register for ENG 665: Literature and Language Workshop though My MissouriState.

Nondegree-Seeking

Nondegree-seeking students are able to complete nine credit hours before enrolling in a program. These students will register for ENG 665: Literature and Language Workshop using this form.

 

Sessions

Friday, October 5, 1:00-5:00 pm

The Commentary Project: An Academic Writing Apprenticeship—Glass Hall | Jim & Jack Jones Room 486
A hands-on demonstration of how students at all levels can learn to produce academic writing by taking on an active participant role in an intellectual and literary community that they can help to form in their own classroom. Through such participation and "situated learning" students can best acquire the competencies that will enable them to become active, legitimate participants in the language practices (reading, writing, and speaking) that characterize intellectual life in the learning communities that are typically constructed in the classrooms of all highly regarded colleges and universities.

Saturday, October 6, 8:30-11:30 am

Discourse Theory, Writing Assignments, and the Development of Student Writers—Plaster Student Union | Union Club Rm. 400
An inquiry, including hands-on experiments, designed to uncover the thinking and writing skills and anxieties that are entailed and produced by different types of writing and the challenges of academic discourse. The workshop is designed to yield two outcomes. First, it will provide teachers with a framework for planning and implementing a course or writing program organized to teach students how to produce writing at every level of discourse and for a variety of academic and non-academic audiences. Second and more importantly, it will give participants an intellectual and bodily understanding, through their first-hand experience, of the sources of difficulty and the cognitive, affective, and linguistic demands of almost any type of writing assignment they might want to require of their students.

Handouts: Discourse Theory, Writing Assignments, and the Development of Student Writers

1. Experiments in Difficulty

2. Discourse Theory

• Scale of Intellectual Operations
• Moffett's Angle Chart
• Stages of Discourse Competency

Publications and Excerpts by Dr. Blau

What is College-Level Writing? Chapter 24

The Literature Workshop Chapter 2

The Compleat Poetry Workshop

Interviews

Professor Sheridan Blau Answers Six Questions on Teaching English