LRNG Innovators: Agency and Audience, Live from the 2018 NWP Resource Development Retreat

August 02, 2018
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By Educator Innovator

Christina Cantrill (NWP) visits with Katie Kline (Greater Kansas City Writing Project) and Katie McKay (Heart of Texas Writing Project) about the work they’ve done through their LRNG Innovators challenge grants.

Background About the Projects

KC Storytellers: KC Storytellers gave high school students a chance to share and experience each other’s real stories through story-slam events in Kansas City, dismantling student assumptions and negative attitudes about each other by building community through the stories shared. KC Storytellers teamed up with Louder than a Bomb-KC to transform the city through the powerful stories that students were burning to tell. KC Storytellers celebrated the human experience of the city’s young people and in the sharing of these experiences diminished racial and cultural barriers while building bridges toward understanding and overcoming challenges.

Choice and Voice: Agency and Audience in a Resilient Rural Texas Community: The Choice and Voice project supported student-centered practices district-wide and resisted a prompted, teacher-centered writing curriculum in K-4 classrooms by providing student choice at every level, from materials and seating to interest-driven topics and exciting publication formats. Throughout the writing process, students participated in a supportive, inter-campus wiki writing community. Students collaborated with the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce, Library, and Parks and Recreation department, and used multimedia presentation tools to publish their carefully crafted writing for local and global audiences. The amplification of elementary students’ voices through innovative publication in public spaces demonstrated that Bastrop, Texas, public schools are at the heart of their community and that Bastrop community stories, passions, and convictions are at the heart of their public schools.

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