LWP XL Blog

Day 1 of Louisville Writing Project XL (40--for our 40th year)

by Marsha Buerger & Jean Wolph

Today is the first day of our special and unique LWP Summer Institute -- XL!!

We walked into Education 244 to a table laden with gifts--a goody bag full of office supplies and even an LWP face mask--and a library of about a dozen books, selected with each person in mind.

Jean started us off with breakfast (provided by the directors), a personal library

of professional books, writer's notebooks, and a warm welcome for all. Our first

assignment was “I’m the one who…”--a National Writing Project tradition to show

that in the Writing Project, we value the whole person. Participants are invited to

be their "whole" selves in this space, not just their professional selves.

After a review of the schedule, we quickly "got this party

started" with a trip downstairs to Education 116, wherewe will often be joined by members of previous cadres.

This is an especially special summer institute because

it is being combined with LWP's 40th Anniversary

celebration.

           Here is a link to her presentation on conferring.

Next, Jean Wolph (XIII and LWP Director) engaged us in an informal inquiry into Writer's Notebooks and

Writing Workshop. Everyone is invited to independently review these two resources. She had us share where we are as practitioners and then to peruse resources to see

what nuggets we could discover in professional books.

Finally, Patti Slagle (LWP I) shared an approach to conventions that emphasizes the role they play in

writers' voices--grammar as craft, rather than rules.