Dakota Writing Project

All current Dakota Writing Project teacher-consultants are invited to attend the DWP "Weekend Warrior" Professional Development Retreat April 18-20, 2008 at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. During this retreat, DWP teacher-consultants will focus on strategies that will help the DWP to offer effective professional development in the schools. This retreat will help participants to grow professionally and also strengthen the work of the DWP. More information on this retreat will be offered at a later date. Contact the DWP director at dwp@usd.edu for more information.

Teachers and elementary students, grades 4-6, are invited to participate in the Sioux Falls Writing Workshop, which will be held Saturday, March 15, at the Sertoma Park Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. Annie Christain, an award-winning poet, PhD student at the U, and DWP teacher-consultant will lead this workshop, with students participating from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and teachers from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The registration fee is $15 for students and $20 for teachers. Contact Julia Monczunksi (jmonczunski@tie.net) to register, or phone 605-394-1876. This is a collaboration between the Dakota Writing Project and Prairie Winds, with additional support by the South Dakota Arts Council.

Annie Christain is a teaching assistant, Dakota Writing Project teacher-consultant, and third year English PhD student at the University of South Dakota.  She taught writing poetry and poetry performance at The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a creative writing camp for high school students co-sponsored by the Dakota Writing Project.  Christain also taught a poetry class to gifted high school students at the University of South Dakota’s Ambassadors of Excellence Camp.  At the South Dakota Governor’s Camp, a camp for gifted junior high students, Christain led students in creative projects and taught classes on writing poetry and creative writing/meditation. 

Christain has read her poetry at such venues as the Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma; the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Festival, and the Vermillion Literary Project Poetry Slam.  She is the two-time recipient of the University of South Dakota’s Gladys Hasse Poetry Award and the 2007 winner of the Southwest Texas Popular Culture Jerry Bradley Award for Creative Writing.  Her poems have appeared in Poetry Bay, The American Drivel Review, The Arabesques Review, and Beeswax Magazine.   

Teachers, now is the time to apply for the Dakota Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute. This remarkable, four-week institute can strengthen you as a teacher of writing and help you to grow as a leader in South Dakota education. Educators in any discipline and grade level (kindergarten through college) can apply. For more information, visit http://www.usd.edu/dwp/invitation.cfm. 

Teachers everywhere are invited to apply for the Dakota Writing Project Writing Retreat, which will be held March 6-8, 2008 at the Lincoln Bed & Breakfast, a 1915 renovated hotel on Stickney's Main Street. This is an opportunity to write, in a very comfortable, supportive atmosphere, alongside your fellow teacher-writers. The retreat is also available for one hour of graduate credit (optional). The application (postmark) deadline is February 25. For more information, please see http://www.usd.edu/dwp/writingretreat.cfm.

by Michelle Rogge Gannon, DWP Director

Karen Rahn (Rutland Public School) and I attended the National Writing Project Annual Meeting in New York City on November 15-17, 2007. Anne Moege (Mitchell Middle School), who, as the president of the South Dakota Council of Teachers of English, was attending the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference, also made a point of attending sessions in the NWP strand of NCTE.

Two Thursday sessions that I attended were "Inquiry and Reflection in the Summer Invitational Institute" and "Organizing, Developing, and Planning for Inservice." The first got me thinking about how we can facilitate inquiry and reflection more effectively in our summer institute; the second provided a number of strong examples on how to do inservice in the schools. As usual, I learned a lot while also absorbing the atmosphere of a new place--in this instance, the very exciting New York City.

The Dakota Writing Project hosted two events this past weekend--the Sorcerer's Apprentice Creative Writer' Camp (in collaboration with the Vermillion Literary Project) and the DWP Pre-service Teachers' Writing Retreat.

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University students who are planning to teach are invited to attend the Dakota Writing Project Pre-service Teachers' Writing Retreat, scheduled for September 21-22, 2007, at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. [Read More]

Michelle Rogge Gannon attended the National Writing Project conference "Teaching Writing in the 21st Century: An Exploration of New Practices and Literacies" recently. She describes highlights of the conference and reflects on how what she learned might affect the work of the Dakota Writing Project.

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School administrators and teachers are invited to nominate talented high school students for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: A Creative Writers’ Camp,” to be held Saturday, September 22, 2007, at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. The camp, which will run from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., includes workshops on short fiction, poetry, revision, and performance, to be followed by a public reading in Farber Hall. For more information and a registration form, visit http://www.usd.edu/orgs/projlit/camp .

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Twenty Rapid City educators attended the Dakota Writing Project Open Institute in Rapid City Monday, June 25 - Friday, June 29, 2007. This institute was facilitated by DWP teacher-consultants Nancy Kampfe and Connie Krueger.

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Six South Dakota educators recently wrapped up participation in the Dakota Writing Project 2006-07 Electronic Writing Marathon.

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After serving as the director of the Dakota Writing Project for many years, Nancy Zuercher is stepping down. She is retiring from her position as DWP director and her position as Associate Professor of English at the University of South Dakota in May 2007. 

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DWP teacher-consultant and USD professor Tim Duggan is performing his
original music at the Washington Street Arts Center (202 Washington
Street, Vermillion) this Friday, May 18th, at 8 p.m.

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The Dakota Writing Project and Prairie Winds have teamed up this year for three events: a writing workshop for teachers at the TIE Conference in Rapid City, on April 22, 2007; a conference for elementary students and teachers featuring children's author Jean Patrick, at the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls on April 28, 2007; and the Sorcerer's Apprentice Creative Writers' Camp, a one-day camp for high school students, that involves the Vermillion Literary Project as well as the Dakota Writing Project and Prairie Winds, on September 22, 2007.

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A number of Dakota Writing Project teacher-consultants presented at the South Dakota Council of Teachers of English (SDCTE) Spring Conference on March 23-24, 2007, at the Cedar Shore Resort in Chamberlain. DWP presenters included Tim Duggan, Michelle Rogge Gannon, Anne Moege, Sue Morrell, Sharon Olbertson, Reva Potter, Karen Rahn, and Nancy Zuercher. 

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