Join us for National Day on Writing 2012

(For pictures and videos from our 2012 NDOW Celebration, visit this link: http://www.trwp.org/?p=713)

Established on October 20, 2009 by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Day on Writing celebrates composition in all forms – from stories, poems, and letters to text messages, videos, and audio recordings – and demonstrates how writing is a vital part of our everyday lives. Thousands of writers from across the country recognize the National Day on Writing with local events, including write-ins, talks by local authors, and poetry slam celebrations.

Last year, nearly 200 local school children and teachers joined us on campus for  the first annual National Day on Writing celebration at ECU. To learn more about last year’s celebration, click here. This year, we’re planning another exciting celebration of writing, and if you’re reading this, we want you to be part of it!

To simplify field trip planning and make the event accessible to as many local K-college students as possible, we have scheduled our on-campus events for Friday, October 19. However, we plan to host community activities that will be open to the public on Saturday, October 20 as well.

ECU Campus Celebrations – October 19, 2012

We will host two celebration blocks, morning and afternoon, that include two activity sessions each. Blocks will be open to registered K-College groups. Groups attending both blocks will be invited to eat on campus, and dining facilities will be available. While celebration activities will be free, attendees will have the option to pre-pay for a meal or bring their own.

Attendees will participate in fun and creative activities that include digital storytelling, social writing, meeting published authors, and creative workshops.

Educators will be able to register their classes beginning in August. If you want to bring a group to campus, you may apply now for registration. Information gathered from the applications will help us tailor our planning efforts better for potential attendees. We will notify applicants of acceptance status within one week of application, and we will accept applications through September 21 or until we reach our maximum capacity.

We will also present the second annual Tar River Writing Project Gallery, in which we will display original works by ECU students, TRWP young writers, TRWP members, and members of Eastern North Carolina communities.

Community Celebrations – October 20, 2012

We are currently seeking partnerships with local community centers and businesses to plan and host community events. If you, your business, or your organization are interested in partnering with us for a community event, please send us a message through our Contact Us page with the subject line “NDOW Community Celebration Partnership Recommendation”.

Making NDOW 2012 Possible

We’d like to thank the following folks for helping us make our celebration awesome!

ECU’s NDOW Advisory Committee

NDOW 2011 Volunteers and Attendees

University Writing Program at ECU

Joyner Library

English Department at ECU

If you are interested in donating funds or supplies OR if you have an idea for an event, please send us a message through our Contact Us page. Include NDOW 2012 as part of your subject line.

National Day on Writing 2011

In Fall 2011, the Tar River Writing Project, the University Writing Program, and the English department at ECU joined with colleges, universities, schools, and communities all over the country in celebrating the third annual National Day on Writing (NDOW). Through the efforts of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), October 20 became a federally recognized day for celebrating writing in all its forms.

Two Pitt County Schools accepted our invitation to celebrate the National Day on Writing at ECU. Jennifer Anderson brought seventy-two fourth grade students and three teachers from W. H. Robinson Elementary to campus that Thursday morning, and Rob Puckett of J. H. Rose High brought over 90 high school students and 6 teachers that afternoon.

Director and TRWP member Stephanie West-Puckett transformed the First-Year Writing Studio into a one-day Digital Studio to offer our visitors a place to explore four online writing tools:  Storify, Xtranormal, VoiceThread, and Wordle. English graduate assistants, who normally help our first-year students negotiate the complexities of the writing process, demonstrated their flexibility by helping students negotiate these new technologies. The Digital Studio provided a space for elementary and high school students to compose fun and original works, engage in thoughtful discussion about copyright, and celebrate their creativity.

Thanks to Dean of Academic Library and Learning Resources Larry Boyer and Assistant Director of Public Services Mark Sanders, we were able to host multiple events in Joyner Library. In the morning, volunteers Sam Settimio and Jewell Williams introduced young writers to Beedle the Bard, as Will Banks performed a selection from J. K. Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard for several groups. Following the reading, students participated in a writing marathon during which they wrote their own tales.

In the afternoon, high school students were captivated by Rick Taylor’s readings of an excerpt from The Princess Bride. They were so inspired that one group requested more time to write at the cupola before moving into the Digital Studio. English faculty member Randall Martoccia contributed Halloween-themed prompts designed for students in both age groups. In another session, we introduced the high school students to two professional writers, who are also graduate students in the English department. Brandon Sneed, a sports writer, and Amber Carpenter, a political poet, volunteered their afternoon to engage in a fruitful dialogue with our visitors about what it means to be a professional writer.

We also established two student writing exhibits in Joyner:  a gallery sampling in the study area beside the circulation desk and a full gallery in one of the library conference rooms. Assistant Director of the University Writing Program Kerri Flinchbaugh curated the National Day on Writing Gallery with help from volunteers Jenn Sisk and undergraduate student Jaden Little. Works on display included several issues of The Rebel and Expressions, two of ECU’s publications that showcase student writing, as well as academic, professional, and personal writing samples from the graduate students working in the First-Year Writing Studio. Joanne Dunn brought her first-year composition students to view the gallery, and they enjoyed reading student work and contributing short videos to the National Writing Project’s “Why I Write” campaign.

While students enjoyed all of these activities, the favorite activity of the morning was the graffiti wall they built at the station led by Cyndi Gibbs, an art instructor from Coastal Carolina Community College. Three graduate students – Therese Pennell, Michael Brantley, and James Cardin – volunteered more than half of their work day to make this potentially messy station a success. Students enjoyed learning about using symbolism to express themselves, collaborating to create a unified collaborative work of art through writing, and playing.

In light of the successes, we’re starting early with grand plans for next year. We would like to expand the celebration to include lunch for students so that we can bring them to campus for the entire day, which will provide more time for them at each station and a greater variety of writing activities to engage in. We also want to spread the celebration campus wide and include more events for on-campus and distance education students. Click here for the latest news on the NDOW 2012 celebration.

Please help us celebrate by donating time, resources, or some of your own writing to make ECU’s Second Annual NDOW celebration a success!

To volunteer your time:  For NDOW 2012, complete the volunteer registration form. To volunteer for other activities, send a message through the Contact Us page. Include the event and times for which you are interested in volunteering.

We are in the process of rebuilding the Tar River Writing Project Virtual Gallery.