October Activities and Accomplishments

Professional Development in October:

Susie Hennessy attended the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium in Raleigh, NC, where she chaired a session entitled “Devouring Mother.” Hennessy presented her paper: "Bonne à Croquer: Food as Fetish and the Female Body" as part of the session.

Dr. Hennessy also participated in the development of benchmarks and standards for French for the Defense Language Institute language assessments. French is now considered a strategic language for military and diplomatic purposes. The exams are used to measure the language capabilities of government employees and those in military service.

Lastly, a tired Susie Hennessy attended the annual meeting of the Missouri Consortium for Foreign Languages in St. Louis. Missouri Western is one of five partners working in collaboration to offer French and German courses via distance education.

Mike Cadden published the essay “All is well: The Epilogue in Children’s Fantasy Fiction” in the peer-reviewed journal Narrative.

Tom Pankiewicz, Prairie Lands Writing Project director, facilitated a holistic scoring session for the Platte County High School English Department on October 8. In the session, teachers analyzed student writing, using a recently-released Smarter Balanced rubric. Missouri is one of the states affiliated with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and will begin using the Smarter Balanced-developed Common Core State Standards Assessment in 2014.

Prairie Lands Writing Project Teacher Consultants, Christie Leigan and Heidi Mick presented workshops on non-fiction reading and writing and their emphasis in the Common Core State Standards to the teachers of the Mid-Buchanan School District in Faucett, Missouri on October 25. Leigan, a St. Joseph School District Instructional Coach, presented to K-6 teachers while Mick, a Platte County High School Communication Arts instructor, worked with teachers in all 7-12 content areas.  

Prairie Lands Writing Project hosted the eleventh annual When Writing Teachers Write forum at Missouri Western on October 17. Amanda Moyers, a Central High School Communication Arts teacher and a Prairie Lands Teacher Consultant, hosted the event which featured the writing of the following area educators: Kyla Ward, Central High School; Brandon Haskey, Central High School; Pasty Brost, Missouri Western and Savannah High School; Dasha Davis, Savannah High School; Bill Church, Missouri Western; Joyce Stohr, Robidoux Middle School; Joe Marmaud, Missouri Western; Mary Stone-Dockery, Missouri Western; Melissa Robinson, Cameron Middle School; and Amanda Moyers, Central High School. 

Prairie Lands Writing Project, sponsor of the Missouri Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards Contest, presented a Writing Fiction Workshop for high school students and teachers on October 11. Dr. Bill Church, Missouri Western English professor facilitated the workshop. Church examined a Gold Medal-winning story and led a writing activity. The workshop ended with a series of small group sessions during which students read and discussed their writing.  Tom Pankiewicz, Prairie Lands director and regional coordinator, Amanda Moyers, Central High School Communication Arts teacher and associate coordinator for the Missouri Region, Eric Williams, Missouri Western English Education major and PLWP student assistant, and Rachel Stancliff, Missouri Western Technical Communication graduate student and PLWP web facilitator planned this event. 

Terri McAvoy, Prairie Lands Teacher Consultant and retired St. Joseph School District elementary teacher, led a two-day Professional Development event at Pershing Middle School on October 9 and 10. Prairie Lands Writing Project and Pershing Elementary School are one of fourteen National Writing Project sites and twenty-two elementary schools awarded Title II SEED grants “Evaluating the Impact of Professional Development to Meet Challenging Writing Standards in High-Need Elementary Schools.” This project is being independently evaluated by SRI International.