Saturday 5:45 - 6:35 PM
Ume Flower
Poetry Writing with Preliterate and Literate Adult Asian Students 

This workshop is a theoretical and hands-on exploration on how to conduct poetry-writing workshops to meet the needs of Asian adult literacy-learners without excluding literate adult students. The presenter will discuss her experiences teaching poetry-writing to a class of Southeast Asian immigrants in Richmond, California in which two-thirds of the class were pre-literate Lao and Mien and one-third literate Vietnamese. Issues to be examined: what are the special strengths that students from preliterate, oral-based cultures bring to the writing experience? Conversely, what can students from literate cultures more readily contribute? How can the teacher design exercises to meet the needs of both kinds of students? How should the workshop be structured and facilitated to insure optimal participation and cross-cultural exchange? Lesson plans and samples of student writing will be exhibited and poetry- writing exercises demonstrated with audience participation.