Saturday 5:45 - 6:35 PM
Ume Flower
Poetry Writing with Preliterate and Literate Adult Asian Students
Erica Fox
Pusan National University
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. |