reading issue


MAME 36: An Unforgettable Session!


Michigan Poet Bard Terry Wooten connects teens with elder citizens in a literature/history project


We don’t often see students at MAME Conference presentations, and that is too bad. Too often travelling long distances to the conference site and diffi culty getting students released during the day pose diffi culties. But this fall, Terry Wooten and Elk Rapids students managed to overcome the diffi culties and joined up to present “The Elders Project” to a small but entranced audience.


Terry has been performing poetry and conducting writing workshops in schools for over 25 years, but more recently, he has been interviewing people to capture their stories, preserve their words and to create poetry. He has written two books using this technique; Lifelines, published in 2004 and Child of War, (2007). Then, wanting to connect young people with the older generation, he proposed to try it with middle school students and senior citizens.


“In the fall of 2007, after piloting a smaller version of the project in Kingsley, I made a proposal to the Elk Rapids Area Historical Society. We would select a group of eight elders each year from the community, folks in their eighties, and invite them to be interviewed and tape recorded by 7th and 8th graders. I would teach the kids to transcribe favorite parts of the interviews, and write free verse poems


by Karen Becknell in collaboration with Terry Wooten


using the elders’ words. I would transcribe the rest of the tapes, and write poems around the kids’ work. A book of historical poems was the fi nal objective.”


His proposal was accepted; Cherryland Middle School students signed up, and the Elk Rapids Elders Project was underway!


“The project consists of three parts”,


“Introducing to


the elder


Elder: Dorothy Merillot Students: Jackie Morrison, Joe Janisse


transcribing


Terry reported. the


interview interview


the


process, itself,


and culling the interviews into narrative poetry.”


“First I visited the school and recruited students. The student part of the project took seven days. The fi rst day I taught the kids how to use the tape recorders. We brainstormed about questions to ask, and I explained what we were aiming for. The second day…the elders arrived. This can be a shy, awkward time. After short group introductions, the elders and students paired up. The getting to know each other began. The third day students transcribed favorite sections of the tapes. On the fourth day the elders returned for another interview. The rest of my time with students was spent writing and rewriting from prose into poetry form.”


“The second interview is my favorite part of the workshop. Initial shyness disappears, and friendships begin to grow between individuals of very different subcultures. The exchange that often takes place between the kids and elders is priceless. “


“From these poems, the students can publish a book, or weave together and present a ‘Spoon River Anthology’ style reading or performance of their poems for the school or community.”


Elder: Bruce McLachlan Students: Gabrielle Gualtiere, Samantha Gilbert


www.mimame.org Media 23


students the


then recording


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