skip the i-GuideIllinois State UniversityAdmissions at ISUAcademics at ISUEvents at ISUMap of ISUISU A to Z ListingISU AccessibilityISU 150th Anniversary
College of Arts and Sciences News
Article Details
Writing Project Highlights Student Research
Chelsea Risinger and Daniel Parr
along with English faculty member
Jim Meyer present Dean Olson
with a barn calendar
Last week, Tremont Grade School students presented one of their fifth grade Learning Center class projects—a calendar with photos and histories of local barns—to ISU Writing Project faculty and graduate students as well as President Bowman, Provost Presley, Dean Olson, and English Department Chair Tim Hunt as a sample of innovative research projects in central Illinois schools. Through this project, Tremont students were able to interview barn owners, write text and poetry for the calendar,and learn about the production process. Chelsea Risinger, now a 6th-grader who worked on the project, told President Bowman that farmers have little need for barns now because machinery is too big and farming has changed. If farmers restore their barns, they have to pay higher taxes and if they tear down deteriorating barns it is often viewed as property improvement resulting in higher taxes. The students made the calendar to inform people in Illinois about disappearing barns. The project, taught by Lori Fuoss and Susan Bishop of Tremont, emerged from a research unit they have taught for the last seven years. This year, they decided to create a barn calendar as an extra curricular porject for interested students, who named themselves "TGS Barn Buddies." "These young students have been inspired to engage in a fun activity that has great pedagogical value," said Dean Olson. "This calendar project clearly tapped into and enhanced the students' research, creative writing, and artistic abilities, and I commend the work being done by local teachers as well as by Professor Jim Meyer and all those at ISU associated with the Writing Project." Grants from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and the English Department's Writing Project have funded several professional development programs for teachers in local schools who are exploring new ways of using informational texts in their classes.
Return