Students spend leap day writing

Students ‘take the leap’ and try something new in their writing

Young poets, essayists and short story writers from around mid-Missouri joined together to celebrate writing at the MU College of Education. The college’s Missouri Writing Project (MWP), a consortium of teachers, administrators, writers and MU faculty, held the ‘Leap Into Writing’ conference to encourage young learners to write without hesitation, read their words aloud and share without fear.

More than 230 students from Auxvasse, Ashland, Sturgeon, Mexico and Columbia, Mo., attended the Leap Into Writing conference.

“It enhances their writing and helps them develop as writers,” says Lisa Kuttenkuler, a junior secondary education English major at MU, of the students who attended the conference. “They can free write in any form or genre.

“The students were nervous at first, but they really are willing to write, to put their thoughts on paper and share.”

During one session’s Imagery exercise, the sixth, seventh and eighth grade participants were asked to complete the following statement: “I have a ____ in my ____.”

One student shared that he has a strong boxer in his arm. Another shared that she has a creamy, chocolaty candy treat in her velvety purse.

The students were encouraged to practice their descriptive writing, which will help their personal writing and school writing assignments, according to Andrew Blakemore, a junior secondary education English major at MU.

Andrew and Lisa were the two MU students running the “Picture This” session for the middle school students.

The day concluded with a session that brought all conference participants together to celebrate writing. The celebration, which included parents, students, MU education majors and MWP administrators, provided attendees the opportunity to read aloud their writing to a large group in an auditorium.  During the final celebration about ten students read pieces that varied from poetry, fiction, and excerpts from essays.  The day ended with a slide show of images captured during the day.