BJ Ward’s Writer-In-The-School Residency
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BJ Ward’s Writer-In-The-School Residency
The Star-Ledger has named BJ Ward a “master teacher” in an article entitled “10 Dynamic Jersey Artists Not Named Springsteen,”. Mr. Ward has also received the Governor’s Award in Arts Education from the State of New Jersey and has been designated Distinguished Teaching Artist by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His poetry residency serves as an introductory engagement with literature–both the enjoying and creating of it. In this four-day residency, Mr. Ward works with the same classes of one grade level each day over the course of his residency. Designed especially for grades 3, 4, and 5, this poetry experience emphasizes the creation of literary art, as students will be led into focusing on an internal audience, not an external one. In a standard four-day program, the first three days are spent creating new poems while the last day is reserved for revision. During the revision exercise, Mr. Ward explores the differences between revising poetry and prose. At the end of a four-day residency, each student will have at least three new poems, one of which has been revised and is ready for typesetting (usually done on the student’s own Chromebook). The school is then requested to produce an anthology of student poetry after Mr. Ward’s departure (this may be done via the school’s copy machine). Each student with whom Mr. Ward works should be represented in the anthology. This publication serves as the culmination of the Writer-In-The-School residency. Each student should receive his or her own copy.
Organizer: BJ Ward
Age Group: Grades 3-5