We visited many schools, had brilliant experiences, and culminated with a campus event in the evening. As I've repeated often, we flooded the Long Island Sound with Ann's creative brilliance. It will take me a while to process all the good, joy, imagination, and possibility presented to K-12 kids, academics, staff, and university students. For now, however, I will simply share my opening remarks.
Good Evening,
Hello, and welcome everyone to A Force of Nature - Supporting Ecological Literacy Across Spaces and Schools. My name is Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall and I’m the Director of the Connecticut Writing Project and Professor of English Education in the School of Education and Human Development at Fairfield University. For those who aren’t familiar with National Writing Project work, we are a network of teachers and scholars who work collaboratively to enhance and support all writers, from pre-school to graduate school. Best practices and wonderful ideas are what we are after.
Hence, this gathering tonight.
It an honor to welcome you to Fairfield University in celebration as part of the inaugural year of the Center for Climate, Coastal, and Marine Studies. It has been an honor to also serve with 30 faculty from 17 academic departments in support of this important work, which includes cross-campus dialogue and conversation.
When Dr. Robert Nazarian, Director of the Center, presented the idea to have an event specific for the School of Education, I immediately thought of a partnership between the Connecticut Writing Project, K-12 schools, and Weir Farm National Historical Park in Wilton, Connecticut. For several years, we benefited from grants to collaborate in support of environmental education, curriculum, and teacher professional development.
For this, reason, it was a no brainer. I called Dr. Rich Novack, an English teacher at Fairfield Warde High School and an adjunct English professor on campus. He has dedicated his entire career to climate education and similarly, Ranger Kristin Lessard too, who is actually an English teacher hiding in a park ranger uniform, has helped teaches across the state to appreciate a National Park in our state.
Then came the pandemic when everything shut down became wonky. The writer, Kwame Alexander, contacted me to see if I’d be interested in writing middle school curriculum for a project he was doing with Follet bookstores. Like him, I’m a say yes kind-of fellow, and soon I had over 24 middle grade books sent to my house.
One of the books Kwame sent was called All the Broken Pieces…a book written in verse about a young boy from Vietnam living in the United States with adoptive parents. Published by Scholastic, the book touched me in amazing ways and I called Kwame to ask, “Why aren’t schools teaching this book in every classroom in America?” His response, “Frog (I call him Rooster and he calls me Frog), if it wasn’t for that book, I wouldn’t be the writer I am today.”
Soon, I became fanatic, as everyone who knows me assumes I’ll be, and I wrote the author who, in return, sent me a copy of Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown. Then, Dr. Novack, Ranger Lessard, and I decided Ann Burg’s verse novel about the Johnstown Flood of 1889 would be our chosen text for ecological work and collaboration at Weir Farm with teachers. This also led to sharing the book with educators in a leadership institute for teaching writing when Fairfield University grad, Chelsea Crowley Leonard, not only enjoyed the book and shared it with her students, she used it as part of her Capstone project and turned it into a publication for Paula Greathouse’s edited collection, Exploring History Through Young Adult Literature.
The book, itself, is brilliant, and having the opportunity to use it with teachers made it even better…and the best part, Ann Burg also told us she was working on Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson also written in verse.
For the scholars in the room, especially one of my campus idols, Dr. Margaret McClure, Associate Vice Provost for Research & Scholarship, I wish to point out that the work the Connecticut Writing Project does with K-12 teachers is part of a 50 year data base on writing instruction. Teachers and directors like me are always writing about what is possible when teachers teach teachers who use great resources to lift up the writing lives of others…hence, the publications across teachers in our network. When I read Force of Nature, I immediately thought of the scholarship of Dr. Shannon Gerry, as she’s the first scientist I’ve ever read that works on aquatic animals. This is the joy of cross-disciplinary possibilities. I'm amazed by her scientific research and proud to call her a colleague. Better yet, she’s part of our Center’s team.
This year, when I was asked to think about a speaker for the ongoing work of The Center of Climate, Coastal, and Marine Studies at Fairfield University, it seemed logical who I would invite. I put Ann Burg’s books in all of my courses and, fortunate for me, I happen to have some of the most brilliant pre-service and in-service teachers in my courses. I’m hoping we’ll hear from some of them during question and answer time later tonight.
It has been my intent all semester to flood local schools with Ann Burg's books so that middle and high school readers could have an opportunity to experience her great work, too. I also told Dr. Nazarian at lunch…there’s a way to write about all of this - the collaboration across many communities in Connecticut thinking about the environment and a shared reading. It's all of us together.
For these reasons, it is my pleasure to introduce the author, writer, educator, and simply wonderful human being, Ann E. Burg, which will be followed by a panel conversation with Dr. Rich Novack and history educator Chelsea Crowley Leonard. Unfortunately, Kristen Lessard was called into another meeting.
So, without further ado, I wish to present our featured guest this evening.
Ann E. Burg worked as an English teacher for many years before becoming a full-time writer. Flooded, Requiem for Johnstown is her fourth verse novel published by Scholastic Press. Her books, which include Unbound, Serafina’s Promise, and All the Broken Pieces
have received numerous awards and commendations, including most recently, the Bank Street College Claudia Lewis Award.
Ann is drawn to stories of the disenfranchised and voiceless, and finds inspiration in little known or too-soon-forgotten historical incidents. As a former teacher, Ann continues to be interested in the challenges children and young adults face, and endeavors to engage readers in stories which will broaden their world view and prepare them for a global society.
Fairfield University, please welcome this incredible writer and her books to our campus tonight.
