Research Update #2

As I continue my reading, my project continues to shift in form. I started, as I think I stated in my previous update, intending to do a bibliographic review essay. After considering various forms and creating and dismissing multiple ideas, I believe I have settled on a brief essay that will inform current and future interns and volunteers on ways in which writing has been used as a form of therapy. In addition, the project will include a tip sheet for both writers and CLC facilitators. Recently, I decided that I might try pulling together some writing prompts for the writers that might engage them in a therapeutic writing process. My readings have pointed out the benefits of reflective writing for therapists and others who use writing therapy in their work. Therefore, I am also considering developing some reflective writing prompts for facilitators that could be used as blog post prompts, or simply a way for facilitators to reflect on the work they are doing and how they are being affected by it.

CLC-OKC Website Review

I decided to look at an adult literacy program for this website review for several reasons, the main one being that I have looked at several websites for youth literacy organizations and just wanted to see something different. I found several websites and settled on the site for Community Literacy Centers, Inc. in Oklahoma City because I’m from Oklahoma and am interested in the community literacy work being done there. Unlike our CLC, this center lists its mission as “teaching people to read”. This is actually the tag line, featured in large blue letters on the homepage of the website. It’s simple and direct. Anyone looking at the website would gain an immediate idea of what the organization does.

On the other hand, I personally felt the homepage of the website to be a bit cluttered. In addition to the title and tagline of the organization, there’s a brief description outlining its history and nonprofit status. There is a “news and events” column, which at the time of my visit to the website featured stories about the organizations upcoming event entitled Literacy Live and upcoming training sessions for tutors. There are also large red buttons prompting visitors to buy tickets or donate money to the event. The right-hand column of the homepage contains an information video, beneath which is a link to sign up for more information and then a place to input email addresses if visitors want to join the email list. The homepage also contains links to and information about the organizations Facebook and YouTube pages and links to resources for students, tutors, and donors.

The website seems to be primarily targeted at potential students, or rather, friends or family members of potential students who might seek out the CLCs services. The level of vocabulary in many of the sections seems to be a bit advanced considering the organization works primarily with adults who read at elementary grade levels or below.

The website is currently promoting the Literacy Live event pretty heavily. There is a post about the event in the “news and events” section, as well as a page detailing the event sponsors and a page containing the invitation to the event. There is also an info page about and link to the website of the guest speaker for this year’s event. What seems to be missing, however, is information about the actual event. From reading all of the information about Literacy Live available on the website, I know that it is the organization’s largest event, currently in its fourth year. I know who is speaking at the event, where and when it is being held, and how it is being sponsored. What I do not know is what the event entails, other than a luncheon and recognition of student, teacher and volunteer of the year. The website does not provide much context for the event its promoting or explain the event’s purpose, even to its sponsors, who are also part of the website’s intended audience, although they and potential tutors have particular pages targeted at them.

I will say that contact information for the organization is easy to find and the site overall is simple to navigate, which I think is important. The site also does a pretty good job of establishing context for the organization through testimonials, FAQs (although this section is very brief and could (should?) be more comprehensive) and a few facts on adult illiteracy.

Research Update

My research project initially began as a review essay on writing and substance abuse. I planned to find sources on the two topics and provide a review of the literature. However, what I am finding is that there is not much literature on this specific topic. This is not surprising. I attempted a similar project in the fall of 2011 and had to change it slightly then because I could not find the literature to support my project. I am still shifting my project. I have not yet decided exactly what form my project will take. I have a “draft” (parts of a draft) of an essay on the topic of writing as therapy, which I think will fit well with our training ground topic for this year. Thus far, I have not found much community literacy scholarship on writing as a way of healing, but I’m finding sources from other fields, such as counseling psychology and even literature that support writing as a way of healing not just from struggles with substance abuse, but from other experiences such as violence, physical and sexual abuse, death of a loved one, and other experiences. I shared some of my sources at our last CLC meeting. I’m working on the Pennebaker text now, and plan to look at journal therapy next and also some articles from the Journal of Poetry Therapy.

Hello and Welcome to ‘literate realities’

Hello fellow bloggers and readers,

 

My name is Talisha Haltiwanger.  Some of you may have read posts from my other blog, entitled simply talisha haltiwanger.  This new blog has been created for the purposes of sharing my thoughts on and experiences with community literacy as I serve as an intern with the Center for Community Literacy (CLC) at Colorado State University.  I have been involved with the CLC since March of 2012, when I began working as a volunteer for one of the SpeakOut! workshops.  I am now moving into an intern position, which I am very excited about.  Literacy has always been an interest of mine, and community literacy has quickly become my central research interest and growing passion.  I believe that writing and literacy can be powerful tools, and I am drawn repeatedly to the question of what writing does for individuals.  In fact, you may find that to be a recurring theme in my posts.  Overall, I am involved in this type of work because I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to tell their stories, even if it is just to themselves.

Some other things that I should probably mention about myself are that I am a second-year master’s student in rhetoric and composition program at CSU and that on top of serving as an intern for the CLC I also teach first-year composition.  The work I do with SpeakOut! becomes even more interesting for me because it is so different from the classroom literacy work encouraged as part of a formal writing class such as the one I teach.  I think that working in two such different writing spaces will prove an interesting and enriching, perhaps challenging, experience for me this year, and I’m looking forward to how my two “worlds of writing” will inform and complement each other.