Andover Bread Loaf A Phillips Academy Outreach Program
Spring Newsletter 2014
From the Director Andover Bread Loaf transforms students, teachers, schools, and communities by igniting a passion for learning through written self-expression.
Community Organizing for Educational Renewal One of Andover Bread Loaf’s key strategies for strengthening schools and school systems is to develop methods that bring the community into the schools and the schools into the community, thus bridging the gap that frequently exists between the two. This newsletter highlights two types of ABL programs that have proven highly successful in inspiring school/community collaboration: citywide writing conferences and Family Literacy Nights. While these programs were first developed in Lawrence, Mass., they have since become models for ABL teachers in other sites, such as New York City and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. ABL’s citywide writing conferences, which are hosted by various community organizations (see inside, left page), feature public school teachers as guest artists and workshop presenters. Bringing teachers into the community for educational programs creates a new dynamic between schools and the community, especially since many of these organizations work with youth who are disenfranchised from their classes and their schools. Through these conferences, teachers learn how to re-engage young people in their own education. ABL’s Family Literacy Nights (see inside, right page), held at schools and community organizations, focus on families writing together. The long-term goal of Family Literacy Nights is to bring families into the very center of their child’s education, not only so that they know how to support their children with their schoolwork but also so they can understand the most effective school pedagogies.
Students at ABL’s “Write the Promise” fall conference gathered at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence for a workshop offered by the staff of Phillips Academy’s Addison Gallery of American Art.
What’s Inside? BGCL Partnership
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How to Eat a Poem IV
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Teacher Highlight
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Family Literacy Nights
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Current research shows that the only way to achieve sustainable educational excellence in a school system is through “community organizing for educational renewal.” ABL is committed to building the capacity of communities to engage deeply and authentically in the schools that serve their children. We embrace the challenge! Middle school and high school students at the “Write the Promise” conference took their own portraits and explored the idea of “who you are today and who you want to be.”
Lou Bernieri
ABL in The Chronicle 4
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Photographer: John F. Hurley