Veronica Foster (MA '22) teaches English at Biddeford High School in Biddeford, Maine.

Contact Kurt Ostrow at ostrowk@gmail.com if you have a teaching resource you'd like to share with BLTN colleagues. 

For the past two years, ever since Professor Marshall's Artificial Intelligences class introduced me to ChatGPT for the first time, I have kicked off my sophomore Argument Writing unit with a conversation about artificial intelligence. Students begin with a jigsaw activity that exposes them to a number of perspectives about AI in the classroom, then participate in a Philosopher's Chairs debate centered around statements like "Knowing how to write an essay is an important skill even if ChatGPT can do it for you" and "Teachers should change assignments to ensure students can’t cheat using ChatGPT." Students enter this conversation with strongly held beliefs about cheating and the sanctity of human-created speech, but they inevitably find their assumptions challenged. The final project for this unit is an open letter, which students submit to the New York Times opinion writing contest. After our debate, we annotate an open letter from concerned scientists about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, paying close attention to the persuasive "moves" that the authors use. Students are able to write about anything they want to enter the contest, but beginning with a shared experience of argument, particularly one that feels relevant and high stakes, has led to more thoughtful conversations about what writing can achieve.

Given discussions taking place about education at the federal and state levels, we'd like to provide an opportunity for current and former BLTN fellows to discuss your strategies, responses, and needs. (Thanks for your input on dates and times.) Registration is now open for this meeting, to be held April 1 at 7 pm Eastern. To get a Zoom link, please register at https://middlebury.zoom.us/meeting/register/dcvrfyPvQsqthe-JQrztRw

Mary Baillie reports that her school, Grangemouth High School, is one of four schools selected by the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) to host an original play featuring her students alongside professional designers, directors, and actors. According to Mary, '''Thank U, Next,' a dance theatre production by 21Common in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland, was staged at Grangemouth on March 6 and 7, 2025. This innovative performance delved into the contemporary culture of cosplay, exploring themes of identity and transformation. The production was uniquely tailored to each participating school, involving local students alongside professional performers to create a bespoke theatrical experience.The performance at Grangemouth went extremely successfully. NTS were so impressed with our pupils that they have selected two to undergo paid roles teaching the piece to the next school. It was an invaluable experience for our pupils who never worked with a professional theatre company before!"

Mary Baillie

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Left: Students at the Canadian International School (CIS) using performance guided by Beyond the Page (BtP). Top right: BtP Director Craig Maravich and Teaching Actor Shelley Fort with CIS students. Bottom right: Dr. Rabiah Khalil, Shelley Fort, Craig Maravich, and Nick Kolentse (CIS).

Beyond the Page (BtP) is spending the week working with Dr. Rabiah Khalil and her eighth-grade team of English teachers in their Dystopian Literature Unit at Canadian International School (CIS) in Singapore, igniting creativity in eighth graders and using performance to help them imagine into their own stories for a dystopian literature unit. Nearly 200 students are collaborating across six classes. BtP is also offering a professional development workshop for teachers and workshops for middle and high schoolers on creativity, theatre making, and public speaking. The project is supported by a Bread Loaf Change Action Grant and funds from CIS. Please feel free to reach out to Craig Maravich and / or Rabiah, if you need more information! 

This year's Winter Institute, with the theme "Reading Across Difference" featured Bread Loaf faculty and staff Dean Emily Bartels, Director Lyndon Dominique, BLTN Director Beverly Moss, Angela Brazil, Madison Middleton, Tom McKenna, Michelle Bachelor Robinson, Amy Rodgers, and David Wandera. Twenty six participants--mostly teachers--from as far as New Mexico, and as close as Cornwall (VT), attended seminars and workshopped curriculum together, with regular intervals of acting and embodiment exercises. Participants were treated to a presentation by Vermont youth alums of the What's the Story?, guided by Tim O'Leary (MA '07). One participant speaks for many, having valued "...the chance to collaborate with other teachers and professors. The food was wonderful and I felt nourished body and soul!!"

Alfredo (MA '87, MLitt '18) invites BLTNers to join either or both of two free online creative writing events he'll lead for Santa Fe Community College. The first is a reading (April 23, 6 pm MST, 8 pm EST), the second is a creative session (April 30, same times). In the creative session, Alfredo will give prompts that offer insights to self-identity, heritage, place, and the written and digital preservation of family vignettes through freewriting and childhood maps. Participants should be prepared to draw and write on paper or device. For Zoom links, register once at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WriGenSp2025. (Image from Santa Fe Community College program website.)

Bread Loaf Professor Dr. Eric Darnell Pritchard serves as the Founding Director of the Community Literacies Collaboratory (CLC) at The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Dr. Pritchard shares this announcement via the CLC website. "The Community Literacies Collaboratory, with the financial support of the Brown Chair in English Literacy, is pleased to offer grants to support literacy organizations and community literacies educators and researchers whose literacies work is consistent with the CLC and Brown Chair’s purpose: to help all people practice literacies more fluently, richly, productively, and joyfully." Applications for the Spring 2025 grant cycle are open and will close April 1. Maximum awards are $15,000. Read more.

Please notify us of accomplishments you’d like to share in the monthly newsletter. We're also interested in promoting reader resource sharing. Do you have a unit you'd like to share or a topic you'd like to discuss? Be in touch. 

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