Vol. 1, No. 1 | Spring 2002
WORKING TOGETHER
Humanities Out There (HOT), a project of the School of Humanities at UC Irvine, offers in-school workshops and after-school writing activities to K-12 students in Santa Ana. The HumaniFest Online journal, edited by UC Irvine undergraduates and graduate students, publishes the work of young writers who participate in HOT workshops and in the after-school Writing Gallery at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana. The Whittier Fifth Dimension, located in the Whittier Boys and Girls Club, is coordinated by undergraduates from Whittier College, in collaboration with UC Links programs at UC Riverside.
HumaniFest Online: Linking Humanities Out There and the Whittier Fifth Dimension
BY SUE CRONMILLER AND JULIA REINHARD LUPTON
This spring, two Southern California UC Links sites, the UCI-HOT Writing Gallery at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana and the Fifth Dimension at the Whittier Boys and Girls Club, are collaborating on a pilot project in creative writing, which is linked through the new HOT interactive on-line journal, HumaniFest Online.
Since its launch in fall of 2001, HumaniFest Online has received over 400 submissions from K-12 students who have produced writing in HOT workshops throughout the Santa Ana Unified School District and in the HOT Writing Gallery at the Bowers Museum. The students submit their written work via computer and then receive feedback from an editor at UCI. The journal introduces students to all aspects of the publishing process, from drafting and submission to revision and publication. (Read student writing published on the site.)
The HOT-Whittier connection, which integrates creative writing activities and online journaling into the Fifth Dimension maze structure, is HOT's first step toward expanding use of the journal throughout the UC Links network.
Under the guidance of Professor Don Bremme (Education and Child Development, Whittier College) and undergraduate site facilitator Leslie Pilo, students in Whittier's Fifth Dimension have been writing poetry on Wednesday afternoons during the Wizard's Hour. Leslie's interest in poetry and skill in teaching writing have made the Whitter Boys and Girls Club a great match for HOT. Since their collaboration with HOT, Leslie has been incorporating writing exercises from HOT's elementary workshops into her own well-developed writing curriculum.
HOT Program Coordinator and Managing Editor Sue Cronmiller is thrilled with the HOT journal's new Whittier link: "In our first year of on-line publishing, we planned for slow, conservative growth toward the inclusion of student writing from other locations. The ease with which we've been able to partner with the Whittier Fifth Dimension has helped pave the way for us to collaborate with more UC Links sites. We've come up with a very workable model to integrate writing poetry into the Fifth Dimension framework."
To further connect the Whittier writers with HOT writers in Santa Ana, the two UC Links sites are now discussing the possibility of a Whittier field trip to UCI's annual open house, Celebrate UCI. Each spring, HOT presents a student poetry reading on stage for the public at this well-attended event. This year, HOT has invited the Whittier writers to read work they've written for the on-line journal. For more information about the HOT presentation at Celebrate UCI, please contact Sue Cronmiller at sueacron@uci.edu.
The HOT model of creative writing instruction incorporates reading of published poetry as a springboard into the student's poetic response. Heninger Elementary student Eddie Spellman's poem "Someone Puts an Ear of Corn Together" was written after reading a well-known William Carlos Williams poem. Eddie's poem, which is featured in HumaniFest Online, captures the spirit of the fertile partnership between HOT and the Whittier Fifth Dimension:
As trees grow on top of the mountain,
The rows of seeds give years of life.
Sue Cronmiller is Director of Programming and Publications for Humanities Out There at UC Irvine. Julia Reinhard Lupton, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC Irvine, is the principal investigator of Humanities Out There.
Working Together
La Clase Mágica: New Communities of Learners
HumaniFest Online: Linking Humanities Out There and the Whittier Fifth Dimension
The Magical Web Fifth Dimension
Digital Storytelling in West Oakland
Brianna Guillermo-Newton, Miranda Cheang, and Robyn Rachac
Links for Kids
How to Make Links: Social Capital and Community-University Collaboration