This article appeared in condensed form in the September Council Chronicle. Most would agree that stories engage the mind and enrich the soul.
Stories shape our lives. . .
Instead, our goal was to use story to report information on reading and writing. Participants explored subjects such as autobiography, literature, drama, oral narrative, business writing, technology, teacher research, and distance learning. Participants enjoyed the conference format-colleagues listening to one another's stories, rather than hearing reports on research couched in academic jargon. Everybody I talked to at the conference was eager to ask questions about the effective use of stories in academic writing. For those leery about using stories in the classroom, Mary Ann Smith, co-director of the National Writing Project, led a round table to help participants analyze pedagogically sound ways to assign and assess stories.