From: "John F. Barber, Ph.D." 
To: tednellen 
Subject: Re: getting ready for Baltimore

Ted,

I have looked at and read through your NCTE website.  Here are some first
reactions:

What you have presented here is quite clearly the voice of the "other."  
These are voices that are and will be silenced by the popular rhetoric of
political and patriotic patois currently bandied about by elected officials
and news media in this country.  The voice of the other, however, as you show
quite dramatically through this website, is every bit as real and connected
to a sense of self as we argue our own response to be.

The problem is that you present a voice of the other that is currently
demonized.  Teachers and others will respond negatively to your presentation
simply because it presents the voice of the other they have been told to
consider "evil."  Political duplicity and religious narrow-mindedness will
override the obvious strength of your work: that it provides ways to discuss
teaching and learning from the voice of the other, especially through
expository writing.

And here, I think, is the power of what you are working on: the opportunity
to create clear channels of self-expression and communication through
dialogue between people of differing voices.  Such an approach has been
embraced by writing theorists, researchers, and teachers for years.  Your
audience should be able to transcend their initial shock over the subject of
your work to listen carefully to the voices it frames.

They may, however, encounter other problems.  First, it is unclear whether
this website is meant to stand on its own or simply provide substance for
your presentation.  If it is meant to stand alone I think more information is
required.  If it is meant to support your presentation, then there is
probably too much information.

If this website is meant to stand alone, then I think it needs, and deserves,
some context, an overview, and an executive summary.  What is this all about?  
Why was it produced?  How did you happen to get involved?  What is the
significance of this project?  What are we supposed to learn from this?  
What, and how, can we, as teachers, draw from this website and use in our own
teaching?

Answers to such questions are unclear, or unaswered.  Obviously I can think
about what I read in your website and conclude that different people have
different opinions about what happened on 9/11/01.  But how do I align this
with my own thinking?  And what does it mean to me as I am trying to teach
writing.

The thoughts and feelings of the student writings you share in this website
point to a seemingly great "teachable moment."  Did this teacher talk with
the students about their writing?  Were there any dialogues with other
students in other countries?  What resulted from any such dialogue?

Maybe you are going to cover such questions about background and application
in your NCTE presentation.  If so, then is this website designed to support
your presentation?  If that is the case, then would this website be more
effective in some condensed form?  Perhaps it would be better to provide
excerpts of what the students wrote with links to the full text for those
interested?  If this is background and support for your presentation, would
it be better presented in bulleted or telegraphed formats?  You provide a
great deal of information here, so much that I wonder whether you will be
able to cover it effectively, much less allow your audience to grasp it
completely, in the short time allotted to your presentation.

In either case, what are we, as the audience of your presentation supposed to
do, to think, to feel after listening to your presentation and seeing this
website?  What is the purpose?  The emotional energy in this website is
powerful and raw and compelling but personal and cultural bias will determine
how one responds to such information.  All the more reason to have a clearly
stated purpose for such a communication.

I think you have connected with something here and the work you have done in
this initial presentation is fabulous.  I am sure the effectiveness of your
work will sharpen as you work more and more closely with focus.

Best,
John