Contents

Preface ix
Introduction: Place Conscious Education, Rural Schools, and the
Nebraska Writing Project’s Rural Voices, Country Schools Team 1
Robert E. Brooke
PART I
Place-Conscious Writing and Active Learning 21
1 Inviting Children into Community: Growing Readers
and Writers in Elementary School 23
Sandy Bangert with Robert E. Brooke
2 A Geography of Stories: Helping Secondary Students
Come to Voice Through Readings, People, and Place 44
Phip Ross
PART II
Place-Conscious Writing and Local Knowledge 63
3 A Sense of Place 65
Sharon Bishop
4 “Common Threads”: A Writing Curriculum
Centered in Our Place 83
Bev Wilhelm
Contents
vii5 Being an Adult in Rural America: Projects Connecting
High School Students with Community Members 102
Judith K. Schafer
PART III
Place-Conscious Writing and Regional Citizenship 119
6 What to Preserve in Rising City?: A Community Confronts
the Economics of School Change 121
Amy Hottovy
7 Career Education: Creating Personal and Civic Futures
Through Career Discernment 137
Robyn A. Dalton
8 Developing School/Community Connections:
The Nebraska Writing Project’s Rural Institute Program 154
Carol MacDaniels with Robert E. Brooke
Afterword: Mentoring: Learning About Place Conscious Teaching 171
Marian Matthews
References 189
About the Editor and the Contributors 195
Index 197