---

What a Residency Is

WRITERS' RESPONSIBILITIES:
ALPS writers are professional poets, storytellers and fiction writers with both wide publication and broad teaching experience. ALPS is dedicated to providing expertise for both students and teachers on how writers work and how to teach writing as well as pursue it on an individual basis. We want to de-mystify the writing process as well as give each person both instruction and a context for ongoing writing. While we emphasize the discipline of the art of writing, we want to have all in the classroom feel that writing is a positive, vital and valuable skill for anyone who wishes to attempt it and persevere in it.

ALPS writers will:

• teach four classes a day (the same four classes a minimum of five days) we recommend 10 day residencies.
  
• assist in editing a magazine of student work produced during the residency if the sponsor will type and reproduce it.
  
• conduct a community reading with students one evening during the residency.
  
• meet with teachers and school staff prior to a residency if the artist lives within commuting distance.
  
• conduct either a teacher workshop or hold informal meetings with teachers during the residency to fine-tune the program, present additional materials and exercise and help carry the momentum of the residency on after the writer departs.
  
• publicize the source of ALPS matching funds for the residency

SCHOOL/DISTRICT SPONSOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
The school or district sponsoring the residency will (as appropriate):

• board the writer if necessary, either with a staff or student family; or if unavailable, in a motel, etc.
  
• publicize the writer's visit within the school to both staff and students.
  
• hold a staff/or community reception so everyone can meet their writer.
  
• publicize the writer/student community reading and provide a site for it.
  
• duplicate any lesson, worksheets, etc. an artist may need.
  
• provide a school lunch for the writer in residence.

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIES:
Teachers will:

• participate as writing students in their own classes.
  
• attend a pre-program meeting with the writer to learn the approaches the writer in residence will employ and to help dovetail the residency with the on-going curriculum.
  
• assist the writer as an aide in the classroom if necessary.
  
• meet either informally or in a workshop with the writer during the residency.
  
• air any concerns as soon as possible with the resident artist.
  
• generally be supportive.
  
• fill out and sign the ALPS evaluation forms at the end of the residency.

This is a rather dry outline of what happens organically during a successful writer in residence program. In the majority of cases, the writer's presence in the school or district spills out into the community and enhances the long-term effects of the residency. Simply, the writer, district, school and staff should work together with energy, vision and respect, for the common good of the students.