Writing of Place, Schlein, Spring 2026

Course Number:	EDX 5710 S16
Instructor:	Mathew Schlein, M.A., M.S.W. & Leanne Ruell
Location:	In-person and Online
Dates and Times:	Apr 11 - May 31, 2026. This course will include 4 mandatory in-person days (40 hours), operating through two weekend intensives (4/11-4/12 and 5/30-5/31) plus an additional 5 hours of hybrid instruction between the two weekend course blocks.
Credits:	3 Graduate Credits
Tuition:	Set by and payable to educational partner The Willowell Foundation

Course Description

For young people seeking a sense of rootedness in the modern day, attempts at finding “place” can feel deconstructive and inauthentic, constrained by elusivity. This course will explore the dialectic between writing, nature and human connection; it will explore how language can help foster and mediate one’s sense of place in the world. The course will involve several day-long, in-person seminars, at Ruth Stone House in Goshen and at The Willowell Foundation in Monkton, complemented with hybrid in-person/remote sessions throughout the school year.

Students will examine master works of poetry, philosophy and literature, with a cross sampling of writers and cultural lenses. In addition to deconstruction and examination of these texts, students will be encouraged to develop their own process as a writer with a series of prompts and mini-workshops. Strategies will be employed to translate this practice into their own teaching pedagogy; finding age appropriate techniques to use language as a tool to foster meaning, expression, and connection in their respective classrooms.

Audience:

This course is open to educators at all levels with a Bachelors Degree, though particularly relevant to teachers of language arts, who are interested in broadening their knowledge of the ideological and practical principles of place as a driving force of written expression.

Registration: More course information is provided below. You can register directly through the Willowell website or by clicking on the registration link at the bottom of this page.

Course Goals & Objectives

Course Goals:

define through example, the guiding principles of “place” as modulators of meaningful and lasting education
reexamine and expand on methods of teaching language arts
strengthen personal, professional and societal connective channels through writing and inquiry

Course Objectives:

Participants will:

work with professional writers in a workshop setting
develop mentorship opportunities
experience first-hand, the efficacy of utilizing “place” as both teacher and curriculum guide
develop and draw from a cohort of educators trained in emergent and place-based curriculum creation

Course Schedule

Weekend 1: “ Place in Meaning-Making” at the Ruth Stone House

Tentative Readings (excerpts):

Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, Ch 9
Amy Clampitt's "The Woodlot," from The Kingfisher Poems
Kenneth Koch's "The Circus," from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch
Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad
The House is Made of Poetry: The Art of Ruth Stone
Ruth Stone's "Then," "Things I Say to Myself While Hanging Laundry," and "Green Apples"
William Carlos William's “Patterson”
Du Fu's "In Abbot Zan's Room at Dayun Temple: Four Poems.

Assignments: Reading and discussion, generative writing for workshop (due at bridge sessions), outline for place-based language arts lesson plans (due at bridge sessions).

Weekend 2: “The Circle of Place: Teaching from the Inside Out” at The Willowell Foundation

Tentative Readings (excerpts):

Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild, essay “The Etiquette of Freedom”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walking”
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Maggie Nelson, On Freedom, Ch “Riding the Blinds”
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
Stevens, “The Idea of Order”

Assignments: Workshop reflective journals, discussion, group-build emergent writing curriculum for the classroom

Required Readings/Resources

Required Readings may not be included in course tuition. Contact Willowell directly for more information.

Davenport, G. (1981). The Geography of the Imagination: Forty essays. North Point Press.

Dillard, A. (1989). The writing life. Harper & Row.

Snyder, G. (2004). The Practice of the Wild: Essays. Shoemaker & Hoard

Nelson, M. (2021). On freedom: Four songs of care and constraint. Graywolf Press.

Stone, R. (2016). The Essential Ruth Stone (B. Stone, Ed.). Copper Canyon Press.

Bachelard, G. (2014). The Poetics of Space. Penguin Classics.

Beacon Press Edition (1994, translated by M. Jolas)

Clampitt, A. (1984). The Kingfisher: Poems. Knopf

Koch, (2005) K. The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Homer. (2023). The Iliad (E. R. Wilson, Trans.). W. W. Norton & Company.

Barker, W., & Gilbert, S. M. (Eds.). (1996). The house is made of poetry: The art of Ruth Stone. Southern Illinois University Press

Williams, W. C. (1946). Paterson: Book one. New Directions.

Du, F. (2002). In Abbot Zan's Room at Dayun Temple: Four Poems [Poem]. In B. Watson (Ed. & Trans.), The Selected Poems of Du Fu (pp. 35–36). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

For additional course information:

Matt Schlein

(802) 989-8858

For additional registration information

Center for Schools Team (802) 468-1325