Faculty and Staff Books

Follow

• 

  Reimagining Writing Assessment : From Scales to Stories

  Maja Wilson

  "This book is for teachers who want to honor their students' experiences as writers and readers-and their own." -Maja Wilson

  In Reimagining Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson shows us that by replacing the scales embedded in rubrics with new tools--an array of interpretive lenses designed to observe and describe growth-we can create healthier readers and writers who are more proficient in the long run and more motivated to read and write. She reminds us that "assess" in its Latin derivation means "sit beside." In this book she models new ways of "sitting beside," listening to student stories of the writing, respecting the writer's intentions, and telling stories of our reading.

  Taking the form of conversations, Maja's new definition of writing assessment is not an outcome or final evaluation: it is an ongoing process in which writers and readers make meaning from texts and attempts, from intentions and effects. In this process, teachers come to understand how to teach and talk with each student about writing differently. And students learn to understand and take control of their own development as decision-makers.

• 

  Juan de Segovia and the Fight for Peace : Christians and Muslims in the Fifteenth Century

  Anne Marie Wolf

  Juan de Segovia (d. 1458), theologian, translator of the Qur'ān, and lifelong advocate for the forging of peaceful relations between Christians and Muslims, was one of Europe's leading intellectuals. Today, however, few scholars are familiar with this important fifteenth-century figure. In this well-documented study, Anne Marie Wolf presents a clear, chronological narrative that follows the thought and career of Segovia, who taught at the University of Salamanca, represented the university at the Council of Basel (1431–1449), and spent his final years arguing vigorously that Europe should eschew war with the ascendant Ottoman Turks and instead strive to convert them peacefully to Christianity. What could make a prominent thinker, especially one who moved in circles of power, depart so markedly from the dominant views of his day and advance arguments that he knew would subject him to criticism and even ridicule? Although some historians have suggested that the multifaith heritage of his native Spain accounts for his unconventional belief that peaceful dialogue with Muslims was possible, Wolf argues that other aspects of his life and thought were equally important. For example, his experiences at the Council of Basel, where his defense of conciliarism in the face of opposition contributed to his ability to defend an unpopular position and where his insistence on conversion through peaceful means was bolstered by discussions about the proper way to deal with the Hussites, refined his arguments that peaceful conversion was prefereable to war. Ultimately Wolf demonstrates that Segovia's thought on Islam and the proper Christian stance toward the Muslim world was consistent with his approach to other endeavors and with cultural and intellectual movements at play throughout his career.

• 

  Bar Harbor in the roaring twenties : from village life to the high life on Mount Desert Island

  Luann Yetter

  From the end of the Great War until the onslaught of the Great Depression, Americans had a good time, and nowhere was that more true than in Bar Harbor during high season. Amid peace and prosperity, the wealthy flocked to Mount Desert Island, foxtrotted at the Swimming Club and tangoed at the Dreamwood Ballroom on Ireson's Hill. Rumrunners made covert pickups from isolated coves along the Mount Desert Narrows while Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Astors coasted serenely in and out of Frenchman's Bay. Horse-drawn carriages found a haven in the quiet roads of Lafayette National Park while roadsters sped along Bay Drive. Year-round residents faced brutal winters, but even then they had spirited celebrations with Winter Carnivals and Hayseed Balls as the '20s roared on in Bar Harbor.

• 

  Portland's past : stories from the city by the sea

  Luann Yetter

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Portland, Maine, as the "beautiful town that is seated by the sea." In this volume, Maine author Luann Yetter presents the stories from its past that not only showcase this exquisiteness but also illuminate its diverse and exciting history. The founding members of the Forest City braved the harsh winters, but not without scandals and struggles. One man raised a navy to fight the Barbary pirates threatening ships that sailed from Casco Bay, and privateers brought rum onboard and ashore. And while one Portlander traded slaves, many others worked the Underground Railroad as staunch antislavery crusaders. Discover Portland from its beginning as uncharted territory through to its development into the quintessential New England city it is today.

• 

  Remembering Franklin County : stories from the Sandy River Valley

  Luann Yetter

  Snow swirled around the first Sandy River settlers in the winter of 1780, testing pioneering spirits. But the founders proved tough and able, incorporating Farmington in 1794 and soon establishing other towns, raising crops, building roads and institutions and bringing Franklin County to life. Former Lewiston Sun Journal columnist Luann Yetter describes the early years, the rumored Indian attack that led to the discovery of Rangeley Lakes, the World War I sacrifices of Company K and the Weld baseball player who managed Babe Ruth's Red Sox to two World Series championships. Yetter also notes the delinquent debt collected by Paul Revere, the murder suspect who made history by (unsuccessfully) defending himself and the near total destruction wrought by the flood of 1869. Describing war, wealth, industry and oddity, she reveals the richness of Franklin County's past.

• 

  As Many Nows as I Can Get

  Shana Youngdahl

  In one impulsive moment the summer before they leave for college, overachievers Scarlett and David plunge into an irresistible swirl of romance, particle physics, and questionable decisions.
  
  Scarlett and David have known each other all their lives in small-town Graceville, Colorado, where David is just another mountain in the background, until, one day, he is suddenly so much more than part of the landscape. Magnetic, spontaneous, David is a gravitational force. And Scarlett, pragmatic, wry, eye on the future, welcomes the whirlwind he brings even as she resists it.
  
  Moving between the present and the past, this is the story of a seemingly grounded girl who's pulled into a lightning-strike romance with an electric-charged boy, and the enormity of the aftermath. Smart, bold, and unconventionally romantic, Shana Youngdahl's debut explores grief, guilt, and reconciling who you think you need to be with the person you've been all along. It's an aching, transporting reminder that between the past that shapes us and the unknowable future, we have only the present to forgive ourselves and forge ahead.

• 

  History, Advice, and Other Half-truths

  Shana Youngdahl

  History, Advice and Other-Half Truths explores the intersections of Western legends, landscapes, love, terror, as a range of characters struggle to live passionate lives. Here Doc Holliday is turned in by his worn-out lover, Jim Younger laments from his prison cell, Carl Jung builds sandcastles, women find freedom as ranchers and outlaws, grandmothers give advice and haunt bridal bedrooms as the poet grapples with her own transition into a wife and mother.