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2013 Annual Conference

November 5–8, 2013

Lexington, KY

It is time to review the schedule for the placement of your session in the AAACE Agenda. This is the final draft of the Schedule. When you look up your name, use the detail listing to check what days/times you asked to be placed. This is a huge program and we can accommodate necessary changes in day and time now, but may not be able to do so after September 1, 2013 except in emergencies. Please carefully check your placement and send any requests to Ginger Phillips, AAACE Conference Planner with AAACE Session Change Request in the subject line. We will respond to your email, but it may take us up to a week to do so. Thanks for your help in "fine tuning" this agenda!

Crafting our Lives: Facilitating Life-Story Writing that Encourages, Entertains, and Educates.

Thursday, November 7, 2013 at 11:15 AM–12:00 PM EST
TB5
Type of Presentation

Shared

Session Abstract

Life stories increase self-awareness, fulfill the developmental need for personal legacy, and create cultural artifacts. Attendees will learn the theory behind personal biography and best practices for facilitating its creation.

Target Audience

Anyone interested in writing their personal life-stories or helping relatives or friends capture memories in story form and educators seeking a tool for student self-reflection that also encourages creative self-expression and artistic experimentation.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees will gain an awareness of the changing demographics attributed to our aging society and the educational needs this shift may spawn. Attendees will observe techniques for incorporating life-story writing into the curriculum. Attendees will have the skills to facilitate memory recall, to guide composition, and to create a safe environment for sharing personal writing.

Session Description

Based on the belief that lifelong learning contributes to human fulfillment and positive social change, adult educators must commit to learner opportunities that celebrate individual experience. Capturing our experience in story form forces us to encapsulate life events into tightly constructed narratives that document context (characters and setting); plot (typically a dilemma, conflict, issue, challenge, or obstacle); and lesson (some obvious, some buried; some profound, some humorous). The presenter has been facilitating this type of writing among older adults for the past 10 years. Her research is informed by teaching life-story writing formally in the classroom and informally at a monthly writers group. The story process and the story products address the developmental need for personal legacy creation, an archiving of cultural artifacts, and the healing benefit of revisiting emotional events. The mental and social health benefits of remembering, writing, and sharing are considered as well.

Efforts are made to try to schedule sessions on the day preferred by the Primary Presenter, though this cannot be guaranteed. Please check your preference.

Thursday November 7

Primary Presenter

Kathy Lohr, Ed.D., North Carolina State University
Work Title

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Additional Presenters: Enters In Order.

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