Resource Topics
Professional Development - NWP Model
A Reunion and a Patchwork Quilt: Taking the Directors Retreat Home
June 2008
Nick Coles
Site leaders who attended the 2007 Directors Retreat reunite to talk about the programs and changes they've implemented at their sites. The Directors Retreat experience continues to live on in unexpected ways.
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Knowing When to Make Coffee: Lessons in Leadership and Change for a New Site Leader
June 2008
Vicki Holmsten
Holmsten, director of the Bisti Writing Project, reflects on her site's experience of "growing a leadership team," an idea she first heard about when she attended the New-Site Leadership Institute as a new director. She offers six lessons that she learned along the way.
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New York City Writing Project Helps Teen Immigrants Succeed in Bronx High School
July 2008
Grant Faulkner
Bronx International High School has received accolades for its success with English language learners, success attributed in part to its emphasis on professional development. The New York City Writing Project has provided professional development since the school's genesis.
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NWP Welcomes Associated International Sites in Hong Kong and Malta
March 2008
Gavin Tachibana
In 2007 the NWP formally conferred the designation of Associated International Sites on two writing project sites outside the U.S., one in Hong Kong and one in Malta. Directors of those sites reflect on how their sites embody the NWP model in their cultures.
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Professional Writing at the Core of Oklahoma State University Writing Project
March 2008
OSUWP's professional writing retreats transform teachers into competent writers of professional articles.
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Transforming Writing: Teacher-Consultants Lead Change in Their Schools
September 2007
Linda Friedrich
This article analyzes the stories of NWP Vignette Study participants who facilitated change in their schools, identifying and elaborating upon three concepts that seem key to successful leadership within a school.
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National Writing Retreats Inspire Local Retreats
July 2007
Not everyone can attend one of NWP's annual professional writing retreats, but local sites can offer their own. Drawing on the NWP model, the Hudson Valley Writing Project organized a professional writing retreat for local area teacher-consultants that was so successful it became a springboard for further workshops.
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Teachers, Writers, Leaders
Educational Leadership,
September 2007
Ann Lieberman, Linda Friedrich
Using data from NWP's Vignette Study, the authors describe how teachers take on leadership roles and how building community is crucial to their success.
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James Gray, Education Reformer
The Voice,
2006
In 1974, Jim Gray organized the first summer institute, based on the notions that successful classroom teachers are the best teachers of other teachers and that teachers of writing should write.
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Jim Gray and the Writing Project: One Life's Work
The Voice,
2006
Art Peterson
Jim Gray's friends describe the qualities that made him a great man, the very qualities that make NWP a great institution. They share ways he influenced their lives, their teaching, and the field of education.
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Post-Tsunami Storytelling in Indonesia
The Voice,
2006
Katherine Schultz
Schultz was invited to Indonesia to mentor new teachers hired to replace those who perished in the tsunami-devastated province of Aceh. The Indonesian teachers left with new visions of child-centered teaching and learning.
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Remembering Jim Gray
The Voice,
2006
Mary Ann Smith
Smith recounts experiences with NWP founder Jim Gray: her meeting with him 35 years ago, his classes, the first summer institute, his mentorship of her, and the evolution of the NWP professional community.
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Unchanging Principles and Practices for Change
NWP Annual Meeting Speech,
November 2006
Sheridan Blau
Blau argues for the transformative nature of writing and the writing project experience, while insisting that the project "continues to demonstrate fidelity to foundational features."
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Getting a Jump on the Work of a New Site
The Voice,
2005
J. Elaine White
A site director describes how she launched her site's programs—and learned that when she taps into the energy and expertise of the teacher-consultants, the potential for the site is unlimited.
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Strengthening Partnerships Between Sites and Universities: Tips from Site Directors
The Voice,
2005
Betsey Bowen, Ellen Brinkley, Meg Peterson, Rick VanDeWeghe
NWP sites need their sponsoring universities to value the work they do. In this article, four writing project leaders present successful strategies for strengthening the relationship between sites and their universities.
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Expanding the Reach of Education Reforms: Scaling Up and Scaling Down
www.nwp.org,
October 2004
NWP contributed a chapter to Expanding the Reach of Education Reforms, a new book from the RAND Corporation featuring education reform programs that have supported successful scale-up efforts.
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NWP Speaks: 30 Years of Writing Project Voices
The Voice,
2004
Richard Argys, Joe Bellacero, Vanessa Brown, Dana Dusbiber, Lynette Herring-Harris, Rudy J. Miera, Rochelle Ramay, Ralph Cordova
In the fourth of five parts to this series, writers reflect on their experiences in NWP national programs and at national program events.
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NWP Speaks: 30 Years of Writing Project Voices
The Voice,
2004
Joye Alberts, Meg Peterson, Patricia McGonegal, Liz Mandrell, Lynette Herring-Harris, Britton Gildersleeve, Anna Collins Trest, Ruby Bernstein, Barbara Bass, Carol Tateishi
Writing project teachers and site leaders recount defining moments in their association with the writing project in this engaging collection of short personal essays.
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NWP Speaks: 30 Years of Writing Project Voices
The Voice,
2004
Pen Campbell, Eileen Simmons, Bob Pressnall, Kathleen O'Shaughnessy, Richard Louth, Jane Juska, Tina Humphrey, Dan Holt, Beth Hammett, John Dorroh, Alisa Daniel, Janis Cramer, Kathy Woods
In this five-part series celebrating NWP's 30 th anniversary, writing project teachers and site leaders share personal accounts of their writing project experiences. In this third installment, writers consider how the writing project has helped them become writers.
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Walking in Our Students' Shoes: Reading Teachers and the Writing Project Model
The Quarterly,
2004
Peter Kittle
Kittle recounts his experience with reading teachers—in all disciplines—who are also learning and practicing new reading strategies to advance learning in their classrooms.
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A Day at the Annual Meeting
The Voice,
January-February 2003
NWP staff offer photographs and thumbnail descriptions of some Annual Meeting sessions, hoping to capture the spirit of the meeting...
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Learning About Ourselves from Looking at Others
The Quarterly,
Winter 2003
Mary Ann Smith
Smith observes a teachers-teaching-teachers model in use in a different field. She draws parallels between the two models, seeing the strength of the NWP model while imagining new directions.
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NWP Speaks: 30 Years of Writing Project Voices
The Voice,
2003
Sheridan Blau, Liz Stephens, Miles Myers, Judith Moore Kelly, Marjorie Kaiser, James Gray, Richard L. Graves, Bernadette Glaze, Don Gallehr, Linda Clifton, Marlene Carter, Bob Tierney
In the first of a five-part "oral history" of the National Writing Project, people who were there at the beginning recount their experiences.
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Satellite Sites Overcome Distance Barriers in West Virginia
The Voice,
March-April 2003
Laura Tracy Baisden
To overcome the geographic obstacles of Appalachia, a satellite site of the Marshall University Writing Project was developed in Logan County, West Virginia. Baisden outlines some of the key components of building a satellite site.
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Through the Looking Glass: A Site Director “Visits” Sites at the Annual Review
The Voice,
March-April 2003
Patricia McGonegal
McGonegal describes what it was like to be a reviewer at a site proposal review at UC Berkeley: the reviewers, she writes, don't act as a jury, but rather as sympathetic colleagues.
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Voices from the NWP Teacher Exchange Program
The Voice,
March-April 2003
Lynn Welsch, Donna Vincent, Pat Fox
The NWP Teacher Exchange Program gives teachers the opportunity to share knowledge and learn from other sites. The authors collect experiences from teachers who participated in the program and explain how to get involved.
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Why a State Network Action Project?
The Voice,
May-June 2003
Sherry Swain
Sherry Swain gives a brief description of the State Network Action Project (SNAP), developed to support statewide collaboration among sites, and describes some themes that developed from a leadership meeting in February 2003.
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Minigrant Report from Maine: Boys' Literacy Camp Sets a Standard
The Voice,
May-June 2002
A unique wilderness program for boys in Maine helps reverse negative attitudes toward reading.
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My Trip to Baltimore: A Scrapbook from the NWP Annual Meeting
The Voice,
January-February 2002
"Joe Teacher" (a pseudonym)
Impressions from many sessions at the NWP Annual Meeting in Baltimore are captured by "Joe Teacher" (a pseudonym).
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Respected Researchers Publish Book About NWP
The Voice,
November-December 2002
Art Peterson
Ann Lieberman and Diane R. Wood analyze what makes the writing project model so successful and show how other professional development efforts can learn from it.
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The Emerging NWP Writing Retreat Model
The Voice,
September-October 2002
Art Peterson
The annual NWP Writing Retreat, which gives teachers time to reflect on their teaching and write about their practice, has become a model for local sites and networks to develop their own retreats.
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James Gray On Coaching: An Excerpt from Teachers at the Center
The Voice,
May-June 2001
James Gray
In this excerpt from Teachers at the Center, NWP founder James Gray shares some of the history and early insights behind the practice of coaching teachers before their demonstration at the invitational summer institute.
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Setting Your Sites: Thoughts on Being a New NWP Site
The Voice,
September-October 2001
J. Elaine White
Although she had been a teacher-consultant at the Oklahoma Writing Project, when J. Elaine White became the director of the Live Oak Writing Project in Mississippi she found herself faced with new challenges and rewards.
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Site Lines: Helping Teachers Thrive
The Voice,
March-April 2001
Ian Boulton
Site Lines is your forum to explore issues, re-create your experiences, and offer your insights on site leadership. In this space, we invite you to share your passion for language and literacy, tell stories of your professional struggles and successes, reflect on how you run your site, and offer advice for other NWP leaders. Send your ideas and queries to the NWP editors at editors@nwp.org.
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Back to Basics—Assumptions, That Is
The Voice,
September-October 2000
Sherry Swain
Sherry Swain describes an exercise that directors at the 2000 NWP Directors Retreat used to take an in-depth look at three of NWP's Basic Assumptions.
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Site Lines: Mind the Gap
The Voice,
September-October 2000
Mary Ann Smith
In this launch of Site Lines, a new Voice column for writing project leaders to share their stories of professional struggles and successes, Mary Ann Smith makes a case for avoiding a fixed pedagogical path.
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Teachers at the Center: A Memoir of the Early Years of the National Writing Project
The Quarterly,
Fall 2000
James Gray
An excerpt from Teachers at the Center by National Writing Project founder James Gray.
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Growing the Boston Writing Project: The Lessons of 20 Years
The Voice,
Spring 1999
Joe Check
Check reflects on lessons he has learned over his 20-year tenure as a writing project director: teaching produces knowledge; everyone needs community; and change nurtures growth.
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The Only New Thing Under the Sun: 25 Years of the National Writing Project
The Quarterly,
Summer 1999
Sheridan Blau
Blau recounts the core NWP idea that the most reliable and credible solutions to the problems of learning and teaching are found in the wisdom and knowledge possessed by experienced and successful classroom teachers.
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Twenty-Five Years of Making a Difference
The Voice,
September-October 1999
Art Peterson
This account of the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the California Writing Project reports on the successful aspects of the CWP and NWP, particularly the insistence that "teachers are our best resource and our best hope to rethink and reshape education."
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My Beliefs About Teaching Before the National Writing Project (and How They Have Changed)
The Voice,
Summer 1998
Susan Bennett
Bennett discusses how her involvement with the writing project has changed her views about her profession, about teacher community and collegiality, about reflective practice, and about university-based learning.
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NWP Programs Boost Nation's Young Writers
The Voice,
Winter/Spring 1998
Art Peterson
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Writing Projects and School Reform: A Local Perspective
The Quarterly,
Spring 1998
Marcie Wolfe
Wolfe explains how the New York City Writing Project has increasingly worked toward a vision that allows the site to help change and restructure schools while also helping teachers improve their practice.
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NWP Sites Reach Out to Parents
The Voice,
Fall 1997
Art Peterson
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Sites Helping Sites: Technical Assistance NWP Style
The Voice,
Summer 1996
Jo Fyfe
Fyfe makes a claim for technical assistance as a way of allowing sites new perspectives on ways they might change and grow.
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Revisited article: Beating the "Writing Systems" on Our Own Ground
The Quarterly,
Winter 1995
Mary K. Healy
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Revisited article: School Culture
The Quarterly,
Winter 1995
Miles Myers
This article examines the relationship between classroom teachers and university researchers, making the claim that teacher authority is based on knowledge gained by experience in the schools, an experience not generally available to university researchers.
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Making Thinking Visible: Encouraging Interaction Among School and University Writing Teachers
The Quarterly,
Winter 1994
Linda Norris
Norris describes how researchers worked with teachers from very different classes and contexts to implement a specific writing technique called collaborative planning in their classrooms.
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Constructing Knowledge in a Professional Community: The Writing Project as a Model for Classrooms
The Quarterly,
Winter 1993
Sheridan Blau
Blau argues that the "inquiry" experience that teachers encounter in the summer institute carries over into similar authentic teaching and learning experiences in their classrooms.
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Report: Inside the New Hampshire Writing Project
The Quarterly,
October 1988
William Strong
Visiting the unaffiliated New Hampshire Writing Project, Strong concludes that the NWP institutes, with their emphasis on teacher expertise, are more likely to empower teachers than is New Hampshire's instruction in teaching methods.
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