School-Year Programs

Writing project sites employ a variety of forms of professional development, among them workshops, coaching and mentoring, model lessons, and study groups. These programs are designed by the site to meet the needs of the schools and are led by teacher-consultants. Explore the resources below for examples of these programs.

Featured Resources

Improving Students' Academic Writing: Developing New Knowledge about Teaching and Assessing for Improvement

Jayne Marlink, who directs the California Writing Project, details how an assessment regimen known as "forced choice" gave assessors the language to name the improvements readers experienced when comparing pre- and post- test essays. More ›

Creating a Culture of Inquiry Through the Use of Model Lessons

Suzanne Linebarger, associate director of the Northern California Writing Project, describes how the site conducts an inservice program of model lessons that supports collective teacher inquiry into key concepts in teaching reading and writing. More ›

Viva la Revolución: Transforming Teaching and Assessing Student Writing through Collaborative Inquiry

Molly Fanning and Brigit Schmidt write about how they took action after their summer institute at the Capital District Writing Project to change their classrooms and the way professional development looks at their middle school. In addition to excellent teaching practices, this article explores the intricate links of support provided by a local writing project site to individual teacher consultants as they lead their colleagues in new ways of thinking. More ›

Study Groups Build Community in Vermont Site's Inservice Offerings

The National Writing Project in Vermont is harnessing the power of teacher study groups as an important model for teacher-consultant-led professional development in schools—and learning much from the process. More ›

Integrating Writing Project Practices into a Mandated Program

Required to implement a mandated program in their schools, San Diego teacher-consultants launched an inquiry group that developed ways to use the mandated materials as a venue for creative approaches based on writing project principles. More ›

Literacy Coaches Explore Their Work Through Vignettes

What is the work of a literacy coach? During a weekend retreat funded by an Urban Sites Network minigrant, twelve UCLA Writing Project teacher-consultants serving as literacy coaches explored this question. More ›

National Writing Project at Work: Models of Inservice

This set of monographs, written by writing project teachers and site directors about their work, describes a range of models of inservice. More ›

Additional Resources

The Key to Recruiting: Teachers Nominating Teachers

Carol Tateishi, director of the Bay Area Writing Project, discusses strategies for summer institute recruitment. More ›

It Takes a School

Mary Ann Smith describes a tour of Meade Elementary School, where a five-year partnership with the Philadelphia Writing Project has built a professional community working toward school reform. More ›

Teaching After the Summer Institute

After attending the Northern Virginia Writing Project summer institute, Nick Maneno set up a meeting with his school administrators to introduce them to the potency of the NWP model. He recounts his successes and the challenges he faced in his efforts to share what he had learned. More ›