Wyoming Writing Project Teacher Speaks to U.S. Senate Committee

By: Carrie Langston
Date: February 16, 2006

Summary: Carrie Langston, teacher-leader with the Wyoming Writing Project and a teacher at Chugwater High School in Chugwater, Wyoming, spoke before a U.S. Senate committee on motivating and educating students.

Watch the video

Carrie Langston speaks before a U.S. Senate Committee. Fast forward to the time markers below to view highlights of Langston talking about:

• strategies that have proven effective at helping students succeed. (at 49:00)
• beneficial school partnerships. (at 1:54:55)

I am honored to participate in the roundtable discussion of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions entitled "Competitiveness: Building and Filling the Pipeline." The issues we are addressing today in the context of our nation are the same issues I address nearly every day in my classroom.

If our goal is to find strategies to motivate, engage, and enable our young people to reach their full potential, and to raise the academic bar while recognizing individual gifts and talents, I am delighted to share what I have learned in a variety of settings working with diverse ages and ability levels.

The NWP as an effective strategy to benefit teachers and students

I first became involved with our local site of the National Writing Project 20 years ago. Participating in the Wyoming Writing Project summer institute was a life-changing experience for me. I learned that my students would achieve more if they had the opportunity to use a process that includes generating ideas, sharing them with others, revising, proofreading, and finally, when the writing is of excellent quality, publishing. I learned to emphasize the content of the writing and the clear presentation of that content. I learned that academic success depends on learning to write well, and also on learning to use writing as a tool for problem solving and for understanding complex information in other subject areas.

I was able to apply the substance of the institute in my classroom. I found without exception that with the processes of writing I could reach students of all skill levels, challenge them to become personally responsible for their own learning, teach them to strive for excellence, and provide them the opportunity and tools to be successful.

The National Writing Project also provides me with a key tool: a network of teachers across the country with whom I can collaborate on a variety of projects. I am proud to be one of the 100,000 teachers a year who are "in the trenches," working daily to bring not only literacy, but the application of higher-level thinking skills to students and to my colleagues who teach social studies, math, science, business, foreign language, and special education.

In fact, the skill of writing is as critical to a scientist, a mathematician, or an engineer as it is to an English teacher. Improving writing in all disciplines contributes to solving the pipeline problem, ensuring that more high school graduates will have the motivation and skills to succeed in the STEM fields. For this reason, the writing project workshops we conduct are for all teachers.

Making a difference student by student

Working in partnership with their universities, writing project teacher-leaders are tackling the demands of the 21st century in their local areas. I could share with you hundreds of stories about students I have worked with in rural schools in Wyoming, young people at a residential treatment center for troubled youth, and even adults who are seeking to finish their high school studies. But perhaps the story of Kelly represents all of them in some way.

Kelly was expelled from the largest high school in our district because of his drug use, defiance, and assorted personal issues. Sporting a number of tattoos and piercings, he enrolled at Chugwater High School where I teach English. Through the process of writing, sharing with classmates, revising, and finally producing publishable pieces, Kelly found that he could make his life "make sense." He told me that he was able to connect the dots between school and his "real life" and to make connections between various classes. He also found a way to connect with the best parts of himself, because writing helps us to recognize and develop our own voice, our own humanity.

Kelly will be graduating in May with a 3.4 GPA and plans to continue his education at a community college.

Equipping students with ways to invest in their own learning, motivating them to continue education after high school, and helping them choose a path to excellence is a daunting task. Learning to write has provided that path for my students. The writing project has given me the knowledge and confidence to teach writing effectively and the professional standing to help other teachers do the same.