NWP Welcomes Associated International Sites in Hong Kong and Malta

By: Gavin Tachibana
Date: March 2008

Summary: 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.

The National Writing Project might have started in the United States, but the teachers-teaching-teachers model has transcended national boundaries, taking off in schools and universities on distant shores across the world.

In 2007, NWP officially designated two writing project sites outside the United States as charter Associated International Sites, one in Hong Kong and the other in Malta. This status was conferred after each site had spent several years developing its professional development programs, introducing new ways of teaching writing to local educators, and developing an invitational summer institute that created a cadre of teacher-consultants for each project.

While staying true to the NWP model, these projects have envisioned and designed their programs to fit the cultures, educational systems, and aspirations of local teachers, families, and supporters.

"We in the United States are fortunate to have many strong colleagues around the world," said Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, director of National Programs and Site Development. "But what distinguished these two first Associated International Sites was their commitment to teachers' professional leadership in the deepest sense."

Although each site received inspiration and guidance from the NWP and from local sites in this country, these projects have envisioned and designed their programs to fit the cultures, educational systems, and aspirations of local teachers, families, and supporters. And each has overcome unique (and not so unique) challenges.

The directors of the two programs, Barley Mak (Hong Kong) and Sandro Spiteri (Malta), attended NWP's 2007 Annual Meeting in New York City, meeting each other for the first time. They shared their thoughts on writing project work and what it's taken to get this far.

Hong Kong's Writing for Integrated Teacher Education Project—WrITE

When Barley Mak discusses teaching English writing in Hong Kong, she laments the "vicious cycle" of how mandated exams force teachers to teach to the test. Lost in the process, she says, is the writing process itself.

"That's why we want to change the mentality of the people," said Mak, a professor in the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

In 2002, Mak set out to do just that by organizing a writing project institute in Hong Kong, with the guidance and consultation of the National Writing Project. Teachers of writing would write every day, best practices would be shared, and the NWP model would be tested outside its home country.

"We liked [the NWP model] because it focused on literacy," said Mak. "There's not so much of that in English instruction in Hong Kong."

Challenges

Mak confronted a number of challenges in setting up the first institute. When she promoted the idea, teachers listened, but often greeted her with skepticism.

"In Hong Kong, a lot of teachers are looking for something prescriptive," said Mak. "They want to know exactly what they'll come away with."

Even the title "teacher demonstration," a key component of the summer institute, where a teacher shares her best practice before a group of peers in a spirit of professional inquiry, created a problem. Why?

"Number one, they're too humble," Mak said. "They said, `How can I demonstrate to other people? It has to be a very good lesson, right?' And number two, a lot of them, they asked me for the outline or the syllabus. But in the NWP model, we don't have a syllabus. We have highlights for things that need to be covered, but the theme has to be designed by the teachers."

Those weren't the only difficulties. Scheduling was also a challenge, as most teachers leave Hong Kong during their brief summer vacations. Also, it was rare for primary and secondary teachers to train together.

"The challenge in starting a new site in Hong Kong was not the writing project model itself, but trying to fit it in a country that had different demands upon its teachers," said Helen Ying, a writing project teacher from northern California who, along with Don Gallehr, director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project, traveled to Hong Kong to facilitate the first institute.

"For example," Ying said, "teachers were bound by a curriculum that was mandated by their educational offices. The ability to fit in writing as we would like to see it was probably a challenge for some of the teachers."

A lot of schools are citing the WrITE project in their school review when the inspector comes.

Successes

Nevertheless, that first institute in 2002 proved successful, attracting about 20 teachers, half from Hong Kong and half from Beijing and Shanghai in mainland China. With some coaching, Ying said, the teacher presentations turned out great. Moreover, the facilitators identified strong teachers who could carry on the work in their schools. Thus began The WrITE (Writing for Integrated Teacher Education) Project.

Over the years, WrITE's summer institutes have progressed and now include teacher anthologies, demonstrations, daily logs, position papers, author chairs, and a mini-graduation/celebration on the last day.
WrITE has developed community programs and writing festivals for students, a Sharing and Collaborative Learning Programme (SCLP) for summer fellows to continue their professional development, online communities for teachers, and a parent outreach project to get parents more involved with feedback on their children's schoolwork.

WrITE, which is sponsored by Dr. Tien Chang Lin Technology Innovation Foundation Limited, an organization named after the former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, is producing results.

 "We do have an impact in the community," Mak said. "A lot of schools are citing the WrITE project in their school review when the inspector comes.

"I think the teachers are becoming more confident," added Mak. "And we have empowered them so they feel that they can take up the leadership role."

The Malta Writing Programme

In 1999, Sandro Spiteri finished his post-grad studies in writing instruction, having read what he calls the "basic readers of Atwell, Calkins, and Graves," and confirmed that the writing workshop process indeed helps students achieve literacy. But who else in his country, he wondered, or in the world for that matter, was doing this work in the classroom?

Spiteri performed an Internet search and came upon the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), which in turn referred him to NWP.

Spiteri managed to attend an NWP/NCTE Global Conversations Conference, where he met then–Executive Director Richard Sterling. Soon, visits by NWP teacher-leaders were arranged to help Spiteri create professional development institutes in his country. Meanwhile, Spiteri convinced the Maltese government to fund his efforts, resulting in the first open institute of what would become the Malta Writing Programme (MWP).

At the time, it was really a break in the model of teacher professional development in Malta.

A New Paradigm

 "At the time, it was really a break in the model of teacher professional development in Malta," Spiteri said of the three-week institute. "There was nothing longer than three mornings at most."

That first institute went so well that Spiteri pushed for more open institutes, more teacher training time, and more government funding.

"This was really a new paradigm of how to do teacher training, how to do teacher literacy," said Spiteri.

And even though the Maltese educators didn't have a tradition of teachers teaching teachers, they immediately grasped the idea and took to it.

Pat Fox was one of the NWP teacher-leaders who traveled to Malta to share the NWP approach. "The great thing about being there and working with the teachers was to see cultural similarities," said Fox. "I remember saying that I could take any one of my NWP colleagues from the states and put them in the middle of this group and they would feel like they were at a writing project event with writing project colleagues."

A Turning Point

Perhaps the biggest turning point in the Malta Writing Programme's development came in 2005, when Spiteri and two colleagues flew to California to take part in a summer institute with the South Coast Writing Project in Santa Barbara. They witnessed the finer points of how a summer institute developed over the course of several weeks.

"We thought that because we're European and a small island state that we didn't have to stick so much to the NWP model," Spiteri said. "But our experience showed us that the NWP model really is universal in a lot of its elements."

Two years later, Spiteri fulfilled his goal for the MWP. On Friday, April 20, 2007, on what they call a "red-letter day for literacy development in Malta," the Programme was formally accepted as an Associated International Site of the National Writing Project.

In a ceremony held at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Malta, Her Excellency Molly Bordanaro presented a plaque and certificate to the Hon. Dr. Louis Galea, Minister for Education, Youth, and Employment, on behalf of the Malta Writing Programme. Richard Sterling and Elyse Eidman-Aadahl participated through a prerecorded video message.

The Malta Writing Programme's Offerings

The MWP offers a robust set of programs: institutes and professional development opportunities that include writing groups, reading groups, special demos, presentations by every participant, debriefing, time for studying American English theory books, and opportunities to publish in teacher anthologies. It has set up writing process schools devoted to implementing the writing process methodology across grade levels.

The MWP has been active in setting up family writing clubs and family writing weekends, something additional it believes it brings to the NWP model.

It's a lifelong learning experience for the parents—and the parents become our allies in making proposals to schools.

"We encourage the children from the very first session to start thinking about publishing their work and exhibiting their work, and that is core to the clubs," said Rachel Schembri, MWP coordinator. "At the end, we display their work and we invite other children and parents who have taken part to exhibit their work. And we invite their extended family, their school teachers, and heads of schools to come on the last day to this special event."

Added Spiteri, "What's important for us is not only that the parents understand much more what is happening in the children's writing and in the classroom, but that it's a lifelong learning experience for the parents—and the parents become our allies in making proposals to schools."

According to Eidman-Aadahl, the work the Malta Writing Programme has developed with families and communities can contribute new knowledge to the NWP network. "That's what's so powerful about expanding our network internationally. It's more than just an opportunity to spread the NWP model. It's an opportunity to learn from colleagues who will develop the ideas about teaching, learning, and literacy in new cultural contexts. The real beneficiary is the network itself."

Related Resource Topics

• Professional Development - NWP Model