Arkansas Teachers Find Writing Inspiration, Confidence in Downtown Little Rock

Publication: University of Arkansas Examiner
Date: July 21, 2010

Summary: Teachers who attend the Little Rock Writing Project's summer institute describe it as intensive and the application process as competitive. Yet those who complete it say it yields enormous payoffs.

Excerpt from Article

Sally Crisp, Director of the Little Rock Writing Project (LRWP) and faculty member in the UALR Department of Rhetoric and Writing, said the project has two broad goals. "These goals are for the teachers to grow in their theory and practice of teaching writing and for the teachers to grow in their sense of themselves as writers," said Crisp. "We sometimes have teachers tell us that they don't feel confident as writers themselves. If they can grow in confidence as writers, then they can more readily teach their students to be writers."

LRWP is part of the National Writing Project (NWP). The NWP model begins with local leadership through an annual summer institute at each site, led by university faculty and K-12 teachers. "The National Writing Project and the National Council of Teachers of English have said that 'Writing is the quintessential skill of the 21st century,'" Crisp said. "I think we see all around us that this is so: all of us, teachers, students, people of every age and background and in all walks of life, need and want to write."

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