Resource Topics
Being a Writer
Eduholic: Blogging Teacher-Consultant Gets National Attention
January 2008
Paul Oh
Emmet Rosenfeld, a teacher-consultant for the Northern Virginia Writing Project, writes a blog for Teacher Magazine that reaches a responsive audience of teachers around the country.
More ›
Growing Reflective Practitioners
January 2008
Grace Hall McEntee
Grace Hall McEntee documents how she and former Boston Writing Project Director Joe Check worked with a group of teachers as they "found their way from writing to reflective practice, from thinking about what we say as writers to thinking about what we do as practitioners."
More ›
Stories from New Orleans Writing Marathon Hit the Airwaves
April 2008
Teacher-consultants from the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project and other local sites that participated in the 2007 New Orleans Writing Marathon broadcast their writing on the radio. The marathon was a continuity opportunity, and also an occasion to revel in writing.
More ›
The National Conversation on Writing Asks, "Who Is a Writer?"
April 2008
What do people write and read every day? What makes people feel they are writers (or not)? Through online video, audio, and print texts The National Conversation on Writing hopes to encourage a discussion on these questions.
More ›
One Idea—Many Audiences
May 2007
Ann Dobie
Dobie describes how she transformed a graduate research paper on teaching spelling into an academic conference presentation, a professional development workshop, a journal article, and then a book.
More ›
Seeing Academic Writing with a New “I”
January 2007
Rebecca Feldbusch
Students need to make personal connections when they write, maintains Feldbusch. Insisting that they leave themselves out of their writing gives students the message that their own perceptions are not of worth.
More ›
The Writer Within
Teaching Pre K-8,
November 2007
Lynn Mondello Caggiago
New Jersey teacher-consultant Lynn Caggiago describes a process that moves reluctant writers—from drawings that describe recent events in their lives, to written descriptions of these drawings, and finally to descriptions of each other's drawings.
More ›
A Writing Teacher Writes—Big Time
The Voice,
2006
Valerie Hobbs, well-known author of teen fiction—and one adult novel—had her start in a summer institute 25 years ago and went on to succeed as a writer while continuing to deepen her practice as a teacher.
More ›
Lorenzo and a Christmas Door to Remember
The Quarterly,
2005
Melba Salazar-Lucio
A Christmas door–decorating contest inspires a class of at-risk high school students to drop their apathy, and a Christmas card from the teacher touches one student more deeply than she could have imagined.
More ›
On the Subject of Grafting
The Voice,
2005
Jan Isenhour
As a ninth grade biology student, Jan Isenhour learns what happens when a teacher makes sure a school assignment resonates with a student.
More ›
Get Thee to a Writers Colony
The Voice,
2004
Edward Gauthier
Edward Gauthier discusses the benefits of writers colonies. He shares his journey from wondering how to apply, researching the many alternatives available, getting accepted, and attending. He advocates that for a serious writer, there's nothing better than a writers colony.
More ›
I Teach, (I Feel), I Write: The Effects of Emotion on Writing About Schooling
The Quarterly,
2004
Joe Check
Teachers who try to write about their practices often fail, says Joseph Check, when they start with the assumption that professional writing has no place for emotion and personality. Check describes three typical situations that arise from the struggle between feelings and professionalism: when strong emotions interfere with balance and clarity; when writers leave their personal experience out of their writing; and when unresolved feelings cause a writer to lose sight of audience and purpose. Check offers techniques for addressing these dilemmas and for integrating emotion into professional writing.
More ›
Leap of Faith
The Voice,
2004
Kristen Hawley Turner
Turner describes how her mother, a veteran English teacher, mentored her in the seemingly impossible task of mastering writing. Now an English teacher herself, Turner mentors students to help them achieve their own writing success.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing Action Strategies
The Quarterly,
2004
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
Jeffrey Wilhelm shares a few words about the process of writing and publishing Action Strategies.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing Felt Sense: Writing with the Body
The Quarterly,
2004
Sondra Perl
Sondra Perl recounts the experience of creating the CD for her book, Felt Sense: Writing with the Body.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing In the First Few Years
The Quarterly,
2004
Tina Humphrey
Tina Humphrey shares a few words about the process of writing and publishing In the First Few Years: Reflections of a Beginning Teacher.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing Literacies, Lies and Silences
The Quarterly,
2004
Heather E. Bruce
Heather Bruce describes her experience writing and publishing her book.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing Politics, Language, and Culture: Critical Look at School Reform
The Quarterly,
2004
Joe Check
Joseph Check describes how, by suspending his daily judgment about the quality of what he wrote, he freed himself to simply produce.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing The Muses Among Us
The Quarterly,
2004
Kim Stafford
Kim Stafford shares some thoughts on the process of writing and publishing The Muses Among Us.
More ›
On the Experience of Writing: The Title Fight
The Quarterly,
2004
Michael W. Smith, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
Michael Smith and Jeff Wilhelm share a few words about the experience of writing and publishing "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys": Literacy in the Lives of Young Men.
More ›
Once, I Almost Died in a Canoe: Knocking out the Story
The Quarterly,
2004
Tom Meyer
In this personal reflection, Tom Meyer describes his anguish as a tenth grade student struggling to write essays—only to have his teacher tell him, "You are one of my worst five students." Meyer tells how the teacher worked with him before school for months to help him silence the inner voice that said "I can't write." As he reread and revised the story of when he almost lost his life, Meyer found his real voice—one that could capture words and speak to an audience. A voice that said "I can write."
More ›
Radical Revision: My Road from Fairy Tale to Catharsis
The Quarterly,
2004
Juanita Willingham
Radical revision is a strategy for taking one's writing apart and reassembling it in different ways. It's a way to move beyond writer's block and to see material in fresh ways. But for Juanita Willingham it was more than that. In this article she describes how a radical revision led her to the surprising, scary, and ultimately healthy introspection that she had avoided for a lifetime.
More ›
Writing a Bicycle
The Quarterly,
2004
Kathleen O'Shaughnessy
O'Shaughnessy, who also works with teachers, offers tips and exercises for teachers so that the process of sharing classroom expertise can become easier.
More ›
Writing Myself Awake
The Quarterly,
2004
David Grosskopf
How does one convince a sixteen-year-old that writing matters? She'll need writing to to succeed in college and get the job she wants. These reasons provide a rationale that David Grosskopf believes sidesteps the main point: one needs to write in order to live life well. By taking students on his personal writer’s journey, he convinces his students that the beginning and end of writing extends beyond creating an error-free employment resume.
More ›
NWP Annual Meeting Celebrates Teacher-Writers
The Voice,
January-February 2003
Art Peterson
More than 800 site leaders and teacher-consultants gathered for the Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The centerpiece of the general session was a presentation by writing project teachers who write...
More ›
NWP E-Anthology: "Strangers" Talk About Writing
The Voice,
March-April 2003
Beverly Simon Guillory, Peter Booth
NWP's annual E-Anthology connects summer institute participants across the country. Booth shares the benefits of responding to writing submitted online, and Guillory recounts how valuable it was to receive feedback from "strangers."
More ›
On the Experience of Writing The Literature Workshop
The Quarterly,
2003
Sheridan Blau
In conjunction with a review of his recent book, Sheridan Blau offers a few words about the process of writing and publishing The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers.
More ›
Our Writing Lives: A Book Fanatic - That's Me
The Voice,
2003
Eva Guilliot
Eva Guilliot offers a little test to determine if you are a book fanatic...
More ›
Reflections on an Online Teachers Writing Group
The Quarterly,
Winter 2003
Anne Elrod
A teacher describes the parallels and differences between her own experience in an online writing group and the experience she gives her student writing groups in her classroom.
More ›
Rejection Letter
The Voice,
Fall 2003
Bill Connolly
A poem from Bill Connolly of the National Writing Project at Rowan University.
More ›
The Fellow Who Collected Rejections
The Voice,
May-June 2003
Barbara Giles
Four years ago, the Inland Area Writing Project in California began requiring a piece of professional writing from all summer institute participants. Barbara Giles describes the program and how it has lead to a total of 35 pieces being published.
More ›
The Reflections of a Nonwriter
The Voice,
March-April 2003
Cheryl Sawyer
During the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, teacher and self-admitted nonwriter Cheryl Sawyer poured out her feelings in a poem and emailed it to her mother. The unlikely story of the poem's subsequent journey to more than 800 websites and the private memorial service of the U.S. Senate is a reflection on the power of the written word.
More ›
When Sparrows Speak
The Voice,
Fall 2003
Philip Ireland
A companion piece to "Speaking of Feathers," this piece by a participant in the NWP Writing Retreat reveals how a feather became a metaphor not only for his growth as a writer but for others at the Santa Fe retreat as well.
More ›
When Writing Gets Real (by the "Fellow Who Collected Rejections")
The Voice,
May-June 2003
Richard Hartwell
When Hartwell's students complained about the California testing cycle, he asked them to direct their complaints to the California Department of Education (CDE) in the form of business letters.
More ›
I Write Because Writing Has Saved Me
The Voice,
September-October 2002
Mindy Hardwick
Mindy Hardwick reflects on what makes a writer a writer, and, with journal entries, shows how writing has been integral during turning points in her life.
More ›
Our Writing Lives: The Diving Horse
The Voice,
January-February 2002
John B. Abbott, Jr.
A childhood trip to Atlantic City became the inspiration for an ubiquitous what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation essay, and managed to inspire a love of writing that still exists forty years later.
More ›
Reflection and Reform
The Quarterly,
Summer 2002
Joe Check
"How come almost everyone who writes about school reform works someplace other than a school?" This question and author Joseph Check's ideas around it were at the heart of his talk at the National Writing Project's Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C., in April. Check's thoughts, recapped briefly in an interview in The Voice (see "Teacher Stories"), are presented here in detail. In this article, Check argues for reflective teaching even in the face of mandated, external, "exemplary programs." As well, he identifies five "myths" or beliefs about reflective writing and suggests ways to address the negative attitudes engendered by them.
More ›
Running the Baltimore Writing Marathon
The Voice,
January-February 2002
An intrepid band of writers hit the streets of Baltimore the day after the NWP Annual Meeting. This special online collection contains the thoughtful and impressionistic pieces written that day.
More ›
Teacher Stories: School Reform's Missing Link
The Voice,
May-June 2002
Art Peterson
Joe Check debunks five myths about school reform and argues that teachers writing about their practice is critical to making school change work.
More ›
The Diversity of Writing
The Quarterly,
Spring 2002
Charles Bazerman
Bazerman writes of the various things writers do with words, describing a trajectory as writers enters a complex and deepening engagement with a "symbolic environment" that coincides with the culture's social, economic, and civic possibilities.
More ›
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.
More ›
The New Orleans Writing Marathon
The Quarterly,
Winter 2002
Richard Louth
Louisiana site director Richard Louth describes the magic, and anxiety, of leading a writing marathon. While revealing that "things do go wrong," he admits surprising success and offers tips for conducting a marathon, writing prompts, and excerpts of participants' writing.
More ›
The Parable of the Bridge
The Voice,
November-December 2002
Beth Hammett
A personal experience helps a teacher understand her role in validating her students' writing efforts by using praise and inspiration.
More ›
Who, What, When, and Where of Writing Rituals
The Quarterly,
Fall 2002
Kathleen O'Shaughnessy, Connie McDonald, Harriet Maher, Ann Dobie
More ›
Enter: The Madwoman
The Voice,
March-April 2001
Joan Melberger
Virginia teacher Joan Melberger shares the results of a freewriting exercise and takes the reader through four metaphorical phases of the writing process—from madwoman to architect to carpenter to judge
More ›
My Mom, A Croc, and Mr. Gourley: The Making of An English Teacher
The Voice,
January-February 2001
Sheelagh Straub
Sheelagh Straub reminisces about reading and developing a rich vocabulary in her youth and remembers a teacher who taught her to dig a little deeper in her writing.
More ›
New Jacket
The Voice,
May-June 2001
Kathleen Ann Gonzalez
When asked to try on the role of summer institute co-
director, author and teacher-consultant Kathleen Ann
Gonzales finds the opportunity both a great fit and a
chance for self-reflection.
More ›
Our Writing Lives: Cat Poems and Other Junior High Worries
The Voice,
November-December 2001
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
A teacher remembers the anxiety she felt in junior high when she had to write a poem and read it aloud in class, and shares how her insights from that day help her teach her third grade class.
More ›
Our Writing Lives: How I Evolved as a Writer
The Voice,
March-April 2001
Richard Hartwell
A literacy autobiography from Richard Hartwell recounts how the initial disappointment of an ill-received short-story lead to the discovery of reading, and ultimately the the discovery of his own voice.
More ›
Our Writing Lives: Steeltown Sister
The Voice,
May-June 2001
Walt Peterson
Sister Eugene, a tough-as-nails big-hearted nun in Pittsburgh's St. Michael's High School, shows one future writing project teacher that inspiration comes in many forms . . . and is found where it is needed.
More ›