- Due: March 31, 2024
- Strategies, experiences, and transformations from writing project institutes, workshops, and colleagues
- Length: 1000 words
- Full submission guidelines
- Submit here
- Note: Please familiarize yourself with some of Writers Who Care’s foundational blogs and read our mission to understand our focus and tone.
National Writing Project turns 50: “In 1974 a revolutionary form of professional development for teachers was born. At its core were the knowledge, leadership, and best practices of effective teachers, and fundamental to its design was the sharing of that knowledge with other teachers.”
A birthday is a great time to reflect on the past and celebrate the formative experiences that have shaped who we are as teacher-writers and the ways we support writers in our classrooms and communities.
This winter, the Writers Who Care editors invite you to join us in pausing and reflecting on our own NWP experiences. We invite you to share from your experiences the scenes, people, practices, and joys.
Think about key events, milestones, or people that make up the history and the now of your site
Think about your first summer institute (and/or subsequent ones) and the experiences you had that shaped your teaching then and continue to inform how you work with writers in your classroom (and beyond).
Some questions for prospective contributors to consider (but not limited to):
- Write about an NWP person at your site who has been important on your writing journey; tell us about the impact on student writing.
- Pair up with a writing project friend and interview one another about the impact of NWP on you and your writing and authentic writing practices in your classroom.
- Was there an activity or experience that you had at a WP site that inspired you to try something new in the classroom?
- What was inspiring to you about the new perspective or approach to teaching writing?
- If you implemented the strategy or idea, how did it turn out?
- For teacher educators, was there a WP experience that made you rethink how you are preparing future English language arts teachers? How did that experience re-frame your own understanding about what pre-service teachers need to know?
- For school leaders, was there a WP experience that made you rethink how you are supporting current English language arts teachers? How did that experience re-frame your own understanding about teaching writing and perhaps impact your leadership?
Write a 1000-ish word blog. Here is a suggested structure:
- start with a little bit about the specific Writing Project site to situate us/the reader,
- take us into the scene to zoom in on a writing practice, move, craft, insight, and
- then reflect on the key lessons about authentic writing instruction and implications.
- Readers love pictures and hyperlinks, so paste those directly into the document with a caption.
Note: This call will not go through masked peer-review, but will be reviewed by editors for timely publications in the spring and summer.
Please see the blog for submission guidelines. Please submit your piece before March 31, 2024.
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