Connecticut Writing Project Teacher Leaders Head Back to School
Summer collaboration augments year-round high-quality professional learning for NWP teachers
For Immediate Release
PRESS CONTACT
Jason Courtmanche, CWP-Storrs
860-486-2328
cwp@uconn.edu
Storrs, CT, September 17, 2018 —During summer break, more than 3,000 National Writing Project teachers worked face-to-face and in online communities to share and learn new ways to teach writing, engage colleagues, and enhance their leadership. Programs served all 50 states and included a wide range of content and approaches, anchored in improving writing and learning for today's young people. From collaborative work on argument writing in the NWP College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) to traditional Summer Institutes, Writing Project sites like those at UConn, Central Connecticut State University, and Fairfield University offered opportunities to fit local needs. NWP teacher leaders now join a nationwide K-university professional network focused on high-quality, effective, and sustained professional development to improve the teaching of writing and learning in classrooms across the country.
Advancing the national scale-up of NWP's College, Career, and Community Writers Program, over 40 local Writing Project sites, including the CWP-Storrs, held institutes and launched work to provide professional development in middle and high schools serving urban, rural, and other high-need communities across the country. The goal of the program is to assure more teachers can support students' growth in reading and writing skills, with a specific emphasis on writing arguments based on nonfiction texts. In one of the largest and most rigorousstudies of teacher professional development, SRI International found that this work has a positive, statistically significant impact on student writing.
This summer, the Connecticut Writing Project-Storrs closed out two two-year grants for Teacher Leadership and Work in a High Need School. Funds from the Teacher Leadership grant supplemented Aetna Endowment funds to provide Fellowships for eleven teachers to attend the CWP’s four-week Summer Institute, where teachers from elementary school through college, and disciplines as diverse as English, Spanish, Social Studies, and Special Education compiled writing portfolios and conducted inquiry projects to prepare themselves to be better teachers of writing.
Twenty English and Social Studies teachers from Manchester High completed two years of professional development work in which they focused on argument writing as part of the C3WP grant for Work in a High Need School.
This fall, the Connecticut Writing Project will host its 10th annual Teacher-Consultant Writing Contest, which allows teachers who have completed a Summer Institute hosted by CWP-Storrs to submit their personal poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for publication in the magazine, and along with the University Writing Center will host the 10th annual Secondary Schools Writing Center Conference.
"We know that the NWP’s teacher-centered model of professional development is the most effective way for teachers to learn. We’re proud of the work we’ve done here at UConn for the past 37 years," said Jason Courtmanche, Director of the CWP-Storrs.
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Through its mission, theNational Writing Project (NWP) focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation's educators on sustained efforts to help youth become successful writers and learners. NWP supports a network of local Writing Project sites, located on nearly 200 university and college campuses, to provide high-quality professional development in schools, universities, libraries, museums, and after-school programs. Through its many successful programs and partnerships, the organization reaches 1.4 million Pre-K through college-age students in over 3,000 school districts annually. NWP envisions a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in a digital, interconnected world. The Connecticut Writing Project-Storrs can be located at cwp.uconn.edu or contacted at cwp@uconn.edu
For more information, contact: Jason Courtmanche at jason.courtmache@uconn.edu