Resource Topics

Research - Professional Development

Additional Resources

Wobbling in Public: Supporting New and Experienced Teachers

English Journal, July 2014
In this article, Antero Garcia, a teacher-consultant with the Colorado State University Writing Project, and Director Cindy O'Donnell-Allen, describe a new framework for supporting preservice teachers as they prepare to meet the inevitable challenges of teaching. More ›

Contemporary Literacies Beyond the Classroom: A Teacher Seeks Out Participatory Culture

New Jersey English Journal, April 2014
High school English teacher Lauren Goldberg chronicles her experience developing her own contemporary literacies and making professional learning connections online—and how it has informed her teaching practice. More ›

Orientations for the Teaching of Writing: A Legacy of the National Writing Project

Teachers College Record, July 2013
Anne Elrod Whitney, Linda Friedrich
In a qualitative study using interview data of NWP Summer Institute participants between 1974 and 1994, education researcher, Anne Elrod Whitney, and Director of Research and Evaluation at NWP, Linda Friedrich, conclude that NWP's influence on teacher-consultants over time and across settings is a set of orientations toward the purposes of writing; students' abilities and responsibilities as writers; and the relationships between ideas and form that govern a teacher's choices about how best to structure writing opportunities for students. More ›

Digital Directions in Professional Development

Language Arts, June 2012
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Cindy O'Donnell-Allen
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, NWP Director of National Programs and Site Development for the National Writing Project, and Cindy O'Donnell-Allen, Colorado State University Writing Project Director, discuss advances in digital learning and "share their thoughts about how teachers can cultivate technological knowledge and practices as they design classrooms for digital learners." More ›

Writing Project Teachers Develop Professional Learning Model

Education News Colorado, January 2012
Writing Project teacher-leaders from several states gathered for the winter meeting of the National Writing Project's Literacy Design Collaborative, a professional learning initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. More ›

The Development of Writing-Intensive School Environments over Time

November 2011
Avary Carhill, Anne Campos, Nancy Mintz, Marcie Wolfe
This report, based on the work of the New York City Writing Project, suggests that a consistent focus on literacy development across content areas (curricular cohesiveness) cannot be achieved in the absence of a mature professional community. Furthermore, a mature professional community will continue to benefit from professional development aimed at sustaining and enhancing an environment with a high degree of writing intensity, which ultimately affects both teacher practice and student learning outcomes. More ›

Evaluating IIMPaC: Teacher and Student Outcomes Through a Professional Development Program in the Teaching of Writing

October 2011
Sheridan Blau, Rosemary H. Cabe, Anne Elrod Whitney
This study examined the effects of IIMPaC, a professional development program put on by California's South Coast Writing Project, which focuses on the teaching of writing. The study features eight language arts teachers of grades 4-8 and their students, and how the program impacted students' writing performance. More ›

Cultural Landscapes for Literacies Learning: An Innovative Art Museum and Teacher-Research Community Partnership

The Missouri Reader: Journal of the Missouri Reading Association, July 2011
Two educators and researchers, one from a university teacher education setting and the other from an art museum, create museum-school partnerships. Drawing on sociocultural and ethnographic approaches, they argue that a co-expertise approach is required if the two institutional settings are to learn from each other and transform what is possible for the professional learning of teachers and students. More ›

“Powerful Continuity”: Leveraging Lessons of the LSRI Experience

September 2009
Marilyn McKinney
The Southern Nevada Writing Project's research of its Family Writing Project revealed three different areas that could have implications for the future of all of its continuity programs: developing a culture of writing, developing community, and developing professional efficacy. More ›

Sonia Nieto Explores What Sustains Teachers

April 2008
Sonia Nieto, a leading authority in bilingual and multicultural education, delivered the keynote address at NWP's 2008 Spring Meeting. She explored the question of what sustains teachers in challenging situations and discussed the implications for professional development. More ›

Transforming Writing: Teacher-Consultants Lead Change in Their Schools

September 2007
Linda Friedrich
This article analyzes the stories of NWP Vignette Study participants who facilitated change in their schools, identifying and elaborating upon three concepts that seem key to successful leadership within a school. More ›

Teachers, Writers, Leaders

Educational Leadership, September 2007
Ann Lieberman, Linda Friedrich
Using data from NWP's Vignette Study, the authors describe how teachers take on leadership roles and how building community is crucial to their success. More ›

Living in the Age of Accountability

2006
Speaking at the 2006 NWP Annual Meeting, researcher Laura Stokes used this slideshow to demonstrate NWP's effectiveness and reach. For example, 63 percent of U.S. counties are in the virtual service area of NWP sites, and the NWP conducted 7,298 programs in 2004–05 and served about 95,000 teachers. More ›

The Local Site Research Initiative: Learning Important Lessons and Setting Future Direction

The Voice, 2005
Linda Friedrich, Paul LeMahieu
Through the Local Site Research Initiative, NWP is building rigorous, context-specific evaluation studies focusing on writing project sites' work. Participating sites design and conduct a research study framed by locally important questions. More ›

Writing to Learn for Preservice Teachers

The Quarterly, 2005
Samuel Totten
Why do few teachers incorporate writing-to-learn strategies into their classrooms? The answer, according to the author, is not very complicated: they have never been taught these strategies. More ›

The Parallel Universes of Theory and Practice: One Teacher's Journey

The Quarterly, Spring 1998
Beverly Paesano
Frustrated that the traditional approaches she'd been taught "did not help children write more fluently," the author describes her evolution as she came to understand the work of Britton, Moffett, and others. More ›