Resource Topics
Policy and Reform - Teacher Communities
Additional Resources
Getting It in Writing: Quests to Become Outstanding and Effective Writing Teachers
April 2012
In this foreword to Deborah M. Stankevich's Getting It in Writing: Quests to Become Outstanding and Effective Writing Teachers, Northwest Arkansas Writing Project Director Christian Z. Goering discusses his early experiences with the Writing Project and how it shaped him as a teacher.
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Teacher Leaders Network Amplifies Teachers' Voices
August 2010
Art Peterson
Drawing on the expertise of some of the nation's most accomplished teachers, including some NWP teacher-consultants, the Teacher Leaders Network has elevated teachers' voices on policy issues and provided a vehicle for the sharing of best practices growing from experience.
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“I’m a Writer”: Essays on the Writing Marathon and Why We Write
May 2010
Richard Louth
In this review, Richard Louth of the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project describes the benefit of this anthology, which not only explores the ins and outs of the writing marathon, but also how important the concept of teachers as writers is to the writing classroom.
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A Guide for Writing Marathon Leaders
May 2010
Richard Louth
This in-depth guide—drawn from the book "I'm a Writer": Essays on the Writing Marathon and Why We Write—covers just about everything needed to organize and run a successful writing marathon.
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Teacher Inquiry for Equity: Collaborating to Improve Teaching and Learning
Language Arts,
March 2010
Linda Friedrich, Marilyn McKinney
This article argues that while inquiry is a necessary tool for focusing on learning, collaborative structures are essential if this work is to be focused on equity and improving learning for underserved students.
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Philadelphia Writing Project Teachers Create 'Classroom Buzz'
June 2009
The Philadelphia Writing Project is profiled for reframing the "achievement gap" by using writing to help teachers explore issues of social justice, language, and race.
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English Teachers Find an Online Friend: the English Companion Ning
March 2009
Grant Faulkner
The English Companion Ning brings English teachers a professional community that they sometimes lack in their schools. Teachers discuss books, lesson plans, and a panoply of classroom topics via discussion forums, blog posts, and multimedia.
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Writing Project Partners with Denver High School for Six Years and Counting
March 2009
Elizabeth Radin Simons
Just as they have for five years, Northglenn High School teachers left "The Reading/Writing Connection," offered by the Denver Writing Project, with a bounty of new ideas about how to use writing to stimulate learning in their classrooms.
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Developing Communities of Practice in Schools
September 2008
The authors describe a successful teacher community of practice as one that is well designed and guided, usually developing one facet of instruction through joint work, supported by a proactive administrator and broad teacher leadership.
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Oklahoma Site Helps Community College Adjuncts Address Burning Questions
July 2007
Community college adjunct faculty members tend to have limited collegial support, so, funded by an Urban Sites Network minigrant, the Oklahoma State University Writing Project designed a mini-institute for adjunct faculty at Tulsa Community College to help foster a growing professional learning community at the college.
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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.
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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.
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Unchanging Principles and Practices for Change
NWP Annual Meeting Speech,
November 2006
Sheridan Blau
Blau argues for the transformative nature of writing and the writing project experience, while insisting that the project "continues to demonstrate fidelity to foundational features."
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Statewide and District Professional Development in Standards: Addressing Teacher Equity
National Writing Project at Work,
2006
Richard Koch, Laura Roop, Gail Setter
Koch and Roop present a model of standards-based professional development drawing on their experience developing statewide standards in Michigan. Setter describes the implementation of the model in one school district.
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After the Summer Institute: Opportunities for Teacher Leadership
The Voice,
2005
Linda Friedrich
The National Writing Project, along with Inverness Research Associates and Ann Lieberman of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, has launched a study on the nature of teacher leadership developed through the writing project. This article, drawing on interview data from the study, highlights TCs' descriptions of how they contribute to their students, their peers, and their writing project sites, and how their connection with their local writing project nurtures them as teachers and leaders...
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E-Anthology Growing as an Online Writing and Response Forum
The Voice,
2005
Larry Barton, Peter Booth, Shirley Brown, Cathie English, Frankie Mengeling
The NWP E-Anthology is evolving into the online environment that everyone hoped it could be—a virtual community that assists participants in realizing their own visions for their writing.
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Keep the Spirit Going: Teacher Inquiry Communities Focus on Student Work
The Voice,
2005
Shirley Brown
Brown shares insights gained through work with the Teacher Inquiry Communities Network as to how teachers can create space during the school year for the kind of collaborative work that happens at the summer institutes.
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Teachers Enter the “Writing Project Way”
The Voice,
2005
Linette Moorman
At 18 NWP sites, the New Teacher Initiative (NTI) provides a supportive community where novice teachers have found "solace and refuge, as well as identity and challenge as professionals."
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The E-Anthology: A Catalyst for Professional Writing?
The Voice,
2003
Shirley Brown
How can the E-Anthology, established to encourage teachers to write about their summer institute experiences, share classroom practices, and discuss key issues in education, include more professional writing as a platform for discussion?
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Empowering Teachers Through the Summer Institute
The Voice,
May-June 2003
Beth Halbert
Building teacher leadership is an important component of the NWP model, but Beth Halbert of the West Tennessee Writing Project got a crash course when she was asked to facilitate the beginning of the 2002 summer institute. By relying on the proven writing project strategy of "teachers teaching teachers" she was able to launch the institute.
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Reflections on an Online Teachers Writing Group
The Quarterly,
Winter 2003
Anne Elrod Whitney
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.
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Inverness Report Surveys Benefits of Summer Institutes for Teachers and Students
The Voice,
May-June 2002
Carl Nagin
A report from a survey of summer institute participants confirms that NWP institutes offer "valuable and influential professional development experience to teachers."
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Respected Researchers Publish Book About NWP
The Voice,
November-December 2002
Art Peterson
Ann Lieberman and Diane R. Wood analyze what makes the writing project model so successful and show how other professional development efforts can learn from it.
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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.
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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.
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Traveling with the E-Anthology: Arkansas Poem Finds Its Way to South Dakota Literary Magazine
The Voice,
May-June 2001
Michelle Rogge Gannon
Michelle Rogge Gannon reflects upon the connections that NWP's summer E-Anthology encourages, following the path of one anthology submission from last summer.
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Tapping the Potential: Building Teacher Leadership While Rethinking Your Site
The Voice,
January-February 2000
Ellen Brinkley, Anne-Marie Hall
Why is it that some directors stick around for years and others do not? Why do some "burn out" while others are energized by their work?
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Where's the Beef? Mississippi's Tech-Prep Initiative in Action
The Quarterly,
Summer 1999
John Dorroh
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Constructing Knowledge in a Professional Community: The Writing Project as a Model for Classrooms
The Quarterly,
Winter 1993
Sheridan Blau
Blau argues that the "inquiry" experience that teachers encounter in the summer institute carries over into similar authentic teaching and learning experiences in their classrooms.
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TR 64. Ideological Divergences in a Teacher Research Group
National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report,
1992
Shawn Parkhurst, Sandra R. Schecter
The authors focus on differing ideologies of research, teaching/learning, and writing held by members of a teacher research group, providing evidence that divisions exist within the teacher research movement that are intellectually and socially important.
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