My experiences with NCWP-#blog4nwp

My experiences with the Northern California Writing Project have been incredible.  Last summer, I participated in this outstanding program.  I was so fortunate to meet some incredible people, with so much to share.  It was such an amazing summer reading, writing, discussing and thinking.  This program enabled me to gain so much knowledge from other instructors.  It did not matter that we taught different levels, we were able to share best practices and explore alternative methods.  I felt my brain functioning in a way that it had not been, for some time.  I gained a renewed excitement about my instructional practices and excited to try new methods.  I gained confidence and knowledge from this experience.  In addition, I made some incredible friendships and we continue to schedule get to gethers outside of NCWP activities.  I am so fortunate for having had the opportunity to experience such a wonderful program.  I have taught for ten years and have never experienced a program so productive and insightful.  This program is invaluable to professional development.  I say keep funding for the NCWP and support the teachers who work hard to implement best practices, develop inspiring curriculum, and create exciting and effective learning opportunities for their students.  Surprisingly, what this program costs to fund for a year to thousands of people, is the cost of 3 hours of war. 
 

Save the National Writing Project! #blog4nwp

The practices of the National Writing Project, from summer institutes and professional development programs to professional networking and communication between teachers of writing, are invaluable tools necessary to further the ability of students at all levels to write.  Besides sharing information about best practices teaching writing, the National Writing Project does an amazing job of facilitating professional development that truly does develop professionals. With experienced NWP Teacher-Consultants teaching writing, students benefit from better practices, more engaging activities, and more relevant ideas and assignments regardless of educational level.

The decision to end funding of the NWP is akin to deciding to no longer value a person's ability to express himself or herself in writing.  In an increasingly digital age, I don't think the USA can afford to no longer value writing and the ability to communicate.

Please take action to continue funding NWP.  Teachers thank you.  More importantly, the students of today who will become the professionals of tomorrow benefit and thank you.

 

Imagine the Silence #blog4nwp

Rochelle Ramay, NCWP Co-Director

With the loss of funding for the National Writing Project, I am compelled to
write. Today my thoughts were distracted in a way that forced me to really
consider the ways the Northern California Writing Project, the California
Writing Project, and the National Writing Project have transformed my
students from taskmasters to masterminds.

Steve was a decidedly average student who struggled. He had difficulty
writing any papers of substance; but as a sophomore, after the class had
participated in an activity I had learned from the Northern California
Writing Project, he broke through whatever walls trapped him. He was changed
for the remainder of his high school experience. Upon his graduation he
wrote me. "Thank you so much for your time and effort. Without your help I
know for a fact I wouldn¹t have the opportunities I do today. From Berkeley
to Cal Tech, my writing has gotten me so much, and it¹s through your work
that I learned to write. Confidence is such a key to success. Your teaching
affected my life, not just in school, but my whole life!"

John entered my lowest level freshman English class, even though he was
eighteen, and found a seat in the very back corner of the classroom. He wore
tattoos over his shoulders and down his arms. His hair hung like greasy
strings into his eyes and over his leather vest. He made no eye contact.
Frankly, he scared me. One day after class, John stayed behind. He thrust
a torn out sheet of binder paper into my hands. ³Here,² then he left the
room. The half page of writing was nearly illegible, but the meaning was
clear. John¹s paper was the story of witnessing his best friend being gunned
down on a Seattle street. The next day, John told me it was the first time
he¹d actually written down his own ideas instead of just filling in a
worksheet. Of course I asked him how and why he¹d shared this particular
time. "It was the way you presented it, the way you made me think."

Julia was a bright student who had little reason for focusing on school. Her
life was one no child should even know exists: neglect, abuse, and
loneliness. Her mother had used drugs most of Julia¹s life, moved Julia and
her sister and brother from town to town, and struggled to stay alive.
Julia¹s best friend was Katy. Katy had often been beaten by her own
boyfriend. In fact, this time he¹d hit Katy hard enough to break her nose.
Her eyes were bruised purple. When Katy arrived at school after the beating,
Julia tried repeatedly to force Katy into fingering the boyfriend for the
beating. She even stood up in a class and accused him. The boy was
nineteen, Katy was only fourteen, and although many school adults tried to
use the legal system to protect Katy, nothing succeeded in removing Katy
from the violence that could kill her. Julia figured out what the rest of us
couldn¹t. By using techniques I had learned at the Northern California
Writing Project and we had practiced in English class, Julia carefully
composed an open letter to the senior class that described domestic
violence. She graphically illustrated the details of a "hypothetical" 
beating; its victim as a freshman in high school, the abuser as a high
school senior, a situation matching Katy's, and the efforts of a "friend" to
bring the case to the fore for resolution. Trusting her peers would make
the connection between the real and the hypothetical, the seniors turned on
Katy's boyfriend. In fact, the class' power was strong enough to force the
boyfriend to leave this campus and transfer to independent study. Even
though we couldn¹t guarantee Katy's safety after school, we could protect
her during the school day and provide her with counseling. The power of
Julia's writing is immeasurable.

When I began teaching in 1974, schools were far different. The country was
experiencing a sense of confusion and "do your own thing" rang clearly. As
a beginning teacher, I never felt part of a student¹s continued literacy,
nor did I know of a way to connect to a network of other teaching
professionals for understanding my own roles as an English teacher. All I
knew about teaching was what my master teacher had taught me. In-service and
professional development for teachers didn¹t exist. Now, as our nation
struggles with understanding education, I am disheartened that teachers,
charged with teaching and nurturing the literacy of our young people, may
lose the very place where they can refine their own learning to meet
constantly changing demands of education.

In the twenty-four years since I attended my first summer institute of the
Northern California Writing Project held at CSU, Chico, the literacy of
nearly four thousand high school students has been affected. Some of my
students have journeyed far from their small hometown, while others can be
found nearby. But each of them shares a common experience. At least once
in their lives they were able to weald the power of language through
writing. Each of them recognized that what they knew and felt and believed
was worth expressing.

Without the Northern California Writing Project, my students' voices would
have stayed buried within them. I am convinced that I would never have found
ways to connect these students, and the many who followed, with the power of
writing to unlock what they believe. The loss of the National Writing
Project saddens me. It's one thing to take funding away from adults, but the
impact on students is immeasurable. Imagine the silence.

 

Community, Professional Development, and the NWP #blog4nwp

Peter Kittle, NCWP Director

I began my teaching career in 1987, when I was hired to teach English at Kelso High School in Kelso, WA. I had a number of wonderful colleagues who did what they could to support me as I entered the complex world of public school teaching. Still, as almost all educators learn very quickly, teaching is a challenging career made all the more difficult by the isolation we often experience, especially as new teachers. I felt this isolation keenly. My colleagues did what they could to mentor me, but they, too, were teaching 150+ students each day, and had the additional normal obligations to family and friends as well. There was little institutional structure to help new teachers like me adjust to the profession. What I remember quite keenly was missing the kind of collegial professional community I had built with my fellow preservice teachers prior to leaving my teacher-education program at Oregon State University. 

When I left Kelso High to begin a doctoral program in English in 1992, I had in mind ending up as an English Education professor at a state university somewhere, working to connect local teachers to the university in some respect. I wanted to be part of something that would provide the kind of community I missed when I was in the classroom myself, but I didn't know what such work might look like or how I could make it happen. As things played out, I found myself some years later landing an assistant professorship in English Education at Chico State University. One of my new senior colleagues, Tom Fox, kept suggesting to me that I get involved with the Northern California Writing Project, which he directed. I demurred for some time, unsure of what the Writing Project was about. But I decided to take Tom up on his offer of a place in the Summer Institute in 2000. 

From that time forward, I have been part of the precise kind of community I so wanted when I was teaching high school. The Writing Project's basic tenets--supporting teachers as they conduct inquiry into their own classroom practices; positioning teachers as leaders in their schools and communities; providing a welcoming professional home--jibed perfectly with my own beliefs about how teachers (including myself, of course) can best thrive. I am proud to be an 11-year member of the Northern California Writing Project. 

Practically all of my work that has gone public (via conference presentations or publications) has been the result of work with and through the Writing Project. Collaborations with my friend and Writing Project colleague Rochelle Ramay, who chairs the English Department at Corning Union High School, have wound up in at least four journal articles and book chapters. Multimodal composition became a point of inquiry for me as a result of a National Writing Project network-wide summer program, and resulted in another book chapter. The same summer program introduced me to colleagues like Chippewa River Writing Project Director Troy Hicks, with whom I later co-authored an article in Pedagogy on collaborative online writing. Earlier this month I was able to co-present with Andrea Zellner of the Red Cedar Writing Project at the Digital Media and Learning conference on an idea we're trying to figure out--we're calling it "distributed identities." I have progressed from assistant to associate to full professor on the strength of work done via the Writing Project. The networking of teachers from across the US that the NWP enables goes far above and beyond my deepest hopes for finding, creating, and contributing to a professional community for teachers. 

Every local Writing Project site in the US connects practicing teachers to a university-affiliated professional community, which in itself is a wonderful thing. That each site is likewise connected to every other site through the NWP network is what gives the Writing Project both depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise--what former NWP Executive Director Richard Sterling and NWP Deputy Director Judy Buchanan call "scaling up and scaling down." Of course, like any other enterprise, the Writing Project requires funding to succeed, and for the past two decades, roughly, baseline funding for NWP has come from the federal government. Broad, bipartisan support has characterized the NWP's reception in Washington, but in the recent passage of the federal budget's continuing resolution all funding for the NWP was cut. Targeted as an "earmark"--a term that demonizes "pork" funding of specific legislators' home-district interests--the NWP and other education programs like Reading Is Fundamental were removed from the budget. The use of this epithet is heartbreakingly ironic in this situation; funding for a program that benefits the entire nation, as does the NWP, is the definitive anti-earmark. 

My wish--and my reason for writing this--is to add my voice to others affiliated with the NWP who are participating in the #blog4nwp event. I hope that the key stakeholders in education, be they representatives, senators, cabinet members, or other policy makers, will pay heed to the voices raised in support of the NWP. The money needed to support the NWP for an entire year amounts to less than what the US spends every 3 hours on the war in Afghanistan. Surely we can afford that. 
 

NCWP Call to Action: Join the #blog4nwp Movement

You may not know, but the recent stop-gap federal budget eliminated almost anything that looked like an earmark. That included important literacy education programs like the National Writing Project and Reading is Fundamental. Unlike real earmarks, which are generally demonized for bringing funds only to a particular state or region, the funding for NWP benefited the entire US. Teachers affiliated with the NWP need to reach out and educate congress, the White House, and the public about the importance of the Writing Project in teacher's professional lives. 

Chad Sansing, a TC from the Central Virginia Writing Project, suggested a week or so ago that those of us in the NWP community write blog posts about the ways that NWP has impacted our professional lives. These posts are being collected at a blog called Cooperative Catalyst ("Changing Education as We Speak"):
While there have already been over 150 posts, the NWP wants to build that number to 1,000 in the next few days. Please join me by writing an anecdote, a polemic, an argument, or some combination and post it here. It's as easy as sending an email to post@ncwp.posterous.com. Put your title in the subject line, write what you have to say, and hit send. 

About

The Northern California Writing Project, a program of the English Department at California State University, Chico, is an affiliate of the California Writing Project and the National Writing Project.

Twitter