IU School of Liberal Arts

Writing Program Teachers Teach Indiana Teachers

News Categories: Civic Engagement | English

This summer, IUPUI is one of nearly 200 National Writing Project sites around the country welcoming teachers to a special writing workshop focused on developing new ways to teach writing in the classroom while strengthening current practices.

The Indiana Teachers of Writing Writing Institute (ITWWP), hosted by the Writing Program in the Department of English in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, runs June 9^th to July 2^nd. Participants are Indiana teachers ranging from kindergarten to college.

"We get people who are new teachers and teachers who have not felt very strong when teaching writing," says Steve Fox, associate professor of English and director of the ITWWP. "We get teachers, though, who maybe have already been doing a good job with teaching writing. What this can do for them is give them a network of other teachers to get support from and work with and give them more opportunities to create change in education." The project is primarily for current teachers but pre-service teachers are occasionally accepted if it’s felt they are ready for the class.

ITWWP’s mission is to help students learn best practices, think about their teaching and how to bring new ideas into the classroom and to create teacher leaders-someone who can help other teachers learn and grow professionally and help make change. This is accomplished through several different projects. One such project is a teacher demonstration. Students develop a project for the class to work on in groups who then present their work to the class. "It allows teachers to try out ideas they want to try in the classroom in a safe haven where other teachers can reflect on it and share their own ideas," explains Fox. Projects are compiled on a wiki website created for the class so each student has access to it for possible use in their own classrooms.

Exploring writing is also essential to the project. Students create personal texts that range in genre from memoirs and novels to poetry and plays. They also research a question that has grown from their own classroom practices, using the research to develop a project proposal for use when they return to their classrooms. The students also discuss their writing with their peers in response groups. These projects are supplemented with discussions on teaching issues and writing research and guides, as well as with guest speakers. "But it’s primarily teachers teaching teachers."

Over the past few years the ITWWP has seen an increase in middle school and high school teachers. "Part of the challenge is to have representation all the way across the educational spectrum," says Fox. "We do get a couple of college teachers every summer. They learn a lot of what happens through K-12 and the K-12 people find out what college writing is about."

Acceptance into the program requires a submitted writing portfolio, a letter of application and an interview. Fox says many teachers are referred by former students who go back to their schools and convince their fellow teachers to apply. "People always say ‘the summer institute is transformative,’" says Fox. "After all these years I wouldn’t want to give this up because it’s so meaningful and powerful. You want people to know when there is something good so they can take advantage of it and make education better for everybody. It’s ultimately all about students. We want them to have a better experience."

Published on: June 24, 2008