Southern Arizona Writing Project is in session

The Southern Arizona Writing Project kicked off its annual Summer Institute for teachers on June 1, bringing teachers from across Southern Arizona to the UA campus for five weeks of focusing on writing: its practice, value, and place in the K-16 curriculum.

These nineteen teachers are training and exploring as part of the National Writing Project which –for over 25 years through 195 affiliates across the US- has been empowering teachers to improve student proficiency and confidence in writing.

Critical to the strategy of the Project is to first empower teachers by helping them find their own voices as writers. At least one hour each day, Institute participants sit side by side in a conference room, but are writing their own stories on their laptops. This “sacred” hour is supplemented by group coaching and writing throughout the day.

The seminar pushes teacher to write, publish, and apply what they learn from doing so to their classrooms.

Other components of the seminar include teaching demonstrations by participants, and work with master teachers and local writers. Participants are expected to continue literacy collaboration when returning to their home schools, by conducting their own professional development workshops and joining other teachers in efforts to improve writing instruction. As such, these Fellows or Teacher/Consultants become active members of the National Writing Project, sharing the most current research and practices in the teaching of writing learned in the Summer Institute and so multiplying the effects of the seminar.

The participants in this grassroots writing program are not all English instructors. The Project’s goals of making writing meaningful across disciplines attract math, social studies, and even P.E. teachers. The writing institute is a 6-credit graduate course.

The UA’s Southern Arizona Writing Project has been an affiliate of the National Writing Program since 1978. The summer’s capstone event is the “Slice of SAWP,” an exhibition, presentation and celebration of the teachers’ accomplishments. Contact SAWP director JoAnne Behling at 520-621-3436 or behling@email.arizona.edu for more information. Also: http://sawp.web.arizona.edu