The 4–5 week introduction to the National Writing Project’s way of teaching. Teachers who enroll in this course (which is usually a six graduate course in English or Education) read about their pedagogy, and engage in creative, reflective and professional writing. Teachers also must make a formal presentation to their peers at the SIT about an inquiry that they have about teaching, or demonstrate a lesson that worked well for them so that fellow teachers may comment on their practice.
Published in Chapter:
Stepping into the Role of Professional Writer
Christine Aikens Wolfe (Carlow University, USA), Cheryl North-Coleman (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA), Shari Wallis Williams (University of Arkansas Little Rock, USA), Denise Amos (University of Louisville, USA), Glorianne Bradshaw (Valley Elementary School, USA), and Toby Emert (Agnes Scott College, USA)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 11
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-106-3.ch017
Abstract
A group of National Writing Project teachers from around the nation attended a Professional Writing Retreat in Santa Fe in 2004 and continued their collaboration. This chapter examines the progress of the group’s commitment to communicate by electronic means about writing about teaching. Teachers from the experimental group, those who answered the call to examine their continued involvement with the group, provide qualitative research narratives about how each responds as they help one another to step into the role of professional writer. Statistics gathered from both the experimental and a control group of teachers (who attended the same retreat but did not answer the survey) allow the reader to chart the teachers’ success in: (a) presenting together about being professional writers, (b) writing together as professional writers, (c) writing individually about teacher-practice, and (d) meeting at the National Writing Project’s Annual Meeting in order to continue to support each other’s work.