Leading Professional Learning

“Save the Last Word for Me” Protocol

Author: Patricia Averette Summary: This protocol is designed for participants to clarify and deepen thinking about readings groups may engage with as part of an institute, teacher study group, or professional meeting. It provides a structure that enables group participants to engage in close reading and share their thinking in...

The Concept of a Writing Center

Author: Muriel Harris Summary: Interested in establishing a writing center at your institution? This resource describes all aspects of running a writing center and reviews the many issues to be considered by anyone seeking to establish one, from developing program goals to funding to staffing and staff training. Useful as...

Professional Development in the Digital Age: A Virtual Conference on Digital Literacy

Summary: This short article on the 4T Virtual Conference on Writing could be the perfect starting point for sites/leaders looking to integrate online learning into a program or those ready to make the jump to a fully online conference/professional development experience. Key to the success of the 4T annual online...

The Value of Teacher-Writers (NWP Radio)

Guests: Christine Dawson, Leah Zuidema, and Troy Hicks Summary: This NWP Radio show brings together the authors of two co-published books on teacher-writers, Christine Dawson (The Teacher-Writer), and Troy Hicks and Leah Zuidema (Coaching Teacher-Writers). For teachers who want to start a writing group, or for site leaders who are...

Disciplinary Literacy: A Select Research Bibliography

Summary: Literacy researchers across a range of disciplines have been looking at the unique uses of literacy particular to their disciplinary activities. If you and your site colleagues are interested in further study of the research literacy, this is a fairly extensive bibliography. Original Date of Publication: June 2019

NWP Badges: The Collection

Summary: Through its local Writing Project sites and national programs, NWP awards badges to recognize educators’ various skills and accomplishments connected to Writing Project work. This collection identifies and explains currently open badges that Writing Project sites can award and/or participants can receive. View the public criteria that viewers see...

Planning for Study Groups: An Advanced Institute at the NWP in Vermont

Author: Patricia McGonegal Summary: This article describes the design and development of an advanced summer institute where teacher-consultants prepare to lead study groups in their own schools. Within this experiential institute, teacher leaders immerse themselves in the practices and theories essential to making study groups productive and powerful; they participate...

Creating Spaces for Study and Action Under the Social Justice Umbrella

Authors: Marlene Carter, Norma Mota-Altman, and Faye Peitzman Summary: This monograph provides an in-depth look at the UCLA Writing Project’s approach to exploring two social justice concerns—matters of race and issues of homophobia—and the design of two multiyear study groups that engage the learning community at the site. The authors...

Demonstrating Teaching in a Lab Classroom

Author: Lisa Houk Summary: Lisa Houk, a teacher-consultant with the Oakland (MI) Writing Project, details a structure in which “host” teachers provide opportunities for observation by “guest” teachers in a format that allows for preparation, facilitation, and debriefing.

More Than Skin Deep: Professional Development that Transforms Teachers

Author: Deborah Dean, Melissa Heaton, Sarah Orme, Gary Woodward Summary: Four teacher-consultants explore how their involvement in the Writing Project fundamentally shifted how they approached writing, both their own and their students’. They each detail how it demystified the apparent magic that produces good writing, drawing them wholeheartedly into the...