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Writers Bloc

By Mary Anne Hess

Part grassroots movement, part summer institute series, the National Writing Project has changed lessons and lives.

Photo by Michael York

Instead of charting new courses for her high school English students, Jan Kwiatkowsky found herself switching on autopilot at times. After almost 20 years in the classroom, she was starting to consider herself merely a "lecturer and test giver." But her teaching life was transformed when she attended the National Writing Project summer institute at the nearby University of Maine.

There she gained greater insights on how to convey her love for the craft of writing to her students. "It was an opportunity for teachers to get together and show what works best for them," says Kwiatkowsky, a teacher at Bucksport High School in coastal Maine. "If something works for you, you love to share it."

More than 2 million K–16 teachers from all disciplines have attended Writing Project programs, developed at 175 university-based sites in all 50 states. Launched in 1974 in an effort to fill the void in writing instruction for teachers from all disciplines, the Writing Project is a professional development model that has grown into a unique network of colleagues teaching colleagues about writing. It brings teachers from kindergarten through the university level together in its programs, says Mary Ann Smith, a former teacher who now works as the director of governmental relations and public affairs at Writing Project headquarters at the University of California at Berkeley.

Federal money ($17 million in 2003) is the Writing Project's largest single funding source, with support also coming from foundations, corporations, universities, and K–12 schools. Programs vary—from a Saturday morning session on creating suspenseful stories to five-week invitational summer institutes where teachers take a hard look at their classroom practices, delve into the latest research on writing, and develop their own writing skills.

As children get older, "we tend to stifle creativity, and that's a mistake," says Kwiatkowsky. "I emphasize voice and tell students that's what will make their writing unique." Although she assigns her share of term papers and essays, she believes that putting all the emphasis in that direction "is cheating the child."

Her students write proposals for new businesses and present them to officials in their small town. Despite the test-driven trend toward formulaic writing, Kwiatkowsky has also placed a new emphasis on creative writing. "I want the kids to dig down deep."

She digs, too, and writes poetry along with her students. A favorite activity has students writing prose or poetry about a childhood memory that's uniquely Maine. Kwiatkowsky and her students joined other Maine schools in recording their writing for the Writing Project's Rural Voices Radio collection.

Most Bucksport students are middle class and plan to attend college. About 600 miles to the southwest in Youngstown, Ohio, Betsy Johnquest teaches many 10th graders from families struggling with poverty. Like Kwiatkowsky, she wants her students to let their voices resonate.

That drive springs from her experiences at a 2002 Writing Project institute at Kent State, where participants were asked to search their attics and closets for pieces they'd written and share them with the group. "By the time we'd finished, we knew each other well," she recalls.

That fall, Johnquest asked her students to share childhood writing, and she assigned them to write about the first time someone read to them. Those who couldn't remember asked their mothers or grandmothers to reminisce and, in the process, created new family bonds. "They all wrote so much and everyone wanted to read theirs out loud?we were all becoming writers."

In years past, typical assignments consisted of journal writing or perhaps a paragraph about the topic of the day from a pre-made calendar. "I think kids looked on it as busy work," she says. "Now their writing is something they want to save. It's about their families. They're making portfolios, adding pieces they're writing on their own or from their past, poems they wrote when they were little. They'll hang on to these portfolios for the rest of their lives."

Students also keep spiral notebooks where they free write, list vocabulary words, paste examples of writing they like, or attach pictures to spark ideas. "I tell them to think of the notebooks like a bank where they make deposits and withdrawals," she says. Although it's not required, students often read her their free writing. Writing, she says, is a way for teenagers to vent their anger and still get positive feedback.

Establishing one-on-one relationships with kids is important to Johnquest, and getting kids to write makes that easier. "After you've heard a student read a story about his father being in prison, you make a connection." She often suggests books in which students can learn how others cope with similar problems.

But Johnquest doesn't ignore writing mechanics. Tired of incomplete sentences and bad usage, she injects a healthy dose of grammar into the curriculum, reviewing parts of speech and common errors.

About 65 percent of the school goes on to college or technical schools. Johnquest aims to give students experience in the kind of writing that will give them more confidence to talk about themselves and their ideas in college and on the job.

Before Johnquest signed up for the Writing Project institute, she says, burnout was looming. "I was in a routine, it was boring for me and my assignments were just okay. Now, teaching excites me again," she says. "I consider myself a writer and I'm passing that experience on to my students. I was an average teacher before this. Now I think I'm pretty good."

I am from Down East Maine.
I am from cool damp mornings
when firm wild blueberries
fill cracked overworked buckets.
From frigid ocean water and brisk salt air
I am from the land of inner strength and chapped hands.
I am from a hardworking people
from long days and quiet evenings.
I am from Down East Maine.

By Danielle Meneses and Brittany Howe,
two students on the National Writing Project's Rural Voices Radio Vol. II c. 2001

Add crashing waves, twittering birds, a gentle guitar, and distinctive regional voices and you have the sound of Rural Voices Radio, the first spoken word production of the National Writing Project, in collaboration with the Annenberg Foundation for Rural Choice. The programs showcase writing from students and teachers talking about places, from Maine to Nevada, that they call home. The three-CD set, which can inspire writing about any community, is free to teachers by contacting nwp@ writingproject.org. Since 2001, the award-winning series has aired on public radio stations in the United States and Canada.

A related resource is the new Rural Voices: Place-Conscious Education and the Teaching of Writing ($16), edited by Robert Brooke and his colleagues at the Nebraska Writing Project.

Given the national emphasis on writing in all content areas, the Writing Project sees itself as a resource for math and science, as well as humanities, teachers. Enrollment in its summer writing institutes is competitive. Applications are online at local Writing Project sites. Information about other in-service programs, online discussion forums about writing, publications, and much more is also available on the Web site.