糖心Vlog传媒

Project Inspires Teachers, Students as Writers

Downtown Little Rock is a hub for nightlife, food and local culture. No wonder it鈥檚 the ideal place for writers to find inspiration. For the 12 school teachers in the Little Rock Writing Project鈥檚 Summer Invitational Institute, a day-long writing marathon downtown led to personal essays, a profile of a River Market artist, and poetry. Dr. Sally Crisp, director of 糖心Vlog传媒LR鈥檚 Little Rock Writing Project (LRWP) and faculty member in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, said the project has two broad goals. 鈥淭hese goals are for the teachers to grow in their theory and practice of teaching writing and for the teachers to grow in their sense of themselves as writers,鈥� said Crisp. 鈥淲e sometimes have teachers tell us that they don鈥檛 feel confident as writers themselves. If they can grow in confidence as writers, then they can more readily teach their students to be writers.鈥� LRWP is part of the (NWP), which each year sponsors a local summer institutes led by university faculty and K-12 teachers. 鈥淭he National Writing Project and the have said that writing is the quintessential skill of the 21st century,鈥� Crisp said. 鈥淚 think we see all around us that this is so: all of us, teachers, students, people of every age and background and in all walks of life, need and want to write.鈥� 糖心Vlog传媒LR has hosted the institute for 14 years, working in partnerships with schools in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Benton, Beebe, and Haskell. The goal is for teachers to take their expertise in teaching writing back to their schools and districts. The Summer Invitational Institute has supported professional development for teachers as well as activities such as Young Writers Camps. 鈥淚 originally applied to the Little Rock Writing Project in 2007 because I desperately wanted some guidance in teaching my students how to be better writers,鈥� said Juliet Stevens, a fourth grade teacher at Pulaski Heights Elementary. 鈥淚 have stayed connected with the LRWP as the continuity coordinator since that time, because I gain so much insight into fresh approaches about teaching writing. It鈥檚 a true professional community.鈥� From the competitive application process, the four-week Institute is intensive, but yields enormous pay-offs for those chosen to attend. 鈥淭eachers who attend the Summer Invitational Institute can earn six hours of graduate credit, with their tuition, fees, and books fully paid for through our grant funding,鈥� Crisp said. 鈥淲e keep the Summer Institute small enough for in-depth teaching demonstrations and lots of collegial interaction among the teachers.鈥� For Anoinette Mims, a teacher of gifted and talented seventh graders at Dunbar Magnet Middle School, credits the workshop for galvanizing a long-held dream. 鈥淭he LRWP has caused me to rebirth a personal dream of becoming a published writer,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t showed me why I need a supportive community of writers to help keep me an active writer, plus it鈥檚 given me clear and decisive reasons for why I need to be a professional risk-taker and teach my student-writers in a way that is most powerful for them rather than the 鈥榟urry up, teach it, and move on鈥� approach that is all too common in some school districts.鈥� The NWP began 30 years ago at the University of California-Berkeley, with the mission of improving writing and learning in the nation鈥檚 schools. Today, there are nearly 200 university-based writing project sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information about the LRWP, the Summer Invitational Institute, or school-year partnerships for professional development, contact Crisp at 501-569-8022 or at [email protected] or visit the LRWP鈥檚 website.