Indiana University Southeast Writing Project

The NWP Approach:

The National Writing Project is a program that is open to the best that is known about the teaching of writing from whatever source: from literature in the field, from research, and from the insights and experiences of successful teachers at all levels. The Writing Project proposes no packaged plans, no teacher-proof materials, no set formulae for teaching writing. We promote no single approach, though we favor a number of ideas that have emerged over the past decade, ideas now confirmed by more and more teachers. The National Writing Project remains open to discovery and qualification. This position is the sustaining strength of the Project.

Basic Assumptions of the National Writing Project Model:

• Writing is fundamental to learning in all subject areas and at all grade levels. Summer Institutes therefore involve teachers from all disciplines and levels of instruction, primary through university.
• As the process of writing can best be understood by engaging in this process, teachers of writing should write.
• Teachers are the best teachers of teachers; successful practicing teachers have greater credibility with their colleagues than outside experts.
• Real change in classroom practice happens over time. Working as partners, universities and schools can articulate and promote effective school reform.
• Effective professional development programs are on-going and systematic, bringing teachers together regularly throughout their careers to examine successful practices and new developments (NWP, 1998).  

About IUSWP IN NEW Albany, IN

IUSWP is a local site of the National Writing Project. There are five NWP sites in Indiana. The Indiana University Southeast Writing Project site has the unique distinction of being the only NWP local site south of the Indianapolis, IN area. The mission of the National Writing Project (NWP) is to improve the teaching of writing and improve learning in the nation's schools. Through its professional development model, the National Writing Project recognizes the primary importance of teacher knowledge, expertise, and leadership. Ann Lieberman and Diane R. Wood in their article The National Writing Project write," The National Writing Project's distinctive social practices and networks create the learning communities that teachers need.      Compelling descriptions of how teachers learn and studies of the organizational settings that facilitate professional learning have pointed to new ways to improve the professional development of teachers (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Darling-Hammond, 1993; Fishman & McCarthy, 2000; Hargreaves, 1994; McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993). These findings make it more apparent than ever that the old workshop delivery model for teachers must give way to vibrant and ongoing professional learning communities where teachers generate, as well as gain, knowledge.       The National Writing Project believes that access to high quality educational experiences is a basic right of all learners and a cornerstone of equity. Through its extensive network of teachers, the National Writing Project seeks to promote exemplary instruction of writing in every classroom in America.       The National Writing Project values diversity - our own as well as that of our students, their families and their communities. We recognize that our lives and practices are enriched when those with whom we interact represent diversities of race, gender, class, ethnicity, and language.      The National Writing Project (NWP) is a nationwide professional development program for teachers, begun in 1974 at the University of California, Berkeley. The primary goal of the project is to improve student writing achievement by improving the teaching of writing in the nation's schools. The NWP receives federal funding which it currently grants to 167 local sites in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Sites operate from university campuses and collaborate with surrounding schools and districts. Collectively, these sites serve more than 100,000 teachers every year, grades kindergarten through university, in all disciplines. The NWP model is based on the belief that teachers are the key to education reform, teachers make the best teachers of other teachers, and teachers benefit from studying and conducting research.

IUSWP Director: Dr. Kevin Bailey
IUSWP Co Director: David Stoner
IUSWP Co Director: Tammy Nuxoll
IUSWP Co Director: Suzanne Jackson