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The National Writing Project

The National Writing Project is an approved provider of high quality professional development under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The National Writing Project

The National Writing Project (NWP) was founded in 1974, in Berkeley, California. Its mission is to improve the teaching of writing in the nation’s schools and universities. The NWP sponsors sites throughout the fifty states, the District of Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The NWP continues to expand the scope and reach of its program while providing educational experiences through an expanding network of educators. The Northwestern State University Writing Project (NSUWP) shares the NWP goal of promoting writing and enriching the teaching of writing across the curriculum.

The Northwestern State University Writing Project

The NSUWP site will bring together educators from all grade levels for an Invitational Writing Institute on the teaching of writing. The NWP’s philosophy of Teachers Teaching Teachers will provide the basis for the five week NSUWP Institute. Teachers from all academic disciplines will be invited to write, to conduct research on the teaching of writing, and to share their own teaching experiences in a comfortable and collegial setting.

All participants will receive 6 hours of graduate credit and 120 CLUs in your teaching discipline.

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2006 Summer Writing Institute

A major part of the NSUWP will allow participants to discuss and model successful teaching methods. Participants will work toward building these teaching practices into workshops which they can potentially offer to local parish school districts for in-service training.

Objectives of the 2006 Institute
Institute participants will:

The 2006 Institute Program
The NSUWP Summer Institute will take place on the Natchitoches Campus of Northwestern State University beginning June 5 and concluding July 7,  2006. There will no session on July 4th. Sessions will run Monday - Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch.  (The final week of the Institute, meetings will take place Wednesay-Friday because of the July 4th holiday). Participants will also attend a pre-Institute meeting in May and a post-Institute mini-conference in late summer.

In-service and professional development opportunities will be available to Institute participants throughout the school year.

Graduate Credit and Tuition Waiver
Institute participants will earn six hours of graduate credit in English upon successful  completion of the Summer Institute.

Stipends
Upon completing the program, Institute participants will receive a modest stipend. Textbooks for the course will be provided at the pre-Institute meeting.

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NSU Writing Project 2006 Workshops

5 Day Series :

“Process” Writing

  1. Writing Starters/Motivators (prewriting)
  2. Revising vs. Editing
  3. How to Make Writing Groups Work
  4. Mini Lessons for Teaching Grammar/Usage/Sentence Structure
  5. Teacher-Student Writing Conference

Writing Across the Curriculum (Teachers & Administrators)

  1. Evaluation of Your Literacy Philosophy (for Administrators)
  2. Writing to Learn Strategies
  3. Evaluating Effective Writing Assignments
  4. Grading/Rubrics
  5. Portfolios

Teachers in a Writing Community   

  1. Discovering Our Own Literacy
  2. Writing in Content Areas
  3. Writing for Success:  CC, GEE21, LEAP, iLEAP, ACT
  4. Professional Reading and Writing
  5. Teacher Leadership: Grant Writing, Teacher Inquiry, and National Board Certification (leads to continued professional development)

Technology & Writing

  1. Collab O Write & Classroom Starters
  2. Valid and Responsible Research
  3. Poster Project
  4. I-search
  5. Evaluating Blogs, e-Anthologies, and Teacher/Student Webs

Math, Science & Technology

  1. Problem-Solving Workshop
  2. Writing, C², and Technology
  3. Writing as Inquiry
  4. Scientific Method—You Gotta Write It
  5. Writing to Learn Strategies (Learning Logs, Exits, Stop & Writes, etc.)

Maintaining Creativity in a Comprehensive Curriculum World

  1. Student Stories (Creative Nonfiction, Radio Essays, Memoirs, etc.)
  2. Poetry—Finding Common Ground
  3. Puppets, Paper, Performance
  4. Using Art as a Springboard for Writing
  5. Showing Off—Student Publications

SPED series

  1. How to Motivate Young Writers
  2. Making Sense of “Word Salad”—Where to Start?
  3. The Value of Metacognition in the Classroom (appropriate for G/T as well)
  4. Multiple Intelligences (“If the Shoe Fits”)
  5. Reading & Writing—True Literacy for all

NSUWP 3 Day Series:
Mini Lesson Series

  1. Modeling and Evaluating Mini-Lessons
  2. Teacher Demos
  3. Teacher Demos

Mini Writing Institute (a sampler of what the Summer Institute is like)

  1. Sacred Writing/ “Scary & Naked” Thoughts
  2. Protocols for Writing Groups
  3. Writing With Our Students

Real World Writing with Real World Relevance

  1. School to Work Writing
  2. Technical Writing
  3. Revision and Self-Editing Strategies for Clarity & Conciseness

Professional Writing

  1. Teacher Research & Writing
  2. Grant Writing
  3. NBCT Portfolio Writing

NSUWP “Special Topics”    (specific focus--3 Day or 5 Day series can be selected)

How Writing Can Help Classrooms Achieve Rigor & Relevance :

  1. English Language Arts
  2. Math
  3. Science
  4. Social Studies

Literacy Topics

  1. Defining “true” literacy—The reading/writing relationship
  2. “When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do” (research-based strategies)
  3. “I Read It and I Get It”—Prove It
  4. Literature Circles (“real” ones: What do they look like and sound like?)
  5. Vocabulary Applications     
  6. Demystifying Grammar—From Isolation to Purposeful Integration

Senior Project—Writing & Research Collaboration

Reading & Writing Workshop—What does it really look like?

History & Literature—A Common Bond with Writing

Making Comparison/Contrast Writing Simple

For more information about these or other workshop ideas, please contact In-service Coordinator, Ada Hippler at 357-5339

For district-wide or school-wide consultation, contact Co-Director and School District Coordinator, Lisa Rougeou at rougeoul@nsula.edu or lrougeou@hotmail.com.  

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Continuity Activities

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NSUWP Directors and Staff

If you have questions about the NSUWP or about the application process, please feel free to contact the co-directors by phone or e-mail:

Dr. Lisa Abney
NSUWP Director
Department Head, Language and Communication
Director, Louisiana Folklife Center
Associate Professor of English
318-357-6272
abney@nsula.edu

Dr. Julie Kane
NSUWP Co-Director
Associate Professor of English
318-357-5663
kanej@nsula.edu

Lisa Rougeou
NBCT
Phone: 318.472.8822
E-mail: rougeoul@nsula.edu
Lisa Rougeou has taught high school and junior high school English/Language Arts for sixteen years. She earned National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Certification for Adolescence/Young Adulthood English Language Arts in November 2002 and completed an M.A. in English at Northwestern State University in writing and linguistics in 2004. She is a writing consultant, coordinating district-wide Writing Across the Curriculum programs for Sabine and Natchitoches Parishes.

Ada Hippler
In-service Coordinator and Office Manager
Phone: 318.357.5339 
E-mail: hipplera@nsula.edu or nsuwp@nsula.edu
Ada Hippler earned a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern State University in Business Administration in 1981. In 2003, she served as an administrative assistant to the co-directors of a Teacher Institute for Advanced Study, which was funded by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment from the Humanities. In 2004, she began working for the NSU Writing Project as an administrative assistant to the co-directors, and in July 2004, she was promoted to the position of In-service Coordinator.

Marilyn Henke
Phone 318 256 0648
E-mail: henke@cp-tel.net
Marilyn C. Henke serves as a middle school teacher of English-Language Arts at Pleasant Hill High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in Vocational Home Economics, English, and Early Childhood from McNeese State University in 1992 and completed an M.Ed. in Educational Technology from NSU in 2003. During the summer of 2004, Ms. Henke attended the NSUWP Summer Institute. Upon completion, she became an NSUWP Teacher-Consultant and has presented workshops on the writing process and on teaching the constructed response. She now serves as NSU Writing Project Technology Liaison.

Melanie Lafleur
lafleur@sabine.k12.la.us

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Funded in part by a grant from the National Writing Project, Berkeley, California.