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New York City
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Overview
Special Initiatives
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| About the New York City Writing Project |
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| Local Site Research Initiative |
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| National Reading Initiative |
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| New Teacher Initiative |
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| Technology Initiative |
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| Looking Both Ways |
About the New York
City Writing Project
The New York City Writing Project is a lead site of the National Writing Project (NWP), a
network of more than 185 university-based professional development programs dedicated to
teacher professionalism and the improvement of the teaching of reading and writing.
Through our national affiliation, we receive national funding to build local capacity,
address common concerns, and contribute to national knowledge about the impact of Writing
Project practices.
At this time, the NYCWP is at the forefront of four national initiatives:
Local Site Research
Initiative
Our current study of the Writing Project's impact on high school teachers' practice and
student outcomes is underwritten with funding from The City University of New York and the
NWP/U.S. Department of Education. Beginning with the 2004-05 school year, we initiated a
two-year evaluation of the NYCWP's inservice professional development program. Six high
schools, each with a team of three teachers led by an on-site teacher consultant, are
participating in the study to assess the Writing Project's impact on teachers,
instructional practice, and student literacy development. We hope to learn whether
teachers' use of "best practice" instructional strategies increases, as do their
abilities to create effective writing assignments, use a wider range of materials, and
assess student work. A summary of findings from the first year of the evaluation is now
available. Report
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National Reading
Initiative
Writing Project teacher consultants across the country constantly grapple with issues
related to reading comprehension, the reading/writing connection, and the role that
reading plays in helping students become effective writers. NWP funding from the Carnegie
Corporation currently supports our local effort to wrestle even further with these issues.
As of spring 2004, we began considering how teachers motivate reluctant readers to
interact with informational texts, use reading across disciplines, and employ classroom
strategies that are applicable to all informational texts. This three-year undertaking
involved a self-study team in the first year. It examined various reading practices,
conducted literature reviews, and investigated the ways in which reading and adolescent
development are situated in particular communities and cultures of practice. During the
2004-05 school year, a study group, comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of teachers and
led by an NYCWP teacher consultant, implemented some of the self-study team's findings in
their classrooms and documented the effects of their new practices. The multi-disciplinary
team also created a blog that contains a bibliography, notes from study group sessions, and
observations from both teams of participants.
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New Teacher Initiative
To learn more about developing programs for and supporting new teachers, the NWP secured
funding from the Stone Foundation to support local sites in this critical endeavor. The
NYCWP was one of nine local sites to receive national support for this three-year
undertaking. Teacher consultants are providing multi-dimensional levels of support for a
select group of new middle and high school teachers. NYCWP professional staff work with
new teachers individually, in small groups, and through a moderated "new
teacher" listserv. The listserv provides a non-threatening forum in which new
teachers may raise concerns, share experiences, receive tips on planning lessons and
developing curriculum, and interact regularly with a community of peers.
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Technology
Initiative
With NWP funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the Broad Foundation along with
local funding from the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, the NYCWP has, over the course of
three years, been able to develop programs that promote the thoughtful integration of
technology into the teaching of writing. During the next three years, this support will
help us discover what is possible in classrooms where students have regular access to
computers and can use technological tools that have the potential to both transform the
teaching of reading and writing and expand students' use of language. Under the leadership
of the NYCWP Technology Liaison, New York City teachers at all grade levels have
experienced firsthand online conference boards, web quests, web page design, the creation
of hypertext stories, and digital poetry. During the 2004-05 school year, 19 teachers have
been guided through Weblogs and Beyond, a seminar introducing the world of blogging,
wikis, and other new media. In addition to the seminar, the NYCWP's Technology Liaison
also hosts an "open lab" at his school once a week. Technology specialists from
other city schools can visit, share ideas, and do some work. The long-term goal is to
create a cohort of NYCWP teachers and teacher consultants who can use blogs and wikis and
pass on those skills to an ever-growing number of teachers and students.
As a university-based professional development program dedicated to the improvement of the
teaching of writing, the New York City Writing Project contributes to special CUNY-wide
collaborations. Our most current and enduring collaboration involves city high school
teachers and professors from CUNY colleges.
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Looking Both Ways
(LBW)
LBW spans boundaries
by engaging high school and college faculty in ongoing inquiry into literacy development.
Co-directed and facilitated by NYCWP professional staff and CUNY faculty, LBW provides a
"space for teacher reflection on practice and purpose in education." (August
& Wolfe, 2005). Sponsored by the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs, LBW is designed as a
series of seminars through which faculty at two levels of the K-12 spectrum share
readings, present their work, examine student writing, and ask regularly what is useful to
teachers. In addition to this question, seminars focus on key aspects of writing
instruction: the concept of academic literacy, the connections between reading and
writing, student language, resistances, and assessing writing. Since its inception in
1998, LBW has produced two publications, Looking Both
Ways: High School and College Teachers Talk About Language and Learning (eds.George
Otte and Carl Whithaus) and Facilitating
Collaboration: Issues in High School/College Professional Development (eds.
Bonne August and Marcie Wolfe).
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