Collection Overview
From the Archives: Celebrating 50 Years of NWP Teacher Resources
In this collection
See allIn 1974 a revolutionary form of professional development for teachers was born. At its core were the knowledge, leadership, and best practices of effective teachers, and fundamental to its design was the sharing of that knowledge with other teachers.
Throughout 2024, the 50th year of the National Writing Project, Writing Project teachers are surfacing and sharing teaching ideas from the past, that are still relevant today.
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Incorporating Multigenre Writing in the Social Studies Classroom
Noting the gap between the level of sophistication of her students’ writing in writing workshop and in social studies, teacher Kari Scheidel reflected upon her teaching practice, asking “How do I use writing effectively in social studies?" and "How do I find time for it?” In this article she shares how she developed inspiring ideas for having students practice multi-genre writing to learn in social studies. In the process, she also shares samples of student writing in American History and suggests how students' individual and collaboratively-authored pieces inspire their creative engagement at the same time that they build their subject area knowledge. This piece, along with the suggested readings included at the end, may be useful in genre study workshops and professional development focused on content-area literacy.
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Real World History: Six Videos that Model and Inspire
Looking for ways to involve high-school students in using historical tools to craft arguments and make personal connections to current issues? These six short NWP-produced videos spotlight Cosby Hunt’s Real World History program, one of the 2014 LRNG Innovators Challenge grantees. Real World History is a high-school course that frames history as an argument about the past and teaches students to think like historians. The video footage, focused on a study of the Great Migration of the 20th Century, could be a springboard for curriculum design or spark conversation in classes or professional development focused on disciplinary literacy with a social justice bent.
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Linda Christensen: Social Justice, Teaching Writing, and Teaching Teachers
Linda Christensen’s work is a great starting point and resource for anyone looking to integrate teaching for social justice into the classroom or designing/facilitating a professional learning experience focused on social justice and equity. Included with the article is a brief video interview with Christensen, a bibliography of additional Christensen articles and books, and a downloadable sample chapter from the book.
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Also Recommended
The Write Time with Author Keenan Jones and Educator Ali Adan
This episode of The Write Time features Keenan Jones, author of Saturday Morning at the Shop. Keenan is interviewed by Delaware elementary teacher Ali Adan.
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Student Voices and Public Writing
Publishing is an important stage of the writing process, and writing for audiences beyond the teacher makes writing more meaningful and can inspire students to do their best work. This chapter supports English teachers to help young people find ways for their voices to be heard, with a focus on student writing about the climate crisis.
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Starting Small: Growing Literacy-Based Climate Pedagogy by Enhancing Existing Curricula
This chapter supports elementary teachers who want to develop literacy-based climate pedagogy by enhancing existing curriculum—for example, by adding interactive read-alouds of literature or multimodal texts, topical word work, or mentor texts for writing.
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