The Canisius Western New York Writing Project (WNYWP), one of nearly 200 NWP sites, has received two grants totaling $40,000. One grant will be used to conduct an Advanced Institute for Writing Project Teachers, and the other will provide at least 30 hours of Professional Development in Writing Instruction for Teachers Serving High-Need Students.
In March of this year, the National Writing Project (NWP), based in Berkeley, California, received a $11.3 million federal grant to train 3,000 K-12 teacher-leaders in writing education, who will then conduct professional development for teachers in local schools and districts in all 50 states.
The Advanced Institute begins this summer and will sustain ongoing collaboration among participants throughout the school year and early next summer. Twenty WNYWP members will gather to write and create professional development opportunities for dissemination in Canisius partnership schools. Topics for professional development will be related to the integration of the Common Core Learning Standards, the integration of technology across the curriculum and the teaching of writing.
The WNYWP will partner with Canisius College Professional Development School, Tapestry Charter High School, to provide ongoing, regular support to the teachers for the full academic year. Teachers will examine their students’ performance as well as their teaching methods and practice and work together with WNYWP to improve teaching and skill in writing.
Both grants were submitted to the NWP by the recently retired Director of the WNYWP, Dr. Suzanne Borowicz, PhD, in collaboration with Marie Larcara, EdD and Elizabeth Brandjes, who will facilitate the work of these grants as the new co-directors of the WNYWP.
Learn more about NWP and the WNYWP, or contact Rosemary Evans, WNYWP secretary, at Ext. 3134
Submitted by:Â Michael J. Pardales, PhD, dean, School of Education and Human Services
