by Lauren Szmutko
Despite popular belief, teachers still go to school to learn.
The National Writing Project focuses on teachers teaching teachers.
“It has definitely improved my teaching style and writing ability of my first grade students,” said Charlotte Fiekor, a Putnam City elementary teacher.
Fiekor attended a 2014 summer workshop by the Oklahoma Writing Project on The University of Oklahoma campus. It’s one of two National Writing Project sites in Oklahoma. The other is the OSU Writing Project at Oklahoma State University.
Established by Jim Gray in 1974, the National Writing Project has more than 200 sites. A university’s college of education or English sponsors each one.
“We are one of the earliest sites within the whole network,” said Priscilla Griffith, director of Oklahoma Writing Project.
The project’s defining principle is that “every student deserves a good teacher of writing,” Griffith said.
Teachers attending a summer institute are required to apply and be interviewed. Then a committee approves the teacher.
Summer institutes are three weeks, four days per week. Teachers write various genres and demonstrate their teaching style.
“A three-day weekend gives the teachers a time to reflect on what they’re doing and to do the writing they need to do,” Griffith said.
Taking what they have learned, teachers help their students develop better writing skills.
Dale Elementary teacher Tamee Daniels said her third-graders “hate writing.”
“I normally give them three minutes to do a quick write at the beginning of the year. They moan and groan and hate it. We always have those students who draw instead of write, those who write one sentence, and, of course, who write a lot,” Daniels said.
But by teaching the writing process and making students read and write more, Daniels said her class greatly improves in its word choice, punctuation and grammar.
“At the end of the year, we wrote letters to the incoming third-graders, and a lot of them wrote (that) the best part was what they got to write or read,” she said.
Likewise, Fiekor said her students at Lake Park Elementary improve their writing skills.
“I get them from writing blurbs and short sentences to short paragraphs by the end of the year,” she said.
Teachers who attend the summer institute could be asked to be a coach at the institute.
“This is something I believe very strongly in. And being a coach at the summer institute this summer, I think it definitely makes a difference,” said Pioneer Intermediate teacher Deb Wade. “We have a kindergarten and a high school teacher in the same room. I think it speaks very highly for the organization.”
The Oklahoma Writing Project also hosts workshops and contests year-round for students and teachers. One contest is the Amazing Writing Race.
“It’s just like the TV show [“The Amazing Race”],” said Audra Plummer, the Oklahoma Writing Project co-director.
“We give the kids writing prompts. After they write, we give them a clue,” she said. “Since it’s held at a zoo, they have to go find the correct animal. We even put obstacles in the contest to throw them off, just like in the show.”
The contests have several categories. Winners can have their writing published in an anthology.
Daniels said students even choose to attend summer workshops.
When new state standards are released, several workshops are dedicated to the material.
Schools also team with the Oklahoma Writing Project to host writing nights. Parents are invited to join. Writing nights have a theme, which corresponds with the prompt of the night.
“If it’s a rock star,” Plummer said, “they write like a rock star. If it’s a CSI crime, they’ll write mysteries.”
The Oklahoma Writing Project recently received a grant to develop a family literacy program. It will partner with a Norman elementary school to help English language learners.
Over the years, more than 300 teachers have participated in the Oklahoma Writing Project. Considering each elementary teacher has 25-30 students and high school teachers have about 200 students, thousands of students have been affected by this project.
Because of this project, Griffith said, many students have become published authors and national merit scholars.
“We want to maintain our purpose and address the needs of teachers as they come up,” Griffith said. “We provide a safe professional community of teachers. It empowers them and allows them to understand or feel they have knowledge to share.”
Teachers who return to the Oklahoma Writing Project tell Griffith and Plummer the summer institute is among the best in-service training they have had.
“I think that’s one of the things that makes this project so successful,” Plummer said. “We give them the skills to do any number of … things.”
