The Chippewa River Writing Project (CRWP), as a site of the National Writing Project (NWP), adheres to a model of “teachers teaching teachers,” and creates local teacher consultants who provide professional development experiences for their colleagues. Through opportunities such as our invitational summer institute, advanced institutes, and mentorship by site leaders, our teacher consultants are prepared to facilitate a variety of professional development sessions such as half- or whole-day staff workshops, classroom coaching, and week-long institutes.
The most powerful piece to this workshop involved the modeling, writing, and reflecting. I think we, as teachers, forget what it is like to be writers.
– CRWP PD Participant
Our cohort of CRWP teacher consultants spans experts from all grade levels, elementary school through college, and can present on a variety of topics such as:
- NWP’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program;
- Creating a writing workshop;
- Conferring with student writers;
- Effective strategies for revision;
- Writing across the curriculum; and
- Integrating technology and writing.
Our professional development experiences engage participants in activities both as writers and teachers of writing. Specifically, we can offer workshops in 90 minute, 3 hour, or 6 hour formats and we aim to customize our services based on local needs for your students, staff, and school. Ideally, we would aim to work with a group of teachers at the school as part of a voluntary professional development experience, and would meet with them periodically over an entire school year, although we can offer one-time events as well.
Going through C3WP [NWP’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program] was, truthfully, transformative. I feel much more confident because I feel that I now have the correct fundamentals…I was more confident this year, and so were my students. It was a wonderful experience that I would encourage anyone to take part of, not just ELA teachers.
– CRWP PD Participant
We have partnered with schools and intermediate school districts across Michigan, including:
- Byron Area Schools
- Cadillac Area Public Schools
- Carson City-Crystal Schools
- Charlevoix-Emmet ISD
- Clare-Gladwin RESD
- Gratiot-Isabella RESD
- Greenville Schools
- Kent County ISD
- Lansing Schools
- Traverse Bay Area ISD
Please contact our director, Troy Hicks, with questions that you might have about CRWP professional development opportunities.