Fight for NWP
As a citizen taxpayer, parent, and educator I am always looking to get the most for the money I spend. I expect and hope that the elected officials in our country would do the same. For me, that is the well spent monies on the National Writing Project which has been been major in helping this generation become writers. This should be part of the nations spending as it supports students in every state. With technology and the fast paced world our children need to communicate well. The National Writing Project has helped and continues to help facilitate excellent writing and communication for many teachers and many thousands of students. Ultimately the winners are our children. In this current economy, the crunch is coming on the back of our students and their all important education. Writing is a foundation skill that everyone needs. The monies used with the National Writing Project do the most good for the most people.
As professionals we all can tell you that writing has come into its own as a major part of the elementary curriculum with the encouragement and support of the NWP. Writing was an important part of my classroom- written response and creative writing. (One of the few times a child can still be creative.) Unlike their parents’ classrooms, today’s school children really look at the art of writing and all that is involved. For current students’ parents and past generations, writing was basically graded on whether the writing piece had correct punctuation and proper grammar rather than content. There was little instruction on the craft of writing. Content was rarely considered even for checking on subject understanding. The written work was often returned to the writer covered in notes about what was wrong in the areas of convention. Thanks to the National Writing Project children are much more aware of their own writing and that of others. They realize they are writers. The realization of the importance of communication of thoughts and ideas was realized and raised up by many educators and the NWP made writing officially an important part of the foundation of learning. Today’s young writers are introduced to concepts including ideas, organization, word choice, consideration of audience, and becoming aware of how different authors create/work their craft along with the grammar and punctuation. Children of today are very aware of the strong entwined connections between writing and reading.
The second paragraph can also be found on my blog- http://educatoreye.blogspot.com Carolyn Newell
