I attended the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project’s Summer Institute for Teachers this past July.  The teachers and instructors that I spent July, 2010 with were inspiring and motivating.  We shared ideas, researched questions, and created presentations.  We listened to and interacted with poets, professors, performers, and journalists.  It was a fantastic experience.  I believe that my fourth grade students and I are reaping the benefits of this experience as we work together to build their writing skills.  Understanding the process of a writer by becoming a writer has allowed me to model the process for my students in a way that I would not have understood and would not have taken seriously prior to my work with the NWP.  This modeling is turning out to be a key feature of my writing instruction.

The NWP has revolutionized my teaching practice and prepared me to take on leadership responsibilities at my school.  One measure of the Writing Project’s impact will be our student’s improved performance on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).  This is important but the impact on my students is so much greater.  They think of themselves as writers and they enjoy writing across the curriculum.  They wrote field guides, memoirs, and poetry.  They are currently writing mysteries and are working on improving their math explanations.  They are learning to value the writing process and I believe that it is helping them communicate better and helping them to learn more. 

I have also seen my students build their social skills by sharing their writing and commenting on the writing of their peers.  Practicing how to speak to each other without hurting anyone’s feelings is helping to decrease bullying incidents.  Sharing a piece of writing with the class requires a safe and kind classroom community.   Our writing both contributes to this classroom community and is a result of the strong classroom community that we are building.

The NWP revolutionized my teaching practice.  It is the only organization that provides this kind of professional development experience for teachers.  Losing funding is an enormous disservice to our students and their future.

Sincerely,

Joe Burke

Fourth Grade Teacher

Pittsburgh, PA