Resourceful Research
24
By the summer of 2010, Keri had founded a site of the National Writing Project (NWP) at Missouri State University. Betsy, a literacy coach from an area school, participated, along with 19 other teachers, in a Summer Invitational Institute (SI) on the campus of Missouri State University. What is commonly known as “the model” of the Summer Institute began in 1974 and is outlined in Jim Gray’s work Teachers at the Center (2000). Lieberman and Wood (2002) describe the innovative and shared practices that mark National Writing Project’s professional development:
- Treat every colleague as a potentially
valuable contributor.
- Teach other teachers.
- Share, discuss, and critique in public
forums.
- Turn ownership of learning over to the
learners.
- Situate learning in practice and
relationships.
- Provide multiple entry points into learning
communities.
- Reflect on teaching by reflecting on
learning.
- Share leadership.
- Adopt a stance of inquiry.
- Rethink professional identity and link it to
the professional community.
The NWP model guides the work at each site and presents a few non-negotiables when working with adult learners in professional development that is specifically focused on writing. In the Summer Institute, teachers write and share their writing in public forums (partner shares, whole groups, and online with a national audience). While teachers ask students to write often, teachers have had little time to write themselves. By writing and sharing writing in the Summer Institute, we put ourselves in the shoes of students and quickly learn lessons about discrepancies regarding the way we teach writing and the way we experience writing as a writer.
A typical day in the Summer Institute begins with writing, usually freewriting, followed by small writing groups, reading research about writing, and participating in a teaching demonstration on writing across content areas led by a fellow participant, followed with a
The Power of Freewriting in Literacy Professional Development
by Betsy McQueen with Keri Franklin
Dr. Keri Franklin is an Associate Professor of English at Missouri State University. She is also the Director of the Ozarks Writing Project.
Betsy McQueen is a literacy coach at Branson Intermediate School and a Teacher-Consultant of the Ozarks Writing Project, a site of the National Wrting Project.