Maryland Writing Project Site Information

The Maryland Writing Project is an approved affiliate of the National Writing Project, a network of over 200 sites across the country and around the world that seeks to improve the teaching of writing at all levels of education, kindergarten through university. The NWP has been recognized by the American Association for Higher Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as "an outstanding and nationally significant example of how schools and colleges can collaborate to improve American education." The National Writing Project has recognized the Maryland Writing Project as one of its exemplary sites.

More than 800 teachers from all over the state of Maryland have participated in the MWP's Summer Teacher Institute since its inception in 1981. Our mission is to bring together successful educators to support and enhance each other's instruction through shared best practice, enriching and empowering our own lives and the lives of our students through writing.

 

The MWP is committed to the following goals:

• improving the writing of all students
  
• strengthening university and school collaboration on writing instruction
  
• strengthening the use of writing as a learning tool in the content areas
  
• increasing the professional power of classroom teachers.


Believing that teachers can empower other teachers, member of the Project provide an environment in which teachers can learn from one another and then share that learning with others in their departments, schools, and districts. The Writing Project promotes teacher professionalism, teacher authority, and teacher power. It recognizes the expertise of successful classroom teachers and puts these teachers to work teaching others. In short, it is a model that celebrates good teaching.

The MWP encourages diverse approaches to the teaching of writing. We promote no set formulas or packaged plans or single approach. Instead, in our summer and school-year programs, we introduce teachers to a range of informed and effective practices in writing instruction that has emerged over the past three decades. We believe that knowledge about teaching writing results from the interaction between theory and practice. Our theoretical understanding of teaching writing and using writing as a learning tool should inform our practice and vice versa.

The MWP is supported by both the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts at Towson University, which provides meeting space, secretarial support, equipment, and an archive of research articles and books used by teachers throughout the state. The Project serves as a permanent resource for teachers in the diverse educational institutions throughout the state. For most teachers, the MWP is the only real network available for sharing and disseminating writing theory and practice across the curriculum and across the state. Teachers throughout the state are invited to participate by attending the energizing and exciting Summer Teacher Institute held at TU and at our satellite sites in Southern Maryland and Frederick County. Teacher may also contact the MWP office to learn about our staff development in-service programs that can be presented at area schools.

MWP GOALS

• to identify exemplary teachers of writing who can teach other teachers
• to sponsor teacher consultants who conduct workshops state-wide
• to run a Summer Teacher Institute for outstanding teachers at all grade levels and across all disciplines
• to support teachers themselves as writers
• to support improvement in the teaching of writing
• to support classroom-based, action research on writing and writing instruction
• to maintain a partnership between the schools and the university
• to ensure cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity within the program