Overview / Writing Workshops / Mission, Principles / Teacher Coaches / Results

Mission:

To strengthen student skills and confidence in writing by developing expertise among teachers and by creating a culture of writing in schools.

Guiding Principles:

• Writing skills are essential in helping students shape their thinking and demonstrate what they know. They are critical life skills that students must master if they're to experience success in the classroom and beyond.
• Writing builds community within classrooms and across schools, allowing for individual expression that fosters greater understanding. 
• Student writers thrive in a safe, supportive writing community with predictable routines, strong instruction, high expectations, and opportunities to confer one-to-one with a writing mentor.
• Teachers, who are essential members of the writing community, benefit students most when they model their own writing and think aloud through their writing process.
• Students need to write at least 45 minutes a day, four days a week, to significantly strengthen skills.  
• The best writing emerges from the everyday details of students' lives. 
• When students choose their own topics, writing for real purposes and real audiences, they invest in their writing and want to grow as writers. 
• Teachers learn best when professional development is provided within the context of their classrooms.
• Meaningful assessment supports students and strengthens writing instruction.

.