National Writing Project Awards Grant to the UMD Writing Project
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
The University of Maryland Writing Project (UMdWP)—housed in the College of Education--has been selected to receive a 2019-20 Advanced Institute Scale Up the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) grant in the amount of $15,000 from the National Writing Project (NWP).
The National Writing Project focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation’s educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners. The purpose of this grant is to invest in 10 or more experienced middle and high school Writing Project teacher-leaders through an Advanced Institute to take place during the summer of 2019 and continue during the 2019-20 school year.
The mission of UMdWP is to elevate the professional knowledge, expertise and leadership capacity of K-16 teachers across all disciplines in order to engage diverse learners in transformative writing practices leading students to critical thinking and greater self-awareness. UMdWP partners with local school districts to empower teachers who in turn empower their students.
“Teachers who have participated in past UMdWP programs have successfully created professional development programs for the State of Maryland Literacy Association and various local county school districts,” stated Margaret Polizos Peterson, PhD, assistant clinical professor and co-director of UMdWP. “It has been evident through our past experience and discussions with teachers who have participated in UMdWP programs that teachers are seeking extended professional development opportunities in writing that are well-integrated with the other demands of their teaching priorities – and the C3WP grant will allow us to administer those opportunities.”
UMD’s Writing Project will use the grant to administer an Advanced Teacher Institute to engage prior participants in increasing their teacher leadership in writing. The Advanced Institute will be led by Beth Singleton, co-director of UMdWP, in collaboration with the UMdWP leadership team, including Shana Sterkin, UMdWP teacher coach.
“We see the C3WP Advanced Institute as opening new opportunities for upper elementary and secondary teachers within our site to develop their teacher-leadership capacity,” Beth Singleton says. “The C3WP would allow us to offer many of our teachers a next step in their professional development, as well as further support the goals of our local partnerships with high-needs schools and high-needs school districts in our region.”
UMdWP is one of only 10 programs to receive the C3WP grant out of more than 200 NWP sites.
Applications for the advanced institute will be accepted March 2019. Fifteen teacher consultants of the UMdWP will be chosen to participate in this program set to begin July 2019.
