Central West Virginia Writing Project

Invitational Summer Institute: This is the core program to develop teacher-consultants. Participants are selected with the expectation that they will assume leadership roles in their counties, while guided and supported by CWVWP. For 17 days during the summer, each participant develops a personal culture of writing that will enable him or her to incorporate writing in the classroom and to teach other teachers. Stipend is $1,000.00. The stipend may be spent on six hours of master's level graduate credit, offered at reduced tuition by Marshall University South Charleston.

Continuity Programs: Designed for Teacher Consultants from all Invitational Summer Institutes, these programs develop the leadership of teacher-consultants. They provide an ongoing professional community for teachers committed to improving their students' writing, their own writing, and their leadership skills.

Study Groups: Teacher Consultants are invited to organize teachers in their schools to study methods of teaching writing and using writing across the curriculum for student improvement. CWVWP supports Study Group coordinators with stipends, book purchases, and encouragement.

Inservice Programs: Inservice programs--offered both in the summer and during the school year--have as their primary purpose to provide professional development to teachers, teacher candidates, administrators, schools (kindergarten through university), and districts in our site's service area. CWVWP Teacher Consultants deliver series programs that contribute to creating a culture of writing within a school, increasing the amount and quality of writing that children are guided to do, and building local leadership through support of continuity programs.

Evaluation Studies: CWVWP designs various assessments of the effectiveness of our programs and their impact on teachers and schools.

Central West Virginia Writing Project Mission Statment

As an affiliate of the National Writing Project (NWP), the Central West Virginia Writing Project (CWVWP) endorses their mission and assumptions (beliefs) which are contained herein with some additions and revisions for our locality.

The mission of the CWVWP is to improve the teaching of writing and improve learning in the schools of central West Virginia. Through its professional development model, CWVWP recognizes the primary importance of teacher knowledge, expertise, and leadership which impact students, schools, and extends into the community. CWVWP believes that access to high quality educational experiences that incorporate 21^st century skills is a basic right of all learners and a cornerstone of equity. Through its network of teachers, the CWVWP seeks to promote exemplary instruction of writing in every classroom in central WV. CWVWP values diversity—our own as well as that of our students, their families and their communities. We recognize that our lives and practices are enriched when those with whom we interact represent diversities of race, gender, class, ethnicity, and language.

Leadership Team

Director:	Barbara Dondiego Holmes Marshall University South Charleston 100 Angus E. Peyton Drive South Charleston, WV 304-746-1947 holmes26@marshall.edu
Co-director:	Paul Epstein Ruffner Elementary Charleston, WV pepstein@access.k12.wv.us
Tech Liaison	Carol Mathis cmathis@kcs.kana.k12.wv.us
Continuity Coordinator:	Pat Banning
Newsletter Editor:	Kelly Rucker
Webmaster:	Lisa A. Heaton heaton@marshall.edu

Last updated September 30, 2008