| Series 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 | Series 4 | Series 5 |

Inservice Programs: These programs—offered both in the summer and during the school year—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 encouraging local leadership through teacher participation in the Invitational Summer Institute. Each program is tailored to meet the needs of participating counties, schools and teachers.

Please contact Barbara Holmes @ holmes26@marshall.edu to discuss bringing this training to your school.

Series 1: Pack ‘N Go Writing Across the Curriculum

 Pack 'N Go Writing Across the Curriculum is a fifteen-hour professional development series based primarily on Reviving the Essay by Gretchen Bernabei. It includes additional projects such as RAFT writing and Problem-based learning. Teachers will be able to pack up each session and take exciting ideas directly into their classrooms for all subject areas. Pack 'N Go Writing across the Curriculum is an activity-filled series with a "learn by doing" atmosphere. Additionally, series coordinators will invite talented teacher consultants from the Central West Virginia Writing Project to share successful writing experiences from their own secondary classrooms.

Target Audience: Grade Levels 6-12

Teachers meet for five three-hour meetings, scheduled every other week

Series 2: Five Steps to Success

Five Steps to Success is a fifteen-hour professional development series based on Gail Thompkins’ outstanding book, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. It focuses on five steps that help secondary school students become better writers, and five levels of support that teachers can use with every student to guide writing in any content area. By using the steps as a guide, teachers can encourage students to assume more responsibility for writing. Teacher consultants from the Central West Virginia Writing Project add a repertoire of successful writing experiences from their own classrooms, as well.

Target Audience: Grade Levels 6-12

Teachers meet for five three-hour meetings, scheduled every other week

Series 3: Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment Test

Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment Test is a fifteen-hour professional development series based on the book by Jane Kiester. Presenters offer classroom-tested ideas to improve essay writing in narrative, expository and informative, descriptive, and persuasive writing. Activities include burying dead verbs, identifying and incorporating strong verbs, using the state writing rubric, and specific suggestions to ease the writing process for students and teachers. Teachers will have time to implement ideas in their classrooms in all subject areas and share results with their peers in a supportive atmosphere. The series coordinator will invite talented teacher consultants from the Central West Virginia Writing Project to share successful writing experiences from their own classrooms, as well.

Target Audience: Grade Levels K-9

Teachers meet for five three-hour meetings, scheduled every other week

Series 4: Writing … It’s Elementary!

Author Lois Bridges writes, “We write to find meaning, to make sense, to record events that matter.” Writing …It’s Elementary! is a fifteen-hour professional development series based on Ms. Bridges’ book, Writing as a Way of Knowing, and taught by practicing educators. The series offers a wide range of successful, practical classroom writing strategies and techniques. Participants will expand their writing repertoires as they learn to make writing possibilities visible and accessible for their students.

Target Audience: Grade Levels K-5 (also appropriate for Language Arts teachers 6-12)

Teachers meet for five three-hour meetings, scheduled every other week

Series 5: Writing Workshop for Primary Children

Writing Workshop for Primary Children is a fifteen-hour professional development series based on Helping Children Become Readers through Writing, by Arlene C. Schulze (2006). To become literate, young children must be able to use the alphabetic principle (sound-to-letter correspondence) in the process of writing and reading messages that communicate. This series explains the most effective and developmentally appropriate way to teach the alphabetic principle and to engage children in its meaningful practice in primary level Writing Workshop. It is an interactive, hands-on method of helping your emergent writers and readers become early writers and readers. The series coordinator will invite talented teacher consultants from the Central West Virginia Writing Project to share successful writing experiences from their own primary classrooms, as well.

Target Audience: Grade Levels K-3

Teachers meet for five three-hour meetings, scheduled every other week

Last updated November 9, 2006