Nineteen local teachers will join approximately 3,000
kindergarten-through-college teachers across the country who will
be attending four-week National Writing Project (NWP) Summer
Institutes to learn new strategies to improve their students'
writing skills.
"The Virgin Islands teachers who attend the Summer Institute will
return to their classrooms next fall equipped with proven
strategies for teaching young people how to write and how to use
writing to learn," said Sharon J. Washington, NWP Executive
Director. "Writing continues to be the signature means of
communication in the digital age, and these institutes provide
valuable continuous learning opportunities for local
teachers."
The Summer Institute model will be in place locally when the V.I.
Writing Project (VIWP) gets underway on June 21. For the first
time, the VIWP will conduct two institutes-one on St. Thomas and
one on St. Croix-to accommodate St. Thomas teachers who were
formerly required to live on St. Croix while attending the
institute. One St. Thomas teacher expressed the views of most St.
Thomas teachers when she said she had wanted to attend the
institute for many years, but could not leave her family to live on
St. Croix for four weeks.
Located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
and the U. S. Virgin Islands and co-directed by local university
faculty and classroom teachers, the NWP institutes offer teachers
the opportunity to study the latest research on the teaching of
writing and share knowledge, expertise, and effective classroom
practices.
"The National Writing Project is our parent company, which funds us
in partnership with the V.I. Department of Education and UVI," said
VIWP Director Valerie Combie. The VIWP Summer Institutes will take
place on UVI's St. Croix and St. Thomas campuses from June 21
through July 13.
National research studies confirm significant gains in writing
performance among students whose teachers participate in NWP
programs. Past surveys of teachers who participated in summer
institutes found that 95 percent gave high ratings "to the
institute's contribution to their understanding of the teaching of
writing and its usefulness for their own classrooms and students"
(Inverness Research).
The National Writing Project is a nationwide network of educators
working together to improve the teaching or writing in the nation's
schools and in other settings. NWP provides high-quality
professional development programs to teachers in a variety of
disciplines and at all levels, from early childhood through
university. For more information, visit www.nwp.org.
For more information contact VIWP Director Valerie Combie at
692-4126.
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