Tracing Our Path to Writing: NYSEC and CDWP Partnership Solidifies for the 2024 Conference

Image courtesy: www.albany.edu/education/capital-district-writing-project

We are so excited to be partnering with the Capital District Writing Project again to bring you writing space during the conference and also “Writing into the day” on Thursday morning. Also, we can’t wait for NYSEC attendees to get their hands on two recent publications to maintain CDWP practices throughout the year! Teaching with Arts-Infused Writing Pedagogies published by Teachers College Press, and We Are Dreaming of Freedom, a self-published e-publication.

CDWP Teacher Consultants also continually offer workshops at NYSEC each year. Two you can take advantage of are:

Discovering Your Voices (Thursday)

Throughout our work creating the “Discovering Your Voice” Young Writers Workshop with the Capital District Writing project, we have reignited our own passion for writing and the power of sharing our collective voices both as an individual experience and as a practice in our classrooms. We utilized prompts that inspired meaningful reflection and used those reflections to foster collaborative writing, conversation, and personal growth. To recreate this collaborative writing experience, we will invite participants to immerse themselves in several writing activities designed to help them rediscover their own voices and feel the power of writing for themselves in a collaborative space — and perhaps later explore similar activities with their own students. Our hope is to offer an array of writing activities that can be utilized as stand alone assignments or modified to coincide with various types of literature. Simultaneously educational and cathartic, this workshop would serve as an opportunity for participants to do their OWN writing and encourage them to reignite their voices by learning from the past, navigating the present, and re-imagining the future.

Workshop led by: Chelsea Dyer, Emily Mack Hass, Shannon Spollen

Writing Hope Moments into English Education: Tracing Paths from the Past, to the Present, into the Future (Friday)

This session shares classroom-tested, student-centered approaches and classroom materials that immerse students and teachers in writing-based learning experiences. Presenters emphasize inquiry, agency, and critical reflection practices to create present and future pathways to hope and change in English education classrooms by reflecting on experiences of the past.

Workshop led by: Nicole Sieben, Allison Karcher (University at Albany), Christine Dawson (Siena College)

Want to know more?

The Capital District Writing Project (CDWP) is a community of K-College educators working to enhance the teaching of writing in the Capital Region’s schools. Located within UAlbany’s School of Education, the CDWP brings together teachers from throughout the Capital Region to create a vibrant community of life-long learners. As a site of the National Writing Project, we envision a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in an interconnected, digital world.

The CDWP offers a proven model for the professional development of teachers at all levels of education. We create opportunities for educators of all subject areas, community educators, and young people to experience writing as purposeful, joyful, and socially transformative. We provide sustained, experiential, and immersive professional learning, guided by systematic inquiry into practice, led by teachers, for teachers, in collaboration with university partners. Our model is grounded in an ethic of reciprocity in which we learn with and from each other and from the scholarship of teaching. In addition to our signature Invitational Summer Institute for teachers, we also offer young writers workshops and sponsor events in and for the community.

Numerous independent research studies show that students of teachers who participate in the National Writing Project yield significant gains in writing achievement.

Sincerely Yours,

Bridgette E. Gallagher
2024 Conference Chair
Social Media Coordinator
President-Elect 2023-2024

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