Faculty members and students associated with the Greater Madison Writing Project at UW–Madison work with teachers in rural school districts like Gresham, Wisconsin, to offer professional development for educators as well as enrichment opportunities for students and young adult writers.
Bryn Orum and Mark Dziedzic are co-directors of the Greater Madison Writing Project (GMWP), which is housed in the School of Education’s office of Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE). The GMWP began in 2011 as a joint effort between the College of Letters and Science and the School of Education, and is affiliated with the National Writing Project.
The College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) is an intensive professional development program that provides teachers with instructional resources and formative assessment tools for teaching evidence-based argument writing. Teachers in C3WP typically participate in 45 hours of professional development each year year for two years, experiencing instructional materials of the highest quality, learning to analyze student work carefully to determine instructional next steps, and leading their students towards active participation in their communities through argument writing.
Bringing together university educators and K-12 classrooms creates a unique and powerful energy, said Dziedzic.
“There are great things happening in the classrooms that can have a positive impact at the university, and there’s great research taking place at the university that can have a really positive impact on K-12 classrooms,” Dziedzic said.
Learn more the GMWP’s work with teachers in rural schools districts in this video that was shared on UW–Madison’s YouTube channel.