Because Writing Matters (eBook)

The National Writing Project (NWP) is a nationwide professional development program for teachers begun in 1974 at the University of California, Berkeley. Through its extensive network of teachers, the NWP seeks to promote exemplary instruction of writing in every classroom in America. Carl Nagin is a journalist, editor, and teacher. He has worked for the PBS series Frontline, and his articles have appeared in such national publications as The New Yorker, the New York Times, and Art and Antiques where his writing was nominated for a National Magazine Award. He taught writing at both the high school and college level for more than fifteen years as a faculty member at Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music.

Preface ix

The Authors xi

INTRODUCTION Why Writing Matters 1

ONE Improving Student Writing: Challenges and Expectations 9

TWO Learning to Write 19

THREE Writing to Learn 43

FOUR Professional Development 57

FIVE Standards and Assessments for Writing 71

SIX What Administrators Can Do to Create

Effective Writing Programs 87

Notes 105

Bibliography 115

Index 123

"Because Writing Matters has sweeping appeal to teachers,
administrators, and parents alike. It is full of pragmatic tools to
increase both the quantity and the quality of writing in schools.
Not haughty or esoteric, it is relevant, accessible and, above all,
a practical guidebook that presents ways by which writing within
the educational landscape can be improved."

--Aiken Essays in Education

"I just finished a fantastic book about writing. In about 120
pages, the authors synthesize years of insights into writing,
instruction, professional development, and assessment...I felt
like I learned something new with each page, or found on each page
some important new validation for what I already do in my own
classroom."

--Jim Burke, Burlington High Scholl, California, CATEnet

"You would have to read hundreds of books and articles to
acquire knowledge comparable to what you can get by reading this
slim but full packed volume developed by the National Writing
Project and written by a journalist and writing teacher."

--AP Central

"Once I started reading, I could not put the book down until I
had finished. My copy of Because Writing Matters is riddled
with sticky notes to myself about how I can enhance my own efforts
to bring writing and the teaching of writing to the
foreground."

--Voices from the Middle

"For the first time, in a reader-friendly format, those
strategies of successful school writing programs have been
documented in a new book titled Because Writing
Matters."

--Town Talk Newspapers

"Timely and persuasive, Because Writing Matters offers
classroom teachers, administrators, and those who work with
pre-service teachers more than encouragement; it provides a
'so what' plus the 'how to' necessary to
make real changes in the ways writing is taught and assessed. One
of the book's greatest strengths is the way relevant
information is succinctly presented.

--English Journal

"If you want or need to know more about teaching writing, the
bibliography is a comprehensive source. The great writing teachers
and well-known researchers listed here have built a knowledge base
for a discipline many of us have taken for granted."

--English Leadership Quarterly

"The NWP and Nagin have written a concise, well-organized primer
that introduces school leaders to writing as a thinking and
learning tool."

--Bryn Mawr/Haverford College Journal of Teacher
Education