Registration is now open for our summer workshops. We have four sites scheduled and more to come. Please see “Schedule/Registration” under “Professional Development Offerings” above.
Author: Colorado Writing Project
Connections Project Artwork from Christina Pierson
This is Christina Pierson’s CWP 1 Connections Project, a work of art about the writing process that she will hang in her classroom at Louisville Elementary School in Louisville, Colorado. This is hand-dyed silk. Christina completed CWP 1 in June of 2015.
Christina Pierson’s connections project–hand-dyed silk.
Different Students, Different Needs: How Teachers Differentiate by Abby Mallett
A fourth grade teacher sits at her desk, the first rays of morning sunshine cutting through the blinds and striping the stained carpet. Her eyes move swiftly across the screen of her computer, open to a student’s writing from yesterday. The only sounds are the click of keys and scribble of a pen as she types comments into the document and makes notes on a chart next to her.
The bell rings, jolting her out of concentration. She quickly switches the document to a morning message to display on the screen for her students. The teacher proceeds to the door, opening it with a smile. She greets her students with a “Good morning” in a cheery voice. The quiet room becomes a hubbub of children’s voices and movements as they unpack backpacks, sharpen pencils, and recount stories of yesterday’s adventures to their friends.
The teacher joins the hubbub, moving quickly, but unhurried around the room. She stops at a student’s desk and discreetly gives him a graphic organizer to help with his morning spelling assignment. “I hope your sentences make me laugh again today,” she tells another student with a wink. A student struggling to hang up a backpack gets a hand from the teacher and a gentle point to remind him to read the morning message. An energetic girl runs up to her, eyes lit with excitement.
“Guess what!” she exclaims. Continue reading
Higher Level Mentor Texts, 5th Grade from Molly Kirk
Molly Kirk teaches 5th grade at Foothill Elementary in Boulder. For her CWP 2 research project, she created a database of mentor texts to use with her students. In her research paper, Molly explained the resource she wanted:
I have been using mentor texts for writing for the past two years and love how quickly my students connect to them and how they return to them over and over again. My teaching partner and I thought it might be most useful to use those mentor texts for two reasons – for guiding writing and for guiding souls. What if every text we used was not just laced with amazing writing craft but also with great life advice? What if we focused on CCSS AND helping our students find connection, compassion and character while they are learning? I set out to create a resource that was tailored to meet both of those criteria.
You can find the database she built here.
Molly completed CWP 1 in June of 2013 and CWP 2 in June of 2015.
Aliens by Holly Hughes
I live with Aliens.
They’ve been with us for millennium,
but they are not like you and me.
With me they walk around on their
five,
six,
seven toed feet.
You know,
Hemingway loved them.
These aliens come from that Hemingway line.
Perhaps there’s something of Ernest in them.
They are dramatic after all.
Crying out at odd times.
Not too clear about what they’re trying to communicate.
Saying it regardless.
Staggering there and then here
on those
five,
six,
seven toed feet.
Willing to do anything to remain, the
Center of Attention.
Hacking sounds.
Piles left in hidden places
to be found
when others are present,
visiting,
or stepped on in the middle of the night.
Perhaps Hemingway was an Alien.
I can see him flicking his tail,
Certainty in his Being.
I provide for my aliens and they ignore me.
I put treats in their food to help their
skin,
digestion,
teeth
and they stare me down.
Really?
I’m not necessarily afraid of them, mind you,
even though I wake to see them sitting above me,
but it’s not like they’re my friends either.
They’re nothing like you and me.
They’re aliens.
That’s really all there is to say about it.
Holly Hughes teaches at Community Montessori in Boulder and completed CWP 1 in June of 2015.
CWP is on Pinterest!
CWP Teacher Consultants Lead a Writing Workshop at the First Queer Young Adult Literature Conference
Thank you to Mike Wenk and sj miller for inviting us to take part in this groundbreaking conference.
Register now for CWP summer workshops!
Please visit our page on Two-week Summer Workshops to read about this awesome professional development opportunity.
And take a look at our Two-Day Seminars here.
Visit our Schedule/Registration page to see this summer’s schedule and to register.
Read about this summer’s Young Writers Camp here.
CWP Co-sponsors Colorado Day of Writing
CWP co-sponsored a Day of Writing for teachers on April 7, 2012.
Twenty-four teachers attended the session in Colorado Springs led by CWP Director, Karen Hartman. Host, Vince Puzick, gave the following report of the day:
After a 90 minute workshop session with Karen Hartman to get our narrative juices flowing and ground us in the idea of teacher stories, the participants wrote independently for the next three hours. When we gathered together to share our writing at the end of that time, we had a rich tapestry of teacher stories. Our narratives ranged from humorous lessons during TCAP preparation, to emotionally moving accounts of teacher-student interactions, to articulated frustrations when the cry for more accountability crashes into our plea for more authentic experiences for our students. As is usually the case after experiencing writing workshop and sharing our writing, a small community of teacher-writers came together and shared in meaningful ways.
Participants had this to say about the day:
This was a shot in the arm for me! I love that there was time to write deeply. When is the next one?
Excellent conference–I want to use the line “Who needs to hear this story and why?” in my class.
Today was a wonderful opportunity to get to sit and organize my thoughts and to be reminded that, as a teacher, I have to take the time to tell my story.
CWP Consultant Co-Authors Book
Stevi Quate’s career in education has spanned many years as a secondary teacher, service as State Literacy Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Education and a professor at University of Colorado at Denver. She embodies that dictum that teachers of writing must also be writers themselves. Her recent book, Clock Watchers (Heinemann), draws on all her experience and addresses what she and her co-author, John McDermott, felt was an essential and necessary focus of their teaching: “How can I motivate my students and then create a context that will engage them?” Clock Watchers is their powerful answer to that question—a plan that gets kids to care about learning and truly engage with the curriculum.
Quate and McDermott apply the research on motivation and engagement to support increased achievement and improved attitudes about school, using a framework that:
- catches students’ interest across the content areas
- holds it through meaningful learning and valuable interactions
- uses assessment to create further opportunities to connect kids with content
- sustains it all with ideas for projects, activities, and even classroom routines and rituals.
The book has received positive reviews from educators who have used its ideas and strategies to address issues of motivation with a variety of students across the grade levels. Congratulations to Stevi.
Colorado Writing Project 