How the RRVWP Spent Its Summer Vacation Part #1: Completion of the First College-Ready Writers Program Advanced Institute; Launch of the Second

L to R: Tanya, Kim, Angie, Lisa, Nancy, Becky, Tammy, and Kelly

Congratulations to the following teachers on completing the RRVWP's first College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP) Advanced Institute: Ann Duchscher, Becky Fisher, Nancy Gourde, Lisa Gusewelle, Angie Hase,  Tanya Neumiller, Cadie Olson, Tammy Linn, and Kim Rensch. In addition, Angie Hase co-facilitated the institute with NDSU Associate Professor, Kelly Sassi, who also serves on the national leadership team for the CRWP.

Ann, Kim, Nancy, Tanya, Tammy, and Becky

The CRWP focuses on the teaching of source-based argument writing. The teachers taught at least four cycles of argument writing and brought student work to the institute for formative assessment using the tools developed by the National Writing Project. A cycle of writing in the CRWP looks like this:

The RRVWP chose to pursue a grant to offer this professional development to teachers because of the success of the CRWP in independent randomized-control research. Students who have experienced C3WP out-performed other students in writing. The research results can be found here. The data included implementation in 10 states and 22 school districts across 12 writing project sites. It includes many rural, high-needs schools. CRWP had a positive, statistically significant effect on the four attributes of student argument writing—content, structure, stance, and conventions. Interestingly, although explicit teaching of grammar is not part of the program, there were gains in writing conventions. Teachers have also highly enjoyed this professional development and have found it to be rewarding. We have featured the success stories of our first cohort of teachers on this blog throughout the year.

The National Writing Project is scaling up the CRWP, which has a new name, the C3WP (College, Career, and Community Writers Program). The Red River Valley Writing Project contributed district commitment letters to the National Writing Project's i3 grant proposal, which was awarded in January 2017. This $36 million grant will allow the NWP to reach more states and districts through 2020.

The RRVWP launched the next Advanced Institute in C3WP August 8-10 in Fargo and it continues through the 2017-18 academic year with virtual and in-person meetings.

Advanced Institute participants committed to teaching four cycles of argument writing in the 2017-18 academic year and participating in two rounds of formative assessment in which they use National Writing Project tools to analyze student writing. Cycles of writing arecomprised of brief routine argument writing and mini units as well as extended researched arguments. RRVWP teacher leaders support participants in planning that fits each teacher's context.