Mesa Teachers Develop Their Writing Skills to Empower Students

When searching the internet for a great topic to write about, I came across a great article. This article that I found their is a project that they are persuing at ASU. The Mesa Writing Project is a project that enables forty educators to spend three weeks sharing their poetry and stories, conversing with celebrated authors, and honing their craft through critique groups and regular revision sessions. These elementary, junior high, and high school teachers are learning skills that will help them gain so much more than just a fancy prize, these teachers gain better strategies for teaching writing and with new talent that they have gained they can enpower their students to find their true passion for writing. “The Mesa Writing Project is something we’ve wanted to do for years,” states Laura Walsh, the Secondary Language Arts Specialist for MPS and co-director of the project. “So many teachers have been telling us they were never taught how to teach writing and weren’t getting the professional development they wanted.”

Teachers also listen to many guest speakers including ASU writing professors, poets, and authors, who share their experiences with and strategies for writing.“Listening to these authors has been amazing,” states Lindsay Karges, a third grade teacher from Eisenhower Elementary School. “Gary Soto was here and I was shocked to hear him say he can be very insecure about whether or not his audience would like his work. I’m going to take this back to my students and let them know that even celebrated authors don’t always feel they have the best writing or can accomplish all that they do, but they write anyway. I think that’s very empowering for students to hear.”

While many participants in the project are English teachers, several specialize in different content areas such as social studies, science, and physical education. Such diversity is important for the participants, who want to develop a cross-curricular approach to teaching writing.

This is where you can find my article:
http://community.asu.edu/exchange/2007/07/mesa-teachers-develop-their-writing-skills-to-empower-students-2/