Illinois Writing Project
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Our Mission

The Illinois Writing Project helps teachers guide their students to write with thoughtfulness, skill, and enjoyment. Learning to write prepares individuals for a lifetime of communicating effectively, thinking deeply, and taking pleasure in language. Research shows that writers of all ages develop confidence and competence when they:

  • exercise choice in their work and learn to do it thoughtfully,
  • write for a variety of real audiences and authentic purposes
    ....both within and beyond the classroom,
  • employ writing processes to develop, draft, revise, and polish
    ....their work,
  • use writing as a tool for learning across the disciplines,
  • get feedback from readers (teachers, fellow students, and
    ....outside audiences) who care about what they have to say,
  • make connections between writing and reading,
  • and work within a supportive community of fellow learners.

    Illinois Writing Project workshops help teachers actively discover these principles through their own writing and apply them in their classrooms. They form supportive professional communities in the process, and take leadership in moving their schools to adopt effective long-term practices.

    The Illinois Writing Project relies upon research-proven strategies for increasing skill in writing and increasing the sustainability of teacher learning. These approaches have led to wide endorsement of the National Writing Project, of which we are a part.

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    An Overview

    The Illinois Writing Project offers in-depth staff development on composition, reading and other elements of language arts for teachers of all grade levels across the curriculum. We develop teacher leaders, and encourage schools to institute plans that insure instructional improvements spread throughout a school and sustain themselves long-term. Our summer leadership institutes are supported by the National Writing Project, and other programs are funded primarily through direct adoption by schools.

    IWP has conducted hundreds of full-scale inservice programs throughout Chicago, its suburbs, and other Northern Illinois communities, and across the midwest. We have served thousands of teachers with intensive, experiential inservice workshops.