All SPWP programs are approved for staff development under

No Child Left Behind.  

Professional Development Offerings

• Best Practices in Teaching Writing: The Writing Workshop

               5-part series appropriate for all elementary teachers and secondary English teachers.    Sessions run 2½ hours.  Recommended as an after-school program for teachers who participate voluntarily.

• Open Institute: How to Set up a Writing Workshop in Elementary Grades

                  Intensive, one-week (5 days) program for summer. Teachers, grades K-6, meet from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. daily with two SPWP Teacher Consultants to write, work in peer response groups, revise, review texts for teaching writing, and apply their experiential learning to curriculum development. Curriculum development aligns with PA Standards, the Pennsylvania Literacy Framework, and promotes achievement on PSSAs.  Minimum enrollment: 8 teachers. Maximum: 20 teachers

NOTE: This program can be adjusted for secondary teachers or a combination of elementary and secondary teachers.

• The Reading Writing Connection:  Strategies for Improving PSSA Performance

  Best practices in reading and writing are explored as a way to improve performance on the Reading and Writing PSSAs without teaching to the test.  Language Arts teachers at all levels will find this program informative and innovative and the strategies easily applicable to the classroom.  Formative assessment strategies are employed to aid in optimal growth and success for all students.  There are 2 sessions, each 2 1/2 hours in length.   

• Writing to Learn Across the Curriculum

                  Multi-part series for content area teachers, K-12, to investigate how they might use writing to help students learn content. As Pennsylvania ’s PSSA in science grows closer, this  program is especially appropriate for science teachers. Sessions run 2½ hours. Number of sessions can be determined based on school needs.

Special Programs

• Writing Matters: Recent Research in the Teaching of Writing

For administrators who want to make sound decisions about writing programs in their schools. Follow the link for further information. (Note: The link describes a 1-day workshop for administrators which was held in October, 2005. The workshop could be brought to your school or, if multiple administrators are interested, offered again.)

• Building Writing Communities

Focuses on classroom environment, student behavior, differentiated instruction, and other factors which affect student academic performance. Addresses PA Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening. Follow the link for further information.

 Other possibilities can be developed for your school. Some ideas:

• Literacy Coaching: a mentoring relationship between trained Teacher Consultants and teachers desiring personalized classroom implementation of SPWP professional development programs.  An optional addition to any program. 
• Access to the Quality of Writing Lesson Plan Database:  a standards based clearinghouse of plans compiled by the PA Writing Project Teacher Consultants and the PA Department of Education
• Family-School Literacy: Connecting Two Elements of Every Child’s Life
• Co-Existing with the Grammar Gremlin
• From Classroom Observation to Classroom Change: The Power of Teacher Research

 For more information about SPWP Professional Development Programs, contact

          Dr. Helen Sitler, Director, Southcentral Pennsylvania Writing Project

          English Department , Indiana University of Pennsylvania

          724-357-2120              spwp-iup@iup.edu