Looking Across Our 35 Years
“Nineteen seventy-four was a big year for writing education in America. That summer, at the first summer institute of the first writing project site in the country, Jim Gray put into action a radically new idea about teacher education—that successful classroom teachers make the best teachers of other teachers.” Art Peterson, Bay Area Writing Project Teacher Consultant, 1981 and 1985
“I knew that the knowledge successful teachers had gained through their experience and practice in the classroom was not tapped, sought after, shared, or for the most part, even known about. I knew also that if there was ever going to be reform in American education, it was going to take place in the nation’s classrooms. And because teachers and no one else—were in those classrooms, I knew that for reform to succeed, teachers had to be at the center. It became a burning issue with me that teachers were not seen as the key players in reform or as true experts on what went on in their classrooms." James Gray, from Teachers at The Center
Look across the 35-year history of the California Writing Project through artifacts, pictures, and downloadable articles. Check back for additions that flesh out our history and extend the timeline.
TIMELINE
To explore the historical sections of the timeline,
click on the years that are highlighted in blue.
1973-1975
The beginnings of the Bay Area Writing Project, California Writing Project, and National Writing Project
The late 70’s and 1980’s
Co-constructing a knowledge base for the teaching of writing
“Above all the writing project honors knowledge, knowledge that can come only from the practice of teaching writing. When classroom teachers are respected and recognized for what they know, when they are treated as the experts they are, they gain strength and become less defensive and more open. Such an atmosphere of trust encourages honest dialogue and a breaking down of traditional barriers between universities and schools, and as a result, teachers from both settings can begin working together as mutually respected colleagues.” James Gray, Teachers at the Center, p. 84
Within just a few years, writing project Teacher Consultants, after demonstrating effective practices for teaching writing in the Invitational Summer Institute, were supported by their local writing projects to inquire into, write up, and go public with their classroom knowledge and the knowledge they were co-constructing with writing project colleagues.
A sampling of Bay Area Writing Project monographs:
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Using Student Response Groups in the Classroom, Mary K. Healy, 1980 |
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Formative Writing: Writing to Assist Learning in All Subject Areas, Virginia Draper, 1979 |
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Working Out Ideas: Predication and Other Uses of Language, Josephine Miles, 1979 |
Writing projects, UC and CSU composition faculty, and Teacher Consultants collaborate on a research and curriculum study:
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Teaching Analytic Writing, edited by George Gadda, William Walsh, and Faye Peitzman, 1988 |
The writing project begins publishing classroom research studies and launches a new leadership opportunity—teacher research programs:
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Showing-Writing: A Training Program to Help Students Be Specific, Rebekah Caplan and Catharine Keech, 1980 |
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The Teacher Researcher: How to Study Writing in the Classroom, Miles Myers, an NCTE publication, 1985 |
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Visions and Revisions, Writing projects, UC and CSU composition and education faculty, and Teacher Researchers writing about writing research and classroom research. |
1982
Jim Gray collaborates with the American Association for School Administrators on Teaching Writing: Problems and Solutions, a precursor to Because Writing Matters and The Neglected R. Note on page 61 of the excerpt that CWP was already comprised of 17 local writing projects and a growing NWP included another 68 sites in 40 states.
The 1980’s into the early 90’s
Collaborating with the California Department of Education to improve writing programs and writing assessment
The 1990's
Creating portfolio classrooms and assessments
1995
Revisiting writing theories and teaching practices of the first 20 years
1999-2000
CWP at 25 years
2005
A sign of the digital times to come: writing projects move to on-line and in-print publishing
2006
Building on Jim Gray’s legacy