MISSION AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES

NORTHERN VIRGINIA WRITING PROJECT

MISSION

The mission of the Northern Virginia Writing Project is to improve writing instruction, writing practice, and learning at all education levels and across all disciplines; to empower teacher leaders and uphold their professional standing; and to create a community that supports lifelong writers.  Teachers of writing must write. Their authority as teachers of writing must be grounded in their personal practice as writers who know first-hand the struggles and satisfactions of the writer’s experience.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. Classroom teachers are the foremost authorities on what works in classrooms, and the most effective professional development programs are those in which successful classroom teachers share their expertise and collaborate with colleagues through “hands-on” demonstration lessons.

2.  What working teachers of writing know from their classroom experience constitutes professional knowledge. As professionals, teachers need to challenge, validate, and enhance the authority of their experience by familiarizing themselves with current and past research and by gathering evidence to support the effectiveness of their teaching practices.

3. A successful professional development program requires ongoing collaboration among teaching colleagues who continually share and pool their expertise beyond a few scheduled workshops or even beyond an extended summer institute.

4. All teachers of writing, K-university, belong to a single, interdependent, collegial community with shared professional challenges that are best met through collaborative efforts based on mutual professional respect.