Twenty-five years ago, a group of enthusiastic teachers and
administrators prompted their school districts to embark upon
a cooperative effort to improve the teaching of writing in
schools throughout Alaska.
Out of those beginnings grew the Alaska State Writing Consortium,
a dynamic, ongoing effort providing Alaskan educators with
an essential resource for professional development, teacher
leadership, and classroom research, focused upon the teaching
of writing and increasing student achievement.
ASWC training is modeled after the
highly successful Bay Area Writing Project, birthplace of
the National Writing Project. Today,
ASWC is proud to be listed as one of the 195 National Writing
Project sites in the United States.
Through summer institutes, ongoing staff development workshops
and credit courses, ASWC aims to enlarge the educational community
by providing a network of teacher consultants throughout the
state, based on the premise that successful teachers are the
best teachers of other teachers.
During its illustrious history, the
ASWC has trained over 4,000 of the state’s teaching force through summer institutes,
school year workshops, and credit courses. As teachers
retire, new replacements are encouraged by ASWC member districts
to participate in ASWC training. In the last 25 years, there
have been over 100 institutes in locations from Kotzebue to
Ketchikan, Bethel to Barrow.
One, two, three and four week sessions
center on teachers teaching teachers – about effective writing practices
and research – that cross all grade levels and subject
areas. Basic and Invitational Institutes are the foundation
of the ASWC training repertoire. In addition, in order
to respond to the differing needs of Alaskan teachers and districts,
the ASWC developed and adapted specialized institutes on Primary
Literacy, Writing Assessment, Reading and Writing Connections,
Classroom-based Research, Technology, Writing Across the Curriculum
and Writing and the Visual Arts.
Online institutes and courses have
been operating in Alaska for over a decade and continue to
grow in popularity reaching teachers formerly cut off because
they teach in remote parts of the state often accessible
only by air or water. Based
on the continued success of the ASWC, other Alaskan organizations
formed similar consortiums in math, science and the arts on
the original ASWC model.
In addition to professional development
the ASWC has produced a five part video series, “Writing: Alaskan Style”,
a periodic newsletter, “Northword,” a
monthly e-newsletter ASWC-Notes and anthologies of
writing by Alaskan teachers, Shaping the Landscape.
Most recently, the Lead Technology
team of ASWC teachers published the organization’s
first online e-zine Northern Lit where
students and teachers can submit their fiction, non-fiction,
and digital media work to the final stage of the writing process: publication. Check
it out at: http://www.alaskastatewritingconsortium.org/ezine.htm
In October 2006, the ASWC celebrated
its 25-year history at the Alaska State Literacy Association
Conference in Juneau. Guests
for a formal celebration at the Alaska Governor’s Mansion
included Richard Sterling, Executive Director of the National
Writing Project; Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, NWP Site Development
Director; Dr. Marilyn Buckley, longtime ASWC advocate and supporter;
Annie Calkins, one of the “mothers” of ASWC; Governor
and Mrs. Frank Murkowski; and dozens of teacher leaders from
across the state who have served the organization.
ASWC Mission: Today the mission of
ASWC remains the same: to provide professional development
for teachers to improve student writing.
ASWC Goals: Our goals have been
and continue to be the following:
- To promote the writing workshop approach to teaching writing.
- To help teachers prepare their students for the Alaska
High School Qualifying Exam and the Standards-Based Assessments.
- To provide teacher training for Writing Across the Curriculum.
- To integrate the Writing Process and the Six Traits of
Writing K-12 in all subject areas.
- To assist teachers in understanding
and applying the Alaska Grade Level Expectations (GLE’s).
- To offer training in developing writing workshops at both
the primary and secondary levels.
|
Alaska State
Writing Consortium
1108 F Street
Juneau, Alaska 99801
(907)
796-6045
aswc@acsalaska.net |
