Genesee Valley Writing Project

Principal Investigator
Meg Callahan
Assistant Professor, Teaching and Curriculum

The project is a collaborative school-university partnership dedicated to improving the quality of student writing and learning in PK-16 schools across the Genesee Valley region through teacher-centered professional development. The Genesee Valley Writing Project (GVWP) is a local site affiliate of the National Writing Project, a federally funded professional development program with nearly 200 sites across the country.

The GVWP is housed within the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education, where its director, Professor Meg Callahan, is a faculty member in the teaching and curriculum program (English education) and a Fellow (1995) of the Western New York Writing Project in Buffalo. The project serves teachers and students from urban and suburban schools in Monroe and surrounding counties.

Using a teachers-teaching-teachers model, the GVWP allows participating teachers to tap into what is known about writing and the teaching of writing from all sources—key research findings, important books and articles, and most importantly, the classroom practices of effective and successful teachers.

In its mission to improving the quality of student writing and learning in area schools, the GVWP sponsors an array of programs including an annual invitational Summer Institute, school-based inservice programs, and professional development continuity programs.

The Summer Institute, the heart of the GVWP, allows participating teachers to study classroom strategies for teaching writing, read and discuss research, and improve their knowledge of writing by writing themselves. Sixteen outstanding local teachers of writing, representing all grade levels from kindergarten through university and all subject areas, are selected to participate as Writing Project Fellows in this four-week intensive program. The program features collaborative writing groups, teacher demonstration workshops, reading research groups, and presentations that draw from local and national literacy expertise.

The community of teacher leaders formed during the Summer Institute becomes the foundation for the continuing work of the GVWP. Writing Project Fellows are encouraged to remain involved with our local and national Writing Project network and are supported in developing community outreach programs, school-based inservice workshops, collaborative partnerships, and teacher study groups to support the goals of the National Writing Project in the Greater Rochester community.

The GVWP welcomes you to become a part of its community of teachers and writers. Download the application for the Summer Institute at www.rochester.edu/warner/researchprojects/gvwpapp.doc.

For more information, call Meg Callahan at (585) 273-5090 or e-mail her at meg.callahan@rochester.edu.

Supported By

The GVWP site is supported by the National Writing Project (NWP). The NWP is committed to the following goals:

• Improve student writing and learning in PK-16 classrooms
• Extend the uses of writing in all disciplines
• Provide schools, colleges, and universities with an effective professional development model
• Identify, celebrate, and enhance the professional role of successful classroom teachers

For more information on the NWP, visit www.nwp.org.