"West Texas A&M University’s Route 66 Writing Project has been officially designated as a National Writing Project (NWP) site and joins a network of almost 200 local sites across the United States, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The National Writing Project began in 1974 at the University of California, Berkeley. The structure of that first program provided the foundation of today’s model to improve the quality of writing and learning in schools across the country through its professional development mission of “teachers-teaching-teachers.”
Each local site is responsible for hosting an invitational summer institute that uses the “teachers-teaching-teachers” model to explore research-based writing pedagogies, test out new ideas for teaching writing and walk participants through their own writing process. The University’s Route 66 Writing Project (R66WP), housed in the WTAMU Department of Education, conducts their invitational summer institute as a flexible credit hour course for K-16 educators and administrators in all content areas.
Participants who complete the summer institute become National Writing Project Teacher Consultants and have the opportunity to create professional development programs for school districts across the Panhandle, as well as collaborate with other Teacher Consultants in the NWP network. R66WP activities, led by the 2017 Teacher Consultants, include workshops at the Texas Association for Literacy Education Conference, three workshops at the Region 16 Education Service Center and consulting for the Texas Education Writing Pilot Program.
Other Texas colleges and universities designated as NWP sites are Texas State University, San Marcos; Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; Texas A&M University-Texarkana; University of Texas at Austin; University of North Texas, Denton; Angelo State University, San Angelo; Sam Houston State University, Huntsville; University of Texas at San Antonio; and Texas A&M International University, Laredo. WTAMU’s R66WP is the only site to service the Panhandle Plains area north of Lubbock.
In addition to designing local writing activities for the Panhandle area, the R66WP is eligible to apply for NWP-only grants and participate in National Writing Project activities such as American Creed. Dr. Regina Chanel Rodriguez, director of the Route 66 Writing Project at WTAMU, also will take part in regular phone meetings with fellow NWP directors and those in the national office to determine how the R66WP can bring innovative writing activities and high-quality writing training to educators in the Panhandle area.
WTAMU will host its second Invitational Summer Institute from July 5-25, 2018. Applications are currently available on the project’s Facebook page at facebook.com/Route66WritingProject.
For more information, contact Rodriguez at 806-651-2607 or rcrodriguez@wtamu.edu."
-West Texas A&M University
