The Maryland Writing Project will host its first "Write to Learn Workshop" of the fall semester, this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon in Hawkins Hall, Room 409.
The workshop will include two presentations.
At 9:30 a.m. Margot Chaffe, a teacher from Laurel Elementary School in Prince George's County, will lead the first workshop presentation titled "Come to Your Senses."
Janice Delaney, a teacher from Pinewood Elementary School in Baltimore County, will lead the second presentation, "Building a Math BCR: An Overview of Item Types and Scoring" at 11 a.m.
The MWP is designed to help improve writing skills for teachers and administrators and is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Education at Towson.
MWP teacher-consultants, who have completed a six-credit graduate course in written expression, conduct the workshops.
"The main goal of the workshops is that attendees would have learned something new about the teaching of writing that they can use in their classrooms. Because we provide them with a packet from each presentation, they can take that right back to their school and share it with their faculty members, and use it on Monday morning," Katie Hearn, co-director of MWP, said. "It's very practical and useful."
All workshops, unless taken for Maryland State Department of Education credits, are free. One MSDE credit is available for a fee of $75 and attendance at 6 of the 7 sessions, according to the program's Web site.
"We hope that teachers who go to the Write To Learn Saturdays are finding innovative and creative ways to teach written expression, to promote more written expression out of their students in a energizing way," Barbara Steele, coordinator of the Writer to Learn Workshop, said.
The MWP is an affiliate of the National Writing Project, and has been at Towson since 1984.
Teachers who attend the workshops teach pre-kindergarten through university level courses. Teachers from area school districts, both public and private, undergraduate education majors, and students who are going to begin student teaching, also attend, Hearn said.
"[The workshop] started because a lot of our teachers were calling from Baltimore County, and other surrounding counties, asking 'How do we do this? How do we get engaged in this project of the MWP?'" Steele said. "We decided to have these informational workshops, but they grew into teaching workshop."
In addition to offering workshops throughout the school year, the MWP offers a summer program as well. The Summer Invitational Institute is held during the summer usually during the month of July at Towson.
"[Teachers] participate in workshops in the teaching of writing from all content areas from art to English to math. We generally have anywhere from 20 to 30 people attending," Hearn said.
For more information about the MWP, visit the program's Web site at http://www.towson.edu/mwp/site.html.
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