SEED Grants Awarded to FVWP

The Fox Valley Writing has received two SEED grants from the National Writing Project in 2012-2013.  One of these grants is for professional development in a high need school; this work is being done at Washington Elementary (OASD).  The second grant is for leadership development, and that money will support an Advanced Institute to be held in July 2013.

Washington Writing Institute

The Fox Valley Writing Project in partnership with Washington Elementary School in Oshkosh was awarded a $20,000 SEED Grant (Supporting Effective Educator Development) from the National Writing Project and the U.S. Department of Education to provide professional development for all K-5 teachers in the school.  The focus of this work, which was identified in collaboration with the Washington faculty, is to develop teachers’ instructional expertise in teaching persuasive or evidenced-based argument, and explanatory writing.  Both of these genres are regularly found in the Common Core State Standards for Literacy, which have been adopted by the State of Wisconsin. The FVWP Leadership Team providing this year-long professional develop includes Nichole Ponzer (Read Elementary, OASD); Greg Kehring (Green Meadow Elementary, OASD); and Amy Sippert (Merrill Elementary, OASD).

2013 Advanced Institute

The National Writing Project has awarded FVWP a second SEED Grant for an Advanced Institute to be held July 15-18 and July 22-25 on the UW Oshkosh campus.  Participants are invited teacher consultants who are interested in developing their knowledge and expertise in one of three areas for inquiry: 1) study and implementation of the Common Core State Standards; 2) study and implementation of the literacy strands found in content area standards for Grades 6-12; and 3) investigation and use of technology tools for writing instruction.  This Institute will be led by Lisa Weiss, FVWP Co-Director; and Paul Walter and Robyn Bindrich, FVWP Teacher Leaders from Slinger, WI.