by Karen Diaz and Diana Roy

Teachers are continually looking for teaching methods that engage their students and leave them with the skills and habits of mind that will make them lifelong learners and productive citizens. English teachers and special education teachers at Michael E. Smith Middle School in South Hadley are working with Western Massachusetts Writing Project teacher consultants during their professional development time this school year to learn about Project-Based Learning and develop units that will accomplish just that.

Our WMWP intern -- Grace Duggan -- provides a valuable inside look at how Project-Based Learning sparks inquiry. Grace attended a PBL high school. WMWP is working with the South Hadley schools on implementing a Project-Based Learning curriculum.

WMWP recently tallied up its programs and participants for the year running September 1, 2017, to August 31, 2018, to submit to the National Writing Project database. The numbers were impressive! How many of them include you?

We're looking forward to another great year and hope that you will find many ways to be involved as a facilitator and/or as a participant. Please check the Calendar tab regularly for program information. If you are not currently receiving announcements from WMWP, click the "Join Our E-mail List" tab at the right and sign up! 

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Infographic by Kevin Hodgson

I teach in East Longmeadow Massachusetts, a sleepy little suburb of Springfield located in the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts. School has begun, but I am feeling in control of it all. This is indeed a change from last year when I embarked on a new venture, to add “claim writing” to the seventh grade geography curriculum.

I had recently completed the week long College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) with the the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. The program  provides mini-units on skills students needed to write well thought out and supported claims. There were also text sets on a variety of topics that worked with the mini-units. There were meetings and webinars scheduled across the year and a group of wonderful experts to support the teachers. However, the truth was that, very shortly, it would be me and 115 middle schoolers and claim writing.