Many, like Brady, found that the experience sparked major transformations, both professionally and personally. When people write about ideas that are significant to them, they want to share their work, and through sharing they become active participants in society. CCWP doesn't promote any particular formula for writing, Rothman explains. Instead, teachers learn to help students tap into their thoughts and feelings, bring them out on paper, and revise them. An important tool in this process is the writing response group, in which writers read their work to classmates and a discussion of the work follows.
Dialogue becomes a way of learning.
But we learn a very different approach at the Writing Project. Mendez has cofacilitated three CCWP institutes in English and will cofacilitate this summer's Spanish-language institute. After her first institute in 1982, she changed her approach dramatically. If I just assigned a specific topic, children ended up writing what they thought I wanted to hear. When they were allowed to write from their own feelings and experiences, I saw such a powerful change.