The Northern Nevada Writing Project: Homepage

The NNWP...Proudly Serving Northern Nevada Educators for 26 Years!

In Nevada, our Northern Nevada Writing Project provides professional development and leadership opportunities for teachers and administrators interested in both improving and celebrating student writing.

Each year, the NNWP sponsors professional development that takes many forms, from 2-hour workshops to 5-credit university graduate classes.

Each year, the NNWP sponsors a variety of research-inspired projects for teachers to participate in, and the results of those projects become features of our print guides (like our new Six by Six: Traits Writing for Little Writers, pictured at left) and the free-to-use and website we proudly sponsor (WritingFix).

Each year, our NNWP Teacher Consultants host special programs for student writers during the summer and during the school year.

In short, the NNWP has a long tradition of serving the educators and students of Northern Nevada, inspiring them to pursue lives and lifelong writers and learners.

Below are four fast facts about the Northern Nevada Writing Project:

The NNWP serves all practicing teachers--kindergarten through college--and it provides services for our pre-service teachers at the University of Nevada-Reno.

The Northern Nevada Writing Project offers its professional development programs to seven Nevada School Districts: Carson, Churchill, Douglas, Lyon, Pershing, Storey, and Washoe.

The University of Nevada-Reno provides office space for the NNWP. We are located on the third floor of the College of Education Building.

We are a not-for-profit organization. We receive annual funding from both the National Writing Project and the State of Nevada. All monies received by our program are invested back in our program.

We maintain this website as a service to teachers and administrators everywhere. Here, you can find information about upcoming workshops and professional development opportunities, as well as explore our program's numerous initiatives.

Please let us know what you think of our website.

Meet our Newest NNWP Teacher Consultants:

Our 26th Invitational Institute ended in September 2008. We welcome our newest group of NNWP Teacher Consultants.

Meet two active NNWP Teacher Consultants:

Kim
Polson

Summer Institute attended: 2004

Kim is on sabbatical this year, working on her administrative degree. She will return to Double Diamond Elementary next year.

On March 25, Kim coordinated yet another successful Piñon Poetry Festival. 29 Northern Nevada teachers brought 62 students with them, and side-by-side, they wrote poetry.

Anne
Urie

Summer Institute attended: 1990

Anne teaches first grade at Elizabeth Lenz Elementary in Reno, Nevada.

Anne is currently enrolled in the NNWP's iPods Across the Curriculum inservice, and the lesson she is creating for her first graders will soon be posted at WritingFix's iPod-inspired lesson collection.

Our website's most popular destinations:

The NNWP Publications Page

Since Fall 2004, we have sponsored annual projects with a simple focus: building a print resource inspired by current educational research or trends.

In 2005, our first print guide was completed. In January 2009, our fifth will hit the presses.

In Northern Nevada, we provide these print resources to any school willing to reimburse for the cost of print. Outside of Northern Nevada, we make these guides available here on our website, and money eaned from sales is invested in new guides and web resources we are building.

Click here to learn how to order any of our print resources.

The Writing Lesson of the Month Network

In January 2007, we launched an e-mail network inspired by the lessons we feature at our resource-based website--WritingFix.

We kept hearing from teachers, "There's so many lessons at WritingFix. What are the best ones for me to look at right now?"

Our Writing-Lesson of the Month Network (now 2800 teachers strong!) celebrates the very best "mentor text" lessons created by teachers and featured at WritingFix. On the first of every month, a link to a new favorite lesson is e-mailed to group members. On our Mini-Lesson of the Month page, teachers can learn how to sign up for this free service (It's easy!) as well as have access to all past featured lessons.

If you're looking for an easy way to find new writing lessons to bring to your classroom, this is an excellent network to join.

Click here to learn how to join this free service.

Our 6-Trait Project Homepage

In January 2006, we published a new print resource we called the "Going Deep with 6 Trait Language" Guide. Its big idea: teaching students to use trait language meaningfully so that they know how to talk about what makes quality writing. The guide quickly became our most popular resource to date; we have put over 10,000 copies in the hands of teachers everywhere.

Teachers using our print guide were inspired to re-evaluate the ways they presented traits to their students, and the discoveries they shared with us have launched new projects here at the NNWP.

From our 6-Trait Project Homepage, you can easily access the projects that have been inspired by our 2006 "Going Deep with 6 Trait Language" Guide.

Click here to visit our 6-Trait Project Homepage.

Our Technology Project Homepage

In 2001, we launched a free-to-use resource website for writing teachers: WritingFix. Our goal was to create a technology plan that--instead of investing its budget on equipment that would quickly become obsolete--would create an interactive on-line environment that any teacher with access to the internet could access.

Seven years later, the website continues to grow in two big ways. First, we have grown in users; we are expecting to reach 2.5 million hits by the end of 2008...our highest year yet. Second, we have grown in the types of resources we have made available; as the 2008-09 school year begins, we can boast that we've added 4 dozen new lessons in the last year and 3 new pages of resources.

Click here to visit our Technology Project Homepage and gain quick access to all of our new growth.

Our Mentor Text of the Year Teacher Network

This year we're exploring innovative ways to use Roni Schotter's Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street as a classroom mentor text. Click here to hear ideas from your fellow educators.