Interesting Writing Progam

Young Writers Program gives students confidence
In 2007, teacher Luke Perry introduced his sixth graders to the idea of writing a novel in one month. The idea became extremely popular, and last year in the school district there were roughly 250 participating students, who happily typed away during lunch to finish their books, which they proudly read for community leaders and over the school's public-address system at the end of the month. "I can't gush enough about it," Perry said, calling it the best experience of his 10 years in teaching. "I'll never teach the same way again." Edutopia magazine (2/2009)
http://www.edutopia.org/arts-national-novel-writing-month

A lot of the districts that I work with have student goals that specifically address writing performance. The program described in the article above seems like it could be a fun way to embed more authentic writing in the curriculum. The program even has elementary, middle school and high school components. In Texas, you could plug this project in after the TAKS writing test or in May when you are looking for ways to keep up the academic enthusiasm.

Here is the link to the program, http://www.nanowrimo.org/

If anyone out there has any prior experience with the program, send in a review. If anyone is going to try it, let us know. It might be fun to get some friendly competition and support going on between multiple campuses.

Your turn…