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YWI Offers Unique Opportunities for ALL

"I've learned that you've got to take writing seriously and really work at it until you've achieved a piece that people will remember." --a junior in high school who attended 1996 YWI

For three weeks during this past July, while the city sweltered and bustled about its daily business, over 200 children could be found happily composing stories, poems, essays and skits, under the tutelage of some of Pittsburgh's finest teachers. On October 13, three hundred and fifty guests gathered at the William Pitt Union to honor these young writers and celebrate the publication of an anthology of their creative work. All of these students chose to spend three weeks of their summer writing, as part of the Young Writers Institute, a program of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (WPWP).

The WPWP is an affiliate of the National Writing Project and a program of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of English. The founding goal of the National Writing Project's 160 sites is to challenge students to become better writers by giving them opportunities to write more frequently, in various genres, and for a wider range of purposes and audiences. The Writing Projects work to improve student writing primarily through strengthening writing instruction. They achieve this by investing teachers deeply in their own writing and by creating opportunities for teachers to design and share successful teaching strategies.

The Young Writers Institute is a summer workshop for students who enjoy writing and want to develop their craft. Beginning in 1988 with 75 young writers attending three weeks of morning writing workshops held on the University of Pittburgh's Oakland campus, the YWI has grown into two sites--the Oakland site and the East End site, located in East Liberty Presbyterian Church--that served close to 250 children in the summer of 1996. Students who participate are from grades two through twelve and are drawn from city, suburban, rural and private schools. Individual donations have allowed us to provide scholarship support to 25 percent of participants.

"In such a fertile environment for writing, one cannot help but grow with the experience. It was very affirming for me as a writer and a teacher. The students' capacity for self-expression and creativity continues to amaze me as a teacher of writing." --1996 YWI teacher from the Pittsburgh Public Schools

For teachers on the YWI staff, the institute offers a unique opportunity for professional development. Teachers work together in teams of three, which exposes students to a rich variety of instruction, writing exercises and individualized feedback on their work. The teams are composed of:

• WPWP Fellows, that is, teachers in the schools who have completed the Summer Institute for Teachers, most of whom are also writers in their own right.
• Apprentice professional writers from the University of Pittsburgh's Masters of Fine Arts Writing Program, specializing in poetry, fiction or nonfiction.
• Visiting professional writers-in-residence of national reputation and publication.

Not only do these professionals teach the children, they also educate each other, sharing teaching strategies and writing activities in ways that are difficult in the isolation of the classroom.

"I wanted to learn how to be an author and a poet. The Writers Institute helped me find out that I am a good writer. I learned that writing is very important in life." -- a third grader from the 1996 YWI.

A typical day in the YWI may include a storyteller enchanting a third/fourth grade class and making them laugh, while the fifth/sixth graders are doing exercises to learn how to improve character development and dialogue in their stories. Over in the University of Pittsburgh computer labs, twenty teenagers, grades eleven and twelve, are composing on the MacIntosh computers made available to all YWI participants. The ninth/tenth graders have just finished writing a poem and are working in peer groups of five and responding to each other's work. At the East End site, seventh and eighth graders are having a read around, taking turns at the microphone, reciting the essays they've written after investigating the church's huge pipe organ. On any given day, the poets Toi Derricotte or Len Roberts may be reading some of their own published work and then guiding the young writers in their craft.

One mother of a seventh/eighth grader from the 1996 YWI describes her daughter's experience this way: "Her writing is more reflective, descriptive and creative. She has greater confidence and fluidity in her writing and loved being with same-age peers with a similar motivation to write. She was exposed to excellent teachers and very stimulated by local field trips. This has been a maturing experience for her."

In the YWI, the WPWP has created a successful program, as evidenced by enthusiastic student and parent evaluations, the increasing number of children who apply, the number of students who return year after year, and the waiting list of teachers wishing to join its staff. In the summer of 1997, the WPWP's goal is to provide two more sites for the YWI--one on the Southside and one on the North Side of Pittsburgh. The hope is to make quality writing instruction more readily available and accessible, by bringing the YWI into a wider variety of neighborhoods. Each site would maintain the diverse mix of young writers, by race, school and neighborhood, characteristic of the YWI to date. We also envision extending the experiences offered by the YWI into other settings and throughout the school year, addressing broader needs for family literacy and community-based literacy. If you are interested in learning more about the Young Writers Institute or any of the WPWP's programs, please contact us at 624-6557.