Does Participation in a Writing Institute
Have Lasting Effect on Teaching Behaviors
and Continued Learning of Former Participants?

Nell Braswell
Joye P. Berman
Winthrop University

As we worked with summer fellows during nine Winthrop Writing Project (WWP) Institutes, positive changes regarding their views of teaching writing took place. They began to question the previous assumptions about importance of conventions over content and the assessment of product over process. At the close of each summer institute, we collected voluntary feedback, which was always overwhelmingly positive. Yet, was this high level of commitment continuing beyond the first year or two? As co-directors of the Winthrop Writing Project, we were continuing to be rejuvenated; but what about those participants who had been involved in only one summer institute and that one or more years ago? Had the fervor and resolve that started in those weeks together been maintained?

With these questions in mind, we developed a questionnaire to mail to all former participants whose current addresses could be obtained. We also conducted interviews with participants of five different WWP institutes. It should be noted that in the questionnaire's feedback, all nine summer institutes were represented by at least one-third of that year's summer fellows. Therefore, we believed, based on scientific research guidelines, that the information received was truly representative of what had been happening in the classrooms and the professional lives of participants of earlier WWP institutes.

In these early institutes (1981-89), a majority of the participants were from junior high/middle or from secondary school (68.8%) with 11 (24%) from middle elementary and primary grades. More than three-fourths of all participants had taught between six and twenty years. There were few participants who could be classified as beginning teachers (one through five years of teaching).

Respondents were asked if the amount of time that they now "devoted to writing instruction" had decreased, remained the same, or increased since they had participated in the WWP Summer Institute. Respondents (86%) overwhelmingly answered that they were devoting more class time to the teaching of writing, with over 70% indicating that they were devoting one to two hours more per week in writing instruction. We were gratified with these results and believed that this was a strong indicator of how successful the summer institute was in developing an understanding of the importance of writing as a way of learning.

Our next concern was to try to determine which writing strategies presented in the WWP Summer Institutes were being used in classrooms. Were there some that were seldom, if ever, used? All types of journals were used by more than half of the respondents: diaries, project, reaction, and focus-and-think. In the comment section of the questionnaire, several teachers wrote that the journal writing occurred two to three times a week. On reviewing the data, we wished that we had added another item to the journal option to discover how teachers assessed the entries and if they dialogued with the pupils on journal entries.

Freewriting was selected by over half of the respondents. Comments indicated that teachers used this strategy to begin writing (prewriting), to promote interest, and to teach brainstorming. One teacher commented that it "just keeps students writing." Still another teacher wrote that freewriting is "an invention device."

The third (46.9%) most frequently selected writing strategy was "modeling of types of writing"; however, the second part of the item, "Explain how you use each strategy checked," reflected the uncertainty of the choice: thank you to school visitors, modes of writing, prompt options, and personal style. We believed that an emphasis in these earlier institutes had been on using teacher writings and literature examples as "modeling for types of writing." As was obvious from the comments, what we were asking was not clear to the former participants. This confusion could have been avoided if we had given examples to clarify this item (e.g., modeling by teacher or use of literature to model the mode of writing being studied).

Organizational Strategies (e.g., frames, webbing, data chart) were selected by just over a third of the former summer fellows. We were somewhat surprised by these results as we believed these strategies to have been examined and practiced thoroughly in the institutes. Respondents did list some strategies that they used which were not given as examples: jot lists, concept mapping, and sentence stretching.

Thus, a part of our original question was answered. Attending a Winthrop Writing Project Summer Institute has had a long term effect on teaching behaviors of former participants in at least two ways. One, they are spending more classroom time on writing instruction; and two, they are using selected instructional strategies learned in the institute in their classrooms

When questioned about continued professional growth in the area of writing, almost sixty percent (59.6%) of the forty-seven former participants who responded to this item said that they had received additional training. Seminars and professional meetings were the most frequently mentioned places for receiving this training. A second item dealt with whether former WWP Writing Project Institute participants were more active in professional organizations. When we developed the questionnaire, we should have given respondents an opportunity to tell us if they were active prior to attending the institute and whether they were continuing this participation. With only the option "Have you become more active in professional organizations?" followed by a yes/no response, many active respondents could answer only negatively. One of these respondents explained: "I am as active as I have always been."

As with all data collection, researchers come away with many unanswered questions and many ideas about new items to include on the next questionnaire: e.g., assessment strategies used and interest in advanced institutes. However, from the data analysis, it is apparent that the early Winthrop Writing Project Institutes had been effective in improving classroom writing instruction. This belief was reaffirmed by voluntary statements from former participants such as "The Winthrop Writing Institute was an exciting, enlightening journey into the realm of writing," and "Last year my students published three anthologies."