Founded by Dr. Jonathan Lovell and led by a site governance team made up of the director, associate directors, a program manager, and administrative assistants, the San Jose Area Writing Project (SJAWP) runs school-year and summer programs on the teaching of writing, along with school-year and summer writing programs for 3rd to 12th grade students.The SJAWP is a California Subject Matter Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project and the California Writing Project. We are a non-profit organization of, by, and for teachers dedicated to improving the teaching and uses of writing at all grade levels (K-16) and in all disciplines.Working from the belief that a cadre of potentially effective teacher-leaders already exist in any given region of the country, the SJAWP offers a summer program that brings these K-college teacher together to learn from one another over the space of a 4 1/2 week Intensive Summer Institute (ISI).Participants in the ISI go on to become Teacher Consultants (TCs). With these TCs, SJAWP works directly with schools to improve student writing skills. By coaching teachers to examine their language arts programs, students’ work, and own teaching practices, our TCs work hand-in-hand with teachers to improve teaching strategies.SJAWP maintains that significant change happens over time rather than through single “one-shot” inservice programs.In addition to workshops for pre- and in-service teachers that are run on the SJSU campus, SJAWP works with schools, administrators, district offices, and other professional development coordinators to bring training to school sites throughout Santa Clara County.
