The Oregon Writing Project: A Reflection

By Jeanne Miller

My initial entry into the Oregon Writing Project was filled with equal parts of anxiety and anticipation. I am leaving with much more of the latter. The past four weeks have created opportunities to encourage, enrich and excite my own writing and to improve my role as a writing teacher.

My past experiences with writing "workshops" have been 1-2 day events where I gleaned useful information and activities and left the rest behind. Most of the time a presenter would talk and participants would jot down ideas, ask a few questions and return to the classroom where all those great ideas sat on the shelf next to ideas from previous "workshops". The approach of the Oregon Writing Project kept members engaged through shared writing, discussions of classroom practice and implementation, and time for collaboration.

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The mornings at the OWP were devoted to presentations by participants and invited writers and teachers. I appreciated how the presentations were sequenced much like the writing process, itself. We first had presenters focusing on prewriting activities, and then moved into writing rough drafts. Later, we worked on revision and assessment. It was reinforced several times that prewriting isn't just about brainstorming and creating lists of ideas. There was a wide range of activities from writing descriptions, developing paragraphs, using art, doing story retells, and enriching sentences. Throughout these lessons there were several opportunities for group interaction in the actual writing process. This practice is not something I have used a lot in writing activities in my classroom. I have looked at writing as an individualized activity and have not thought about the powerful learning that takes place when working with other writers. Time for a change!

In addition to sharing our writing, we also engaged in discussions of how we would implement specific activities to work for our grade levels. This was time well spent. I have found in my hurried day of teaching I don't schedule time to debrief. This is an area I am going to consciously try to include more time for in the school day.

The same practice of sharing writing was used in our response groups. For me, this activity created some anxiety the first time we shared our writing, but after the initial meeting it became an enjoyable pursuit. Having a "captive audience" for your writing offers an opportunity to get feedback, to find out what works and what needs further attention. This was also a time to read and hear the writing of other members. Quite often I would use what was said about another writer's work and apply it in some fashion to my own. The potential for strengthening a piece of writing increases when the collaborative model is used. As a writer, I would often think of my audience as I worked on writing and revision. Throughout discussions, it was apparent that other writers also considered the audience and worked to make their voice strong through their writing. This is a compelling argument for group work in the writing process.

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The Oregon Writing Project is a model for good writing practices: instruct/learn, practice, share, debrief. That is a simplistic summary of all we did, but the implications for my classroom-writing program are great. I walk away with more insight and ideas, but these won't be sitting on the shelf.