BaselineDescription



=**Baseline Description**= I founded the WNY Young Writers' Studio, a community of writers and teachers of writing, in 2008. Studio was my attempt to address a variety of needs, which I identified through my work as a classroom teacher, a new teacher mentor, and a staff developer. When I began Studio, this was my intended plan:
 * To establish a sustainable writing and learning community for young people and teachers throughout our region.
 * To create the kind of culture that was capable of nurturing and inspiring personal and professional growth, as well as improvements in writer's craft and process.
 * To invite practicing teachers into our community so that they would have a place to write for themselves, study effective practice, and connect with others outside of their organizations who would share their values and interests.
 * To begin identifying, coaching, and providing internships to young people who were interested in becoming teachers.
 * To encourage the fellows of our community to return to their schools, organizations, homes, and communities prepared to use what they have learned in ways that would be of service to others.
 * To empower all fellows to advocate for and lead change inside of systems and cultures in need of it.
 * To position all young people as teachers and all teachers as learners and writers.



During our first year, five teachers and twenty five middle and high school fellows joined our program, which was hosted on the campus of Daemen College in Amherst, New York. We met for one week in the summer and bi-monthly on a Saturday throughout the school year. Each session was three hours long.

All writers defined personal writing goals for the year. [|We relied on a workshop approach that invited students to define their personal writing territories and interests, to select a writing idea and topic aligned to these interests], and [|to engage in each step of the writing process as we attended to different elements of writer's craft]. As a facilitator, I conferred with students, identified their needs, and [|shifted our program in response to what I was noticing.]

Teachers defined professional learning goals. As I facilitated sessions, the majority of them chose to positions themselves as observers. During this first year, most teachers used their fellowship to gain access to resources and materials while they watched a writer's workshop in action.


 * Challenges:**


 * One of the greatest challenges that we faced the first year was the assumption that Studio was a summer camp. Parents enrolled children who were not at all interested in writing without any intention of having them return throughout the school year. Some would arrive late or not at all, and others expected that by the end of our summer week, every child would produce a perfectly-polished piece of writing. A few parents asked us to focus on functional writing skills, helping students write for the test, or provide tutoring around discrete skills.


 * Some administrators and teachers assumed that Studio was a week-long event, rather than a sustained community, and other priorities would interfere with attendance at our sessions.


 * Establishing meaningful ways for teachers to learn within the program was a challenge as well. While they were happy simply observing, connecting with one another, and taking new ideas and resources back to their classroom, what they were experiencing didn't fully align with the intended vision or purpose.


 * While we relied upon numerous research-based practices to improve our learning and work as writers, I struggled to help all fellows establish goals and pursue work that was deeply meaningful to them. Time and again, conversations turned toward getting the "work" done and producing texts and tools rather than striving to make a real difference that mattered to any one of us in any significant way.


 * We also weren't measuring growth over time in any meaningful way or formally tracking student progress, so it was difficult to know with any certainty whether or not we were achieving what we intended to.


 * As I hadn't sought representation in any way, Studio was a reflection of my vision, my goals, and my work. It wasn't a community.

At the end of the first year, we celebrated our efforts by participating in an open reading at Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

Everyone seemed satisfied, but their expectations were very different than mine.

In order to truly achieve what I set out to do, we would need to do different work.