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Call for Proposals
Getting It in Writing: The Quest to Become an Outstanding and Effective Teacher of Writing and/or Writing to Learn Strategies
We (Samuel Totten, Anne Lane, Deborah Stankevich and Jamie Highfill, all longtime educators and members of the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project) are seeking one-page proposals for a book of personal essays by K–12 teachers and teacher educators on teaching writing and incorporating writing into the extant curriculum (social studies, English, science, mathematics, and so on).
This book will be composed of two distinct parts. Part one will include ten to twelve personal essays in which a select group of highly reflective and outstanding K–12 teachers (and one or two teacher educators at the university level) will discuss the genesis and evolution of their efforts to teach writing in an effective and engaging manner. Part two will include ten to twelve personal essays in which a different group of long-time grade 3 to grade 12 teachers (and one or two teacher educators at the university level) will address the genesis and evolution of their efforts to incorporate writing to learn strategies/efforts in effective and engaging ways into the extant curriculum.
The focus of such essays is as follows: how one learned to teach writing; initial successes, frustrations, barriers, and how one overcame them; the impact of the latter on one's students and the type of writing they produced; lessons learned throughout one's careers (from fellow teachers, readings, school-based staff development programs, local, state, regional, and national conferences, summer seminars/institutes, and so on).
All authors are encouraged to reflect on their actual pedagogy at different stages of their careers, including but not limited to their successes, frustrations, failures, impact on their attitudes to teaching writing or importing writing into the extant curriculum; the impact on their students' attitudes toward writing; the impact on the quality of their students' writing.
The essays, then, will be highly personal but also universal in scope in that they will be addressing key pedagogical concerns throughout.
In lieu of a typical proposal, we are asking each potential author to submit a one- to two-page, single- or double-spaced, typed outline of one's writing life as it relates to learning how to teach writing and how one has done so during the course of his or her career—focusing on the aforementioned frustrations, barriers, struggles, and key insights gleaned/learned that radically changed one's approach, as well as focusing on one's successes.
The one- to two-page overview cum proposal should be submitted via attachment (Microsoft Word document or rtf file), and it should be submitted to all four editors at the same time.
The proposals will be critiqued in regard to clarity of writing, unique insights, a clear sense of the struggle/breakthroughs one experienced, a clear sense of the evolution of one's efforts, and concrete examples of one's successes.
The book will be composed of twenty to twenty five essays. Each essay should be double spaced and typed.
Deadline for submitting proposals: There is no set deadline. That said, as each proposal is submitted, it will be critiqued and a decision will be made in regard to Accept, Revise, or Reject. Once twenty to twenty-five proposals are accepted, no more proposals will be accepted.
Deadline for submitting the essay: Once authors' proposals have been accepted, they will have a full five months (from the date of acceptance) to complete the essay.
Questions regarding any aspect of this project should be directed to Samuel Totten at stotten@uark.edu.
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