District/Administrators

Our Programs

The Boise State Writing Project (BSWP), as a site of the National Writing Project (NWP), adheres to a model of “teachers teaching teachers,” and creates local teacher consultants who provide professional development experiences for their colleagues.

Through opportunities such as our invitational summer institute, advanced institutes, and mentorship by site leaders, our teacher consultants are prepared to facilitate a variety of professional development sessions such as half- or whole-day staff workshops, classroom coaching, and week-long institutes. Our cohort of BSWP teacher consultants spans experts from all grade levels, elementary school through college, and can present on a variety of topics such as:

Creating a writing workshop;
Conferring with student writers;
Effective strategies for revision;
Writing across the curriculum; and
Integrating technology and writing.

Our professional development experiences engage participants in activities both as writers and teachers of writing. Specifically, we can offer workshops in 90 minute, 3 hour, or 6 hour formats and we aim to customize our services based on local needs for your students, staff, and school. Ideally, we would aim to work with a group of teachers at the school as part of a voluntary professional development experience, and would meet with them periodically over an entire school year, although we can offer one-time events as well. If you are interested in one of our programs, please contact the program leader of that area (name is listed to the left of the title) and they will set up your workshop. You can also download our flyer.

	Title	In-Service Description	Co-Director to Contact
ELL/ESL	ELL 101: Things you need to know	This presentation addresses basic concerns teachers might have when dealing with ELL students. It discusses levels of language acquisition, how students' literacy background affects their progress, and touches on ways to modify assignments in mainstream classroom.	Paula Uriarte
ELL/ESL	How to modify assignments for ELL students in mainstream classrooms	This presentation is an extension of the ELL 101. It focuses on ways to address ELL students' needs in the mainstream classroom. It gives a brief description of SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Operational Protocol) and shows examples and non-examples from different content areas concerning how to accommodate for students' needs.	Paula Uriarte
ELL/ESL	Responding to ELL Writing	This presentation allows you to reflect on your own philosophy and approach in responding to ELL writing and explores the roles of effective feedback, error, and assistance.	Paula Uriarte
ELL/ESL	Inviting Students Into Your Classroom and Into "Our" Culture	This presentation will assist teachers in realizing their role as host/hostess to great conversations within their classroom. Teachers will be introduced to 3 key components: language awareness, creating relevant work for ELL students, and participating in relationships in order to create a harmonious conversation engaging all students regardless of language and culture. After the presentation teachers will be aware of the importance of their active participation in conversations with ELL students.	Paula Uriarte
	Title	In-Service Description	Co-Director to Contact
In-Service Collaboration	Exploring the foreign policy of collaboration	Demo focus can vary from initial work with collaboration to working through kinks in the process.	Paula Uriarte
In-Service Collaboration	One Size Inservice Does Not Fit All (Administrator audience but can be tailored for teachers)	Focus is on meeting teacher needs for in-service. Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.	Paula Uriarte
In-Service Collaboration	Professional Learning Communities	This In-Service focuses on empowering teachers to create effective change in schools using PLCs to ensure that students really do learn.	Paula Uriarte
In-Service Collaboration	Making Connections: Creating Meaning through Interdisciplinary Teaching	This In-Service is designed to show how collaboration can lead to effective interdisciplinary units of study that encourage students to make meaningful connections to the real world, foster a deep, significant understanding, and lead to the transfer of knowledge.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
	Title	Description of In-Service	Co-Director to Contact
Instructional Strategies	Differentiated Instruction.	Provides an overview of Differentiated Instruction and ways to differentiate content, process, and product.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Interactive Learning Strategies	Learn research-based strategies that help students learn more effectively through an interactive approach.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Big 6 Information Problem Solving Model	The Big6 is a framework for solving any information-based problem, and is particularly useful when teaching students the research process.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Connecting Historical and Cultural Background to Meaning	2 hours of instructional strategies and hand on activities designed to activate or provide background knowledge and “lens in” techniques to help students engage in and connect to the topic at hand. Visuals, poetry writing, primary source documents, group activities feature dominantly.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Standing on your head makes a difference	This demonstration will teach successful strategies for classroom behavior. We will also discuss academic strategies that will help the regular education teachers make accommodations and adaptations that will help everyone in the class be successful.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	No Fear	This demonstration will offer teachers both theory and classroom application of how the achievement gap of student learning can be narrowed when teachers establish a “safe” community wherein relationships between student and the teacher and among students are recognized as *the* primary tool for success. Teachers will play with strategies (puzzles, paper shredder, and dialogue journal) they can use with students to help the student discover enabling qualities that will free the writer within.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Inquiry	Interested in learning to re-frame existing curricular requirements as inquiry? Interested in project-based learning & helping students create knowledge artifacts that display their learning? Interested in learning how to ask essential questions, design instructional sequences, and use discussion and questioning techniques to promote deep understanding of disciplinary concepts and strategies? Interested in learning to supplement evaluation with performance-based assessments? An overview of inquiry based teaching and/or I can dive deeper into any of the following areas: essential questions, big ideas/concepts, standards→learning targets, sequenced activities beginning with a lens in, authentic products, assessment of/for/as learning	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Establishing Community in the Classroom	This demonstration explores the importance of community in the classroom and shows how the exchange of our stories builds a foundation for learning. The presentation highlights three classroom proven community building activities--the Socratic Seminar, Triggering Town (story exchange), and the Personal Creed Project - each of which helps students connect to the learning environment we call "classroom."	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Creating Healthy Groups Through Questioning: Debriefing Tools for a Positive Group Culture in the Classroom	What does it take to cultivate and sustain a community where students and teachers feel comfortable taking risks in learning? How do groups learn to be groups? As educators we must facilitate cooperative learning with diverse groups of students. This workshop provides tools to educators to debrief group processes more effectively, leading to a more positive classroom culture.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	The Partnering of Music and Content Learning in an Elementary Setting	This demonstration offers strategies for incorporating music into elementary classroom curricula, focusing here in the areas of science and history. Participants in this workshop will be taught key techniques and strategies for using music to promote conceptual understanding in specific disciplines. We will look at both accessing the expertise of their school's music teacher, and in using music in their classrooms without the accessibility of a music teacher.	Paula Uriarte
Instructional Strategies	Frontloading with Picture Books: Using children's literature to build scheme	Imagery in picture books is a powerful way to build schema or activate prior knowledge for student readiness and comprehension in all content areas. Participants in this in-service will identify a strategy to address diversity of student experience and readiness and will create a plan to use picture books in the classroom.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	Beyond the Standardized Test: Using Extended Tasks and Authentic Assessment to Construct Meaning	This in-service exhorts teachers to think of alternative ways to assess student learning, beyond the multiple choice or short answer test. It demonstrates several projects in which students apply what they know by creating an end product, using the concepts that they have learned.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	The Power of a Teacher: Reflecting on your practice	This in-service explains how important the role of the teacher is in the classroom. Participants in this workshop will be able to reflect on their own teaching style and learn ways to connect with their students by analyzing their strengths as well as their weaknesses.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	Developing an engaging Classroom Culture (Using humor to create a more functional classroom)	What are the hallmarks of a good classroom? What requirements fall on students for an engaging classroom culture? What expectations are on teachers for sustaining an engaging classroom culture? What benefits are accrued from an engaging classroom culture? How is an engaging classroom culture sustained? This in-service can be presented as a five part workshop or can be done as one short presentation that gives people the tools to create the culture on their own.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	Writing to Learn in Math (Using writing strategies to improve math comprehension, and stimulate conversation and collaboration)	Students learn communication through many forms of writing, to improve math comprehension, as they dialogue, share and learn new problem-solving strategies to create true understanding of mathematical concepts.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	Teaching through the Arts	Teaching through the arts involves using the art modalities (visual arts, poetry, storytelling, creative movement, etc.) as a vehicle for teaching. This strategy enables students of all grades, abilities and learning styles to thrive in any curricular area and improves students' abilities to work collaboratively.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	Getting to the heart: The art of the questioning strategies.	Techniques to increase reading comprehension, engagement, and autonomy.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Instructional Strategies	Balancing Conceptual Understanding and Procedural Knowledge	Participants in this in-service will know the differences between procedural knowledge and conceptual learning. They will also know why it is important to balance instruction to improve student thinking and understanding. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their teaching practices and acknowledge where conceptual instruction can be used.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
	Title	Description of In-Service	Co-Director to Contact
Reading	Using Graphic Novels to Enhance Literacy	Teachers and students often feel trapped by so-called traditional texts. However, incorporating graphic novels and comic books into a curriculum can engage students of all levels. Struggling and advanced readers can build literacy skills through reading graphic novels and through creating their own. Used as supplements or to augment a program, graphic novels can provide exciting territories for teachers and students to explore.	Paula Uriarte
Reading	Closing the Achievement Gap: Engaging the Non-Engaged Reader	This presentation is designed to empower teachers from all content areas to teach and promote deep disciplinary literacy. School staff will start by learning the demands that are placed on student readers in school and in the real world, noting that the readings done in school are often not in service of the ‘real’ reading students participate in presently or in the future. Next, school staff will learn the best practices for motivating the non-engaged reader, including setting clear purposes for reading, using an essential question to guide student readings, techniques to engage readers’ background knowledge and other ways to motivate students to read. Finally, school staff will see examples of powerful ways students and teachers can make visible and concrete the invisible and conceptual processes of reading. By making disciplinary reading and thinking visible and concrete, non-engaged readers can learn how to improve their own reading practice, thereby moving all students toward deeper expertise in each content area.	Paula Uriarte
Reading	Moving students toward independent reading	This In-Service explores teh way in which directed reading and thinking activities can be used to assess students' reading moves, differentiate instruction, and move students toward becoming independent critical readers.	Paula Uriarte
Reading	Reading, Re-Telling, and Recycling: Using reading strategies and reading manipulatives to improve comprehension	Participants use recyclable materials to create reading manipulatives. Students retell science fiction stories using their manipulatives and explain the reading strategies they used to enhance their understanding.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Reading	Making Shakespeare Accessible to Ninth Graders	Many educators believe that Shakespeare is accessible only to "mature" students. Shakespeare wrote for everyone, including 9th graders. Participants will learn how to engage students by acting out scenes, acting out sonnets and writing their own sonnets help students dive into the richness and beauty and passion of the great playwright.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Reading	To Kill a Mockingbird for 2000	Ethnography frontloading technique to increase student engagement with required text.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Reading	Content Area Reading	Isn't the reading teacher's job to teach reading? Why reading matters to content area teachers and easy strategies to get kids to read and understand their textbooks.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
	Title	In-Service Description	Co-Director to Contact
Technology	Integrating On-Line Discussion Forums into the Classroom	At the completion of this three hour session, teachers will have created a functioning on-line discussion forum for use in their classroom in order to strengthen students critical thinking, writing, reflection and interactive learning. It is designed for beginning and experienced web surfers alike, introducing a user-friendly system even an Internet novice can understand.	Paula Uriarte
Technology	Integrating Technology into the Classroom	At the completion of this possible 1 hour, 3 hour, or one week session, learners will examine and explore technology integration strategies within K-12 networked computing environments. Content will include an examination of technology integration techniques using various application tools, instructional software, productivity software, and the Internet. Participants will also identify relative advantages for choosing technology integration strategies and resources for teachers to draw upon in developing their own technology integration activities.	Paula Uriarte
Technology	Teaching and Technology: Erasing the Digital Divide	Teachers will walk away with a navigable and usable web page that is user friendly, beneficial for both students and parents, and improve communication between all members of the learning community. Session One: Web Page Design to Aide Communication Session Two: The Internet as an Instructional and Motivational Tool Session Three: Motivating and Engaging Students to Research Through Technology Session Four: Incorporating Powerful Technology Tools into the Classroom	Paula Uriarte
Technology	ENCOURAGING THE RELUCTANT WRITER THROUGH BLOGGING: Working from On-Line composition to Off-Line	In this series of presentations, we will explore the use of on-line venues, such as blogging and the use of wikkis to engage students in “thinking through writing” and starting “conversations” through interactive blogging. We then progress through various uses of on-line blogs until we graduate to off-line composing. The goal is to work towards academic literacy objectives through a medium familiar and pervasive to the kids.	Paula Uriarte
	Title	Description of In-Service	Co-Director to Contact
Writing	Take a Load Off; Take A Plunge Finding Balance in Writing Across the Curriculum	The demo focuses on boosting the amount of writing done in disciplines other than Language Arts and quick writing strategies for all disciplines. The presentation also demonstrates ways to get students writing more in English classes without a ton of grading.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Everything is an argument	This workshop explores the ways in which argumentation can serve to motivate students and improve their critical thinking skills. This introductory session involved defining argumentation and exploring how it can be used to move students from personal response to informed argument. These strategies can be applied to all types of writing and discussion including research writing and literary analysis	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Mini-Analysis	Using brief, focused assignments, guided practice, and rewrites to introduce and improve literary analysis. Demonstration focuses on using scaffolding, and it could be part of a series where I show how I move students from writing miniature literature analysis to extended works, and how I use timed writing and rewriting throughout this process.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Hand in Hand: Leading Students Towards Independence Through Modeled and Shared	This demonstration explains the effectiveness of using modeled and shared writing in classrooms throughout all the grade levels. Participants in this workshop will understand what modeled and shared writing are. They will learn how to use the two processes in their own classrooms as a way to guide their students towards independence and quality writing	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Writing for Social Change	Week long course offered in summer, but can also be tailored to school or district needs. Explores the use of poetry, music, film, essay, and other literary arts for social change	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Responding to Writers	Up to fives sessions in designing assignments tied to literature and ways to respond to student writers, whether teacher/student conferencing or peer responding.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Teaching Writers	Various writing activities beyond the essay to use in the classroom and tie to literature. Emphasis is on the teacher as active participant and writer in the process. Various writing activities beyond the essay to use in the classroom and tie to literature. Emphasis is on the teacher as active participant and writer in the process.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Power of the Word	This inservice provides teachers with a hands-on opportunity to write and reflect on their own writing and the writing their students do in the classroom. They can understand the power of writing as they experience it for themselves. A workshop, or a one-week course that offers two graduate credits, teachers will discuss writing in the morning and write in various locations in the afternoon. Each teacher will then present two pieces of their writing at the end of the course.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	From Word Choice to Voice	Through this series of activities and discussions, we approach the discovery and cultivation of student voice in writing by examining and working through writing at the single word level. We will work through encouraging students to play with word choice, varying their language in different contexts to begin to build toward recognizing their emerging style and voice in writing.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	INCORPORATING WRITING INTO THE FINE ARTS An Exploration on How to Talk and Write about Fine Art	In this presentation, we bring explore methods of developing student ability to talk about, analyze, and discuss fine art. We look at the Design Elements and Principles as well as various approaches to composition (i.e. Write Traits) to encourage and develop more literacy opportunities in the non-language arts classroom.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	COMPOSING THE RESEARCH PAPER THROUGH STORY: An Exploration of the Use of Narrative/Creative Writing to the Research Paper	In this presentation, we will examine the benefits of beginning with personal experience or narrative as a means to finding a path to research topics and research composition. This presentation will help with the problems of exhausted topics (AIDS, Abortion, etc.) as well as plagiarized or more “copy transfer” style reports. Additionally, we emphasize the connection between student background/interest and topic to be researched.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	How to Write Memoirs (1st - 8th)	Students use various writing prompts to find a time in their lives to write about. Students explore their memories of childhood places, events, and relatives to spark their creativity. Students read literature that can be categorized as memoir. Students discover the meaning of memoir. Students learn the difference between autobiography and memoir. Students write a memoir.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Teaching Grammar in Context	This In-Service addresses why grammar is not great as a stand alone subject and presents the problems and history behind grammar being taught in isolation. Ideas and strategies for teaching grammar in context as well as student samples of the results will be presented.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Paving the Path with Birds, Bones and Blood: On Our Way to Writing Freely	The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate some ways to help people feel confident about the process of writing, and to provide strategies for extending the reach of people who write on a regular basis. Especially for non-English teachers who want try writing ideas and activities but are tentative.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Senior Project Autobiography	Presentation of an intense and different senior project that has students writing an autobiography over the course of five-six weeks	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Letter writing between students and parents	Based on a year long fifth and sixth grade exchange between students and parents through letter writing but can be adapted to almost any environment	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Creating a Student Writing Center: Students as Coaches	A Writing Center is a place where students and staff go to obtain assistance with their writing or work on a writing project. Trained Writing Center staff members aid clients in all phases of the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. A Writing CenterWriting Center is to help writers become more effective writers. From Richard Kent’s A Guide to Creating Student-staffed Writing Centers. has a number of computers available. The main objective of a My demonstration guided teachers through a discussion on if writing centers are needed, what is needed for a writing center and how to create the space for a writing center; then together we pursue how to find and train writing coaches.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Writing Memoirs	Focus grades 2-8. Demonstration explains the difference between autobiography and memoir, focusing on how to spark memories in students that can be used for memoir as well as how to select details for the form.	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Scaffolding Writing Instruction for Success Elementary Grade Level / Struggling older students	Using picture books as models of good writing Using graphic organizers to help with the writing process. Research from Graves, Hillocks, Wilhelm and others...	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Writing That Matters	Creating writing assignments that matter to students, assignments with real audiences, etc. I could also present on "Personal Creed"--a semester assignment following the work of Jon Cregor that asks students to complete 15 page-long personal reflections followed by a public presentation. (I love the way this project has turned my 10th graders into enthusiastic reflectors.)	Paula Uriarte
Writing	Going Inside: Helping students to stake an identity and reflect on their learning	Students write poetry that helps to identify them and write reflections on the writing process and the meaning of their poems.	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Writing	Teaching Writing to 2nd Graders	Includes stories, reports, poems	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Writing	The Power of Persuasion (Using Debate to Enhance a Persuasive Essay)	This demonstration promotes the use of a debate format to encourage students to refute positions within a persuasive essay. Participants will participate in an actual debate and then transfer their experiences into a written format	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Writing	The Sea We Swim In (using ethnography to improve student motivation and writing)	As an accompaniment to To Kill a Mockingbird, students undertake an ethnographic study of their own culture, complete a multi-genre reflection, and present their pieces at a Night of Writing	Yvonne L. Georgeson
Writing	Writing for the World (An Authentic Audience: What Every Writer Needs)	The demonstration provides a rationale for publishing student work in the classroom and beyond. It explores strategies for creating an authentic audience for student writing and its impact on the enthusiasm and professionalism that students bring to their writing.	Yvonne L. Georgeson

For Teachers, By Teachers, About Teachers: Supporting Teachers to Support Students, Learning and Literacy