Office of University Communications 

Ozarks Writing Project initiated at Missouri State

SPRINGFIELD — The National Writing Project (NWP) has awarded a $30,000 grant to Dr. Keri Franklin, assistant professor of English at Missouri State University, to fund an NWP site, one of over 200 housed at universities in the United States. Franklin will serve as the director of the Ozarks Writing Project (OWP).

The core work of the site will be the Summer Invitational Institute. Approximately 20 teachers from K-university and across content areas will meet on the campus of Missouri State for a four-week Summer Institute (June 16-July 11). The OWP identifies successful teachers of writing across all curriculum areas in Ozarks schools and colleges and successful approaches for the teaching of writing and the uses of writing-to-learn in all subject areas.

The OWP also involves teachers in their own writing so that they can better help their students. In addition, the initiative helps teachers examine basic issues of equity and access and their impact on student learning, and makes current research in the field available to assist teachers.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be awarded a site at our university” Franklin said. “The Ozarks Writing Project is the single most beneficial professional development I experienced as a teacher, and now Missouri State can provide teachers in southern Missouri a professional home for writing and research.”

More than 38 teachers in the Ozarks from schools such as Hollister, Miller, Willard, Osceola, Missouri State and Springfield Public Schools have participated in OWP programs. In addition to the Summer Invitational Institute, the OWP has offered professional writing retreats in Branson, a writing marathon and an elementary youth writing camp in Carthage.

As an NWP site, the OWP is an authorized provider of standards-aligned professional development and is eligible for No Child Left Behind funding. Through the institute each summer, the OWP builds its corps of teacher consultants, expands its collective knowledge, and increases its capacity to address complex issues and concerns regarding literacy in the Ozarks.

The OWP is supported by the College of Arts and Letters, English department, Ozarks Studies Institute and the Graduate College, and is a collaborative program between Missouri State University and the National Writing Project, a federally funded program.

Prior to receiving funding for a full-time site, Missouri State was a satellite of the Greater Kansas City Writing Project for three years.