About Putting it in Writing!

What happens when we focus on what student writers can do instead of what they can’t do? What happens when students get opportunities to write about issues and questions they know and care about? What happens when we give them a chance to go public with their writing and create with them a forum for their ideas?

To create such a forum, the California Writing Project (CWP) invited students in classes taught by ISAW teachers to put their ideas in writing for real audiences, to submit writing that is important to them for online publication. For thirty-five years teachers in the CWP have developed powerful classroom projects to engage their students in writing about personal, community, and civic issues. We believe that critical, issue-based teaching “aims to inspire levels of academic performance far greater than those motivated or measured by grades and test scores. When students write for real audiences, read books and articles about issues that really matter, and discuss big ideas with compassion and intensity, ‘academics’ starts to breathe. Yes, we must help students ‘pass the tests,’ (even as we help them analyze and critique the harmful impact of test-driven education). But only by systematically reconstructing classroom life do we have any hope of cracking the cynicism that lies so close to the heart of massive school failure, and of raising academic expectations and performance for all our students.” (Rethinking Schools)

In this online anthology of student writing you will find writing that includes a wide range of genres and issues. Some of what you will read is painfully honest, some is keenly observant, and some is persuasively direct. Authors include students who are newcomers to our country and to English. For other authors, school and writing have been daily struggles. For others, writing is like breathing.

What do these writers share? They all took the risk that is an integral part of publishing. Putting it in Writing! is a writer’s act of hope, of faith, that his or her ideas and perspectives will find a responsive reader. We invite you to be those readers. Dive into this online anthology, explore the students’ writing, celebrate their progress, and help CWP shine a bright spotlight on their promise and potential.

Jayne Marlink, Executive Director
California Writing Project