Writers in the Schools

A typical Missoula Writing Collaborative school residency consists of 84 classroom teaching hours, spread out over seven months of the school year. Our resident writers develop an important relationship with their schools. Students look forward to "Poet Day" and often greet the writing teacher with shouts of delight and fists pumping the air. By the middle of a school writing residency we expect each child to be writing regularly, keeping a folder of his or her work, and sharing the final results with classroom peers. This also is the goal for all of our outreach programs - to have participants attend consistently, write and revise original work, and share it with others. Each residency culminates in a public reading and published anthology of student work.

When creative writing becomes part of education, students experience overall success at school. This fact is reiterated by the teachers and administrators who welcome our program, as well as by the students themselves and their parents. Students who become writers develop a strong, positive image of their own place in school, a self-image that can affect for the better their relations with the broader world. Creative writing inspires students to engage with their learning. It then gives them the crucial tools they need to respond to, express, and create their lives.