Global Writes, Inc.
At a Glance
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Description
Global Writes is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote literacy, communication and collaboration among young people through the integration of performing arts and technology resources. Their programs work to create opportunities for students to develop as creative writers, and to share their original pieces through the use of a variety of digital technologies, including videoconferencing and web collaboration tools.
Impact and Outcomes
What Major Funders Say
Mission & Goals
Global Writes is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote literacy, communication and collaboration among young people through the integration of performing arts and technology. They partner with arts organizations to provide writing residencies in over 40 schools with at risk student populations. Their work is data driven and they have collected a body of evidence that shows the impact in student literacy achievement. Global Writes is innovative in its approach since it encompasses the use of a variety of 21st century learning tools such as digital media, videoconferencing and web collaboration to provide venues for sharing student work across schools in cities around the country.
Global Writes' goals are:
- To develop an increased appreciation for arts integrated programs in schools that increase student academic achievement.
- To nurture student motivation for learning and self esteem through an appreciation of their writing and collaboration with their peers.
- To increase and sustain teacher ability to integrate technology effectively in their daily classroom practice
- To continue to broaden and sustain the Global Writes community to additional cities across the U.S. and internationally.
Program
The Global Writes model has several core program elements:
- A partnership with a local arts partner who can provide a writing and performance residency in collaboration with an English Language Arts teacher. It has been extremely valuable for the students to have a model professional writer in their classroom who can provide strategies for writing and performance. The collaboration between a classroom teacher and a teaching artist brings added value to the table in creative writing and lifting the poem off the page is critical to the workshop model
- Access to technology is also essential for the various modes of collaboration across classrooms school to school, city to city. Videoconferencing is used to link up students and teachers across schools. Access to the internet for sharing work through blogs and the GW Ning, allows students to share their writing and provide peer to peer feedback.
- Global Writes works along with its local arts partners to provide ongoing professional development for its teachers and teaching artists. This is essential to build sustainability of the program beyond the funding provided. Global Writes staff provides specific training on all technologies used in the program.
Impact
Through a USDOE Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant analysis of a grade 7 cohort of student results (baseline-fall 2012 to spring 2014) indicated that treatment students made greater gains than control students in the area of effort, a difference that was found to be statistically significant and educationally meaningful.
Results of the 2015 Global Writes NYS after school 21st Century Grant in 10 Bronx NY schools reveals that more than half of regularly-attending middle school students improved their English language arts and math report card grades from fall to spring. In addition, the large majority of students who responded to a pre/post survey in spring 2016 indicated that the program has had a positive impact on their academics, sense of future, and life skills.
Results from a recent 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Research grant revealed that of 472 Bronx Middle school students taking the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) Rating Scales instrument on a pre-and post-basis (January and May of 2015), students in the treatment group made significantly greater gains than those in the comparison group on the overall Social Skills scale and specifically in the areas of Assertion, Empathy, and Responsibility.
The data validates that arts encourages and fosters key Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills, which have been acknowledged by the education community as necessary for students to be prepared for college and careers.
Growth Plan
Over the next three years Global Writes has the following plans for growth
- To evolve the Global Writes model and bring it to scale in order to affect targeted turnaround in at-risk school communities in the United States and beyond.
- To continue to impact students’ academic achievement and deepen their appreciation for the arts through their participation in an arts model program. Global Writes plans to impact an additional 5,000 students per year over the next three years raising participation from 15,000 to 30,000 students . The program will increase its range from an initial four schools in one city to 33 schools across six cities in the next 3 years.
- To improve teachers’ instructional practices by providing sustained, embedded professional development on leading literacy instruction that integrates the performing arts and collaborative technologies with the core curriculum. The program will grow its teacher and teaching artists participation by at least 50% of the next 3 years.
Location of Sites
To make a contribution to a program site:
- Click on the "Make a Contribution Now" button and include the name, city and state of the program you would like to support, in the "notes" text box on the organization's donation form, if available.
- If a "notes" or "designation" box is not available, write the city and state on your check in the "notes" section or call the national office to designate your contribution to a local program site.
Locations in the following states:
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Financials
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Major Funders
Global Writes currently receives ongoing funding only from the U.S. Department of Education.
In the past we have also received smaller foundation grants from the following funders:
MetLife/ National Guild Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
Partners for Arts Education
National Endowment for the Arts (Art Works and Art Works Research)