Writers in the Schools (WITS)

Professional Writer Comes to Maple

This fall, students in Diana Lew, Jane Woods and Abraha Zehral’s classes will have the opportunity to work with writer Fredda Jaffe. Fredda comes to Maple through Writers in the Schools, an award winning program of Seattle Arts & Lectures that focuses on improving students’ writing skills.

Fredda is working with students to create, present, and receive feedback on their creative writing. At the end of the semester, students will have the chance to present their stories, poems, and memoirs to the school community in the form of an anthology, reading, or special project.

In its thirteen-year history, Writer in the Schools (WITS) has inspired interest and excellence in writing for elementary, middle and high schools students, as well as provided teachers with new ideas and skills for teaching writing. This year, WITS is partnering with 24 public schools, providing teachers with professional development scholarships to the Puget Sound Writing Project at the University of Washington, books for school and classroom libraries, visits from nationally- or internationally-known authors, and complimentary tickets to the Seattle Arts & Lectures literary lecture series. WITS also produces an annual city-wide anthology of student writing.

Writer Fredda Jaffe received a Community Arts Fellowship from the Earthwatch Institute to study salmon habitat restoration on the Skagit River and was a 2005 Jack Straw Writer.

If you would like to know more about Fredda or the WITS program, please visit Seattle Arts & Lectures’ website at www.lectures.org, or contact Jaime Curl, WITS Director, at jaime@lectures.org.

Writers in the Schools (WITS) is an organization that engages children in the pleasure and power of reading and writing. WITS writers work in year-long programs in over 350 classrooms in order to help students develop their creative and analytical thinking skills. Although our focus is on at-risk inner city students, we also offer workshops in art museums, hospitals, community centers, private schools, and juvenile detention centers.

Visit the Writers in the Schools website »