词汇大师-- Calling Young English Learners

　　AA:   I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we continue our discussion on an effort to improve writing in American schools.
RS:   Elyse Eidman-Aadahl is co-director of the federally-funded National Writing Project.

　　ELYSE EIDMAN-AADAHL: "The National Writing Project is a network of local writing project sites where teachers and faculty¹ from colleges and universities come together to think more deeply and prepare to be better teachers of writing. And it was started in nineteen seventy-four at the University of California, Berkeley, and since then has spread to nearly two hundred sites in the United States and several sites abroad -- one in Malta, one in Hong Kong -- and a number of affiliated² programs around the world."
AA: "And this is aimed at the college level?"
ELYSE EIDMAN-AADAHL: "No, it's actually for teachers kindergarten through, let's say, grade sixteen -- K through college."
RS: "How do teachers and therefore their students get involved?"
ELYSE EIDMAN-AADAHL: "Well, at local writing project sites, the way that they work is that a group of teachers and faculty members at a college or university decide that they want to found a write project. And they scour³ the service area around the campus and take nominations⁴ for really strong teachers of writing, and bring those teachers together to found the site.
"And they start with a five-week-long summer institute where all these teachers teach each other their best practices. They read a lot in the research about the teaching of writing. And they do a lot of writing themselves, so that they can remember what it's like to be on the other end of a writing task or a writing assignment. And they reflect together on that."
AA: "Is there a sort of a common curriculum⁵ that guides these projects around the country?"
ELYSE EIDMAN-AADAHL: "All local writing projects share that same model of founding themselves with teacher leaders who teach each other their effective practices. But the curriculum itself can vary a lot depending on what the local needs and interests are. So although we have a common framework and a common model, it keeps being updated and customized to local interests based on the teachers that are participating."
RS: "So how do they continue to participate -- do they have a Web site in which they engage? Or do they continue to have face-to-face meetings?"
ELYSE EIDMAN-AADAHL: "They'll do a couple of things after the summer institute. One is that they'll give in-service programs to other teachers. So a local school can ask some of those teachers to come and do a course for them right at the local school.
"They'll also hold what we call continuity⁶ programs, continuing education programs. They may do teacher research together. They may have study groups. And certainly they're online with each other. And the interest in having a common social network or Web site has really grown in the last few years. So most writing projects have a way for people to be online with each other.
"And since in the U.S. alone, for example, last year about ninety-two thousand teachers participated in some local writing project programs, if we imagine the impact on teaching practices, that can be pretty significant."
AA: "Now, I know you say the teachers go through five weeks of a summer institute. Are there a couple of sort of major principles, guiding principles, of teaching writing that maybe you can talk a little bit about?"
ELYSE EIDMAN-AADAHL: "First off, it's really important to keep in mind how broad writing is. When we really think about the whole range of ways that people use writing -- to learn, to think, to persuade each other, to communicate in work, in business, in community life -- I would say one principle is that we're actually needing to help every student learn that whole wide range of writing.
"I think another important thing is just to remember that writing is a tool for learning. When we try to write about something, we've probably most of us have experienced that when we try to write about something, we pretty quickly see maybe how much we don't know about a topic when we're trying to write about it."
RS:   Elyse Eidman-Aadahl at the National Writing Project. As we said last week, they're currently⁷ working with high school teachers on "Letters to the Next President." Students are being encouraged to write a persuasive⁸ letter about issues that the next president should address. Publicity⁹ campaigns will bring these letters to a national audience.
AA:   We're offering an international audience to young people out there who want to give the candidates some suggestions. We'll post letters at voanews.com/wordmaster and we might read your letter on the air. Write to [email protected].
RS:   Or click on the Contact Us link at voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

2 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

3 scour   

v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷

参考例句：

• Mother made me scour the family silver.母亲让我擦洗家里的银器。
• We scoured the telephone directory for clues.我们仔细查阅电话簿以寻找线索。

4 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

5 curriculum   

n.课程，（学校等的）全部课程

参考例句：

• Is German on your school's curriculum?你们学校有德语课吗？
• The English curriculum should stress both composition and reading.英语课程对作文和阅读应同样重视。

6 continuity   

n.连贯性，连续性，持续性

参考例句：

• There is no continuity between the three parts of the book.这本书的三个部分之间没有连贯性。
• Unfortunately,no questions from the audience broke the continuity of his harangue.令人遗憾的是，没有听众提出问题来打断他的高谈阔论。

7 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

8 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

9 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。