Webinar: Building a Community of Writers: Harnessing Productive Struggle in the Age of AI

Teaching writing is challenging, and the rise of AI introduces both opportunities and questions. How can teachers and leaders ensure that students continue to value their own cognitive development to keep independent thought in the forefront when technology is so readily available? One enduring answer is the community of writers—a classroom environment where students and educators engage in the complexities of writing together.

In writing communities, educators help students navigate friction points, reduce barriers to access, strengthen ownership of their learning, and embrace productive struggle. With thoughtful integration, AI can support rather than replace these essential processes, ensuring that writing remains both meaningful and transformative.

Join Dr. Paige Whitlock, Literacy Director at NoRedInk, and Dr. Tanya Baker, Executive Director of the National Writing Project, as they moderate a panel of educator-researchers exploring the shifts required to sustain healthy, thriving writing communities in the age of AI.

In this session, participants will:

Apply a framework constructed by WestEd to inform instructional practices in the era of AI.
Engage with educators who are fostering writing communities that thoughtfully integrate AI tools.
Explore classroom examples of how AI integration is transforming writing instruction and collaboration.
Gain actionable strategies to strengthen educator and student agency, resilience, and voice in writing.

Dr. Paige Whitlock

Paige Whitlock works across NoRedInk teams to champion the needs of students, teachers, and administrators and ensure the product reflects the real challenges and opportunities of today’s classrooms. With experience teaching middle and high school ELA in seven states and serving as an ELA leader at both the school and district levels, Paige brings a deep, lived understanding of what it takes to teach literacy skills to diverse secondary learners.

Her passion for literacy and commitment to equitable instruction led her to pursue advanced research in disciplinary literacy at Virginia Tech, where her work earned the 2021 Dissertation Award. Paige draws on this blend of classroom experience, leadership perspective, and research expertise to help districts strengthen writing instruction and to guide NoRedInk’s efforts to build tools that genuinely support educators and the students they serve.

Dr. Tanya Baker

Tanya Baker is a nonprofit leader with more than 25 years of experience in education. After working as a teacher and literacy coach, at NWP Tanya has worked with many funders and partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, and West Ed. Through these relationships and in collaboration with excellent teacher-leaders, she has built and managed national programs that connect educators to work together on areas of interest and problems of practice that intrigue and trouble them.

For more than two decades Tanya has been committed to and shaped by the National Writing Project’s mission and vision and holds a deep commitment to practices that respect teachers and students. She strives to design learning experiences that begin with a presumption of competence and are relentlessly collaborative and deeply joyful.