Summer Institute in the Teaching of Writing
A four-week Intensive Institute
July 9th through August 3rd
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Connecticut Writing Project–Fairfield announces its Summer Institute in the Teaching of Writing to be held at Fairfield University. The Project Directors and Leadership Council invite you to apply. Please copy this announcement and distribute it to interested teachers. Any Connecticut teacher, K-13, is eligible.
The goals of the CWP Summer Institute in the Teaching of Writing are:
• To help participating teachers reflect upon their own expertise as teachers of writing and to share this knowledge with their peers
• To help participating teachers organize and prepare specific ways of presenting this expertise to teachers outside the Project
• To make available to participating teachers the latest theoretical work in the field
• To engage participants in inquiry regarding the language development of students for whom English is a second language and for low income students
• to help participating teachers see themselves as writers.
Participants will read in their chosen areas, prepare and present workshops, do personal/professional writing, and help colleagues with their writing in response groups.
Teachers selected for the Institute will participate in an introductory dinner meeting and workshop scheduled for the last week in May.
Participants will receive 4 graduate credits. They are eligible for CEU equivalents from their school districts.
Interested Fellows may apply to the Practicum for Leadership Preparation during the 2011-12 academic year for which they will earn an additional 2 credits.
Summer Institute Participants’ Responsibilities
I. Individual Writing
Following the National Writing Project principle that teachers of writing should be writers themselves, participants will work on several pieces of individual writing, including:
• A personal narrative
• A genre piece
• Expository, persuasive, or professional writing.
II. Writing Activities
Over the course of the Institute, there will be scheduled time for:
• Generating activities
• Individual writing
• Revision strategies
• Response-group meetings to discuss the pieces-in-progress
• Read-arounds of more-or-less complete pieces.
III. Learner’s Log
Participants will keep a learner’s log during the Institute in which they record their experience as a student of writing and teaching through reflective writing about their own development and about the issues being raised for them during the Institute. The learner’s log is a place to:
• Explore ideas
• Reflect on demonstrations
• Question others and themselves
• Respond to readings
• Consider the implications of particular theories and practices
• Identify points which confirm or challenge past experience.
IV. Research
Participants will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of a particular issue of interest or concern to them about the teaching of writing through:
• Doing individual research
• Preparing teaching strategies
• Sharing information and questions with peers
• Preparing a demonstration on the issue under study.
V. Demonstration
Participants will prepare and present a rehearsal of a ninety-minute demonstration on the topic of their research. As part of this process, they will:
• Participate in model demonstrations presented by participants from previous Institutes
• Learn the characteristics of an effective demonstration
• Work with a coach in preparing their own demonstration
• De-brief their rehearsal through a conference with an Institute facilitator.
