Summer Institute Enters Final Week

The energy and synergy of the 2009 NIWP Summer Institute Fellows know no bounds.


Thus far, we've covered the educational playground of the Titans, and these Fellows have dived right in, proving they're reflective practitioners committed to best practices, excellence, and professionalism. They have certainly earned the right to be called Teacher Consultants for the Northwest Inland Writing Project.


Month in Review:

Readings, reader responses (all conducted via Fellow blogs which greatly enhanced the dialogue, digging deeper, and critical thinking levels of all involved), and writing, writing, writing culminated in a month chock-full of analyzing and synthesizing and evaluating. We've covered a lot of ground, but we always took the time (and the Fellows gave generously of their dedication and energy) to dig deeper, reach farther, and extend into the realm of putting theory into practice.


A Glance at our Reading:

• The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer
• After the End by Barry Lane
• Personal Choice Book on Writing (Bird by Bird, Writing Down the Bones, etc)
• Multiple research articles

A Glance at our Writing: Although Fellows dipped into many different modes and projects this month, exposing their innate word crafting skills and passion for sound, by the end of the four weeks each was invited to hand in a total of three projects that had been taken through the writing process, one of which was publication ready. Grounded in our belief that student choice is an integral part of our educational philosophy, our Fellows were encouraged to choose assignments that reflected their journeys, their goals, and their interests.


Writing Options:

• Publication paper
• Personal writing: memoir or collection of poetry
• Inquiry paper/project
• Philosophy presentation
• Digital story-telling
• Book review
• Reflection article
• Others as negotiated with facilitators

Continuity Opportunity: By accepting the NIWP fellowship, Teacher Constultants agree to attend or present at the spring conference. A strand at the Spring Conference is dedicated to continuity for the further development and reflection of our TCs.

A Sampling of our Workshop Titles:

Look for us at the Spring Conference, March 10-11, 2010

• Teaching Audience and Purpose Using Modern Media
• Worming More Meaning out of Reading
• Bring Multicultural Literacy into the Classroom to Motivate Writing and Reading
• How to Start Writing a Memoir
• Keeping Open an Inquiry: Brainstorming and Prewriting for Academic Writing
• Sentence Savvy: How to Avoid Writing Ponderous, Boring, Confusing, and Lackluster Sentences
• Five Brush Strokes for Authors: Infusing Grammar with Writing Instruction
• Using Metaphor to Deepen Reading and Enhance Writing
• Purposeful Publishing: Ideas to Produce Authentic Published Work
• Approaching Test Writing as a Genre within Writing Workshop

Our Teacher Consultants also select two Continuity Options for the 2009-2010 school year. This is an opportunity to deepen learning, extend experience, and utilize the knowledge and expertise of the TC. Possible options are listed below:

• Young Authors Conference: present or bring students to the YAC;
• Open Institutes: attend or present in any of the open institutes that NIWP offers;
• Summer Institute Showcase: present demo workshop at 2010 SI;
• Writing Retreat: attend the 2010 writing retreat;
• Advanced Institute: attend or present at the one week advanced institute in 2010;
• Volunteer to chair or co-chair an NIWP committee