Boston Writing Project Summer Institute
The Boston Writing Project offers selected teachers—from kindergarten to college—a variety of opportunities to become better teachers of writing. Within all project activities, teachers examine the writing processes used by themselves, their colleagues, and their students; study current research, theory, and practice in the teaching of writing; and approach the teaching of writing in a cross-disciplinary context. Teachers perform daily writing assignments and meet in small groups to discuss and improve their own writing. Additionally, an important part of the institute is that they make formal presentations to each other on some aspect of their own teaching of writing. They also hear staff and consultant presentations on key topics in the field, and read current publications on theory, research, and practice in the teaching of writing.Participants in the Invitational Institute receive a stipend, and are eligible to enter the BWP’s certificate program in the Teaching of Writing. The Summer Institute awards credit for:
- BWPEDU 501, The Teacher as Writer
- The focus of the course is improving writing instruction by having teachers actively involved in all phases of the process: prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofreading. Participants will improve their writing skills and learn effective practices for teaching writing. Through journals and reader response methods, participants will integrate composition theories with classroom applications. In writing response groups, they will give and receive feedback for revision. Responding to the works of professional authors, analyzing educational theories, and reflecting on their own frustrations and accomplishments in writing, teachers will reassess their strategies for teaching writing.
- EDC G 621, Teaching Writing K-12
- This course deals with the teaching of writing, the teacher as writer, and the interactions between reading and writing. Readings and presentations offer up-to-date information, theory, and practical techniques for teaching reading and writing in all subject areas. Students meet regularly in reader-writer response groups to work on their own writing and to respond to one another's writing about reading. There are a number of guest lecture-demonstrations by elementary and secondary teachers who are teacher/consultants with the Boston Writing Project. The course combines writing process theory with practical methods.