Manitoba Writing Project
The MBWP is a professional network for educators and educational partners to explore the power of writing and to discover multiple ways of making meaning with young people. In particular, we focus on the use of writing as, and for, social justice and human rights in our multicultural context. As we go forward, our interests will include the expansion of our inquiry community so we can further our understanding of these topics and to reach more communities, schools, and students.
The purpose of our website is to provide a space where educators can come together, learn from one another, and share their stories. It is our hope that those interested in the MBWP can learn about our work as well as adapt it to their own classrooms.
Click below to see some ongoing projects, or continue scrolling to see our 'About Us' page.
Being an educator of writing and being a writer are synonymous:
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you —
Then, it will be true.
— Langston Hughes, "Theme from English B," Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)
"While students should be writing more, they are writing less"
The first of its kind in Canada, the Manitoba Writing Project is an Associated International Site of the National Writing Project (NWP) in the United States. There are nearly 200 local NWP sites across the U.S., co-directed by faculty from universities and K-12 schools. The NWP is one of the oldest professional development programs in the U.S. and is the only federally-funded program that focuses on the teaching of writing.
While strong ties with the NWP are important to its success, the Manitoba Writing Project (MBWP) is also defining itself as uniquely Manitoban. The project began with a qualitative study we conducted with educators across the province. Through the research, we found a significant discrepancy: while writing—across levels and disciplines--has become increasingly important to the academic success of Manitoban students, opportunities for Manitoban educators to develop their capacities to write and to teach writing are increasingly rare.
"opportunities for Manitoban educators to develop their capacities to write and to teach writing are increasingly rare"
In effect, while students should be writing more, they are writing less. And, in the context of a networked, connected world, where technology can enable students to engage in writing about authentic issues through a range of formats and modes with audiences around the globe, we see a missed opportunity. When it does happen, writing in school tends to offer students a very limited scope of topics, formats, and audiences—mostly written only for a teacher to read for the purpose of assessment.
In response to the research, we launched the Manitoba Writing Project, which merges our ongoing research in writing for/as social justice and human rights with our roles as teacher educators and our work with schools. Through several new initiatives—including a free, one-day forum for educators and an ongoing evening series of events on writing—we are building a professional network to connect educators through opportunities to collaborate, share, and learn.
To Learn More About Us, Try Exploring The Links Below
About The Manitoba Writing Project
Writing Map
We are currently working on an interactive Writing Map, that will provide teaching resources. Stay tuned!
The Latest and The Upcoming:
Join us to connect with other writers and teachers of writers to begin the school year inspired to engage in place-writing and place-walking. We will launch our 2024 Write Out Manitoba!—a resource filled with ideas for place-writing and place-walking for every day in October, including ways to share your writing (and the writing of your students) with the wider public.
Our Writing Institutes are designed to immerse educators in meaningful experiences that develop their identities as writers, their capacities as teachers of writing, and their preparation to engage their students in writing for, and as, social justice and human rights. Click HERE to read more!
Ongoing Efforts
The MBWP is engaged in a number of initiatives to expand writing education and social justice pedagogy in Manitoba. Detailed below are a number of these efforts.
The Manitoba Writing Project was launched in February 2014 with a series of conversations across institutions, disciplines, and borders about writing in the province of Manitoba. Funded by a grant from the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities, the Passions, Pedagogies, and Publics Research series focused on bringing together K-12 teachers and university teachers across campus to share the work they were doing in writing. Since then, our work has continued to generate dialogue around writing that is both interdisciplinary and inter-institutional in nature.
We have looked more deeply at writing in the disciplines through four events that have given participants an opportunity to see how writing is being taught and used as a tool for learning in various disciplines, to explore connections to their own teaching contexts, and to generate strategies and recommendations for understanding and teaching writing in the province—from Kindergarten through post-secondary education.
Research
Building Partnerships
We seek to collaborate with educators, writers, community organizations, museums, and others to create writing projects that develop and support a professional network of educators committed to engaging their students in writing for/as social justice and human rights.
One particular success for The Manitoba Writing Project has been in developing a partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the most successful professional learning program in the United States over its fifty year existence. In 2018, MBWP became the first NWP Associated International Site in Canada, with a uniquely Manitoban identity, rooted in the legacy of teacher activism in the province.
Inquiry
We are committed to an inquiry stance, approaching writing and the teaching of writing as a form of teacher-research. We believe teacher inquiry contributes to a profession that values teachers as theorists, as producers of curriculum and materials, and as activists for their students and communities.
Community
Manitoba children and youth are at the centre of the MBWP. The goal of the MBWP community is to contribute directly to educating and empowering young people to think critically, develop passion about human rights issues, and identify as writers who can effectively communicate and offer their voices in public dialogue as citizens.
Social Justice and Human Rights
The Manitoba Writing Project seeks to support educators in research and curriculum development in the area of writing as/for social justice and human rights. The project aims to develop platforms and networks for educators to collaborate with one another, share, and publish.
Teachers who participate in Summer Institutes will be expected to play a vital role in leading sustained efforts to enact pedagogies of critical literacy and social justice in their schools. With ongoing support and programming from the MBWP, Manitoba Writing Project teacher-leaders will study and share effective practices, work collaboratively with other educators, design resources, and take on new roles in their teaching contexts.
Teachers Teaching Teachers
While the Summer Institutes are integral to building capacity in the province for a writing project model that values “teachers teaching teachers”, we understand that such a project needs to provide educators with ongoing support and resources to effect change.
Rather than a single professional development day, teacher-leaders can expect ongoing communication, support, and collaborative opportunities throughout the entirety of the school year.
The MBWP relies on the ongoing work, collaboration, and sharing of its teacher participants. Our professional network continues to grow as teachers create presentations for others, make available their resources, and tell the stories of their classrooms.