Summer Writing Institute

The Summer Writing Institute

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. In the day-to-day Institute, this includes:

devoting significant time to writing, exploring issues of social justice and human rights through a wide range of writing, media and perspectives, and providing resources, teaching demonstrations, and collegial support to educators so that they can develop their own projects for teaching writing for/as social justice and human rights in a classroom or community context.

Click on the buttons below to discover more about the Summer Writing Institute, or keep scrolling!

Alumni's Pespective

Anthologies

Writing Map

Our Writing Institutes

Summer Institute Anthology

The Summer Institute Anthology is composed of creative and practical pieces authored by the teachers who participated in the MBWP's Summer Writing Institutes. Forms range from lesson plans to poems, essays, and opinion pieces among many others.

Below are anthologies from various Summer Writing institutes. Click on the images to view each anthology!

2021

Summer 2021, writers came together from across Canada (and even the United States!) to learn, wander, wonder, and write together at the Summer Writing Institute. Each writing group submitted a section to the anthology, featuring a piece from each writer. Please download the attached PDF for the compiled anthology.

2018

Each writing group from the 2018 Summer Writing Institute designed a section within this year's Anthology to feature one piece from each writer. Provided here is the PDF of the compiled anthology.

2014

The 2014 educators of the Summer Writing Institute wrote brilliant pieces of their own pieces of literature. Here is an anthology of their work.

Writing Map

We are currently working on an interactive Writing Map, that will provide teaching resources. Stay tuned!

Our Writing Institutes

devoting significant time to writing, exploring issues of social justice and human rights through a wide range of writing, media and perspectives, and providing resources, teaching demonstrations, and collegial support to educators so that they can develop their own projects for teaching writing for/as social justice and human rights in a classroom or community context.

The stories of many of our Summer Writing Institute participants can be found on our Project Gallery pages. These 'pedagogy projects' detail both the issues and ideas participants worked with as well as the lessons, units, and programs they designed for real-life classrooms.

Summer Writing Institute 2018

The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.

In July 2018, we invited a group of 24 educators to explore place through situating ourselves as writers in/with place. Our site was King’s Park, close enough to campus to walk for daily time to write, to meet in writing groups, and to engage in inquiry. From the successful 50-year history of the National Writing Project, we have learned that to be effective teachers of writing, teachers must experience the process themselves. Time to write was an important part of the institute, as was time to participate in writing workshops and writing conferences with small groups and with the instructors.

Like Coleman (2017) in Yardwork, we hoped King’s Park would become a “backyard” for our inquiry into place. This was about looking closely and inquiring into the relationships we share with place and place shares with us. This was about coming to better understand place through study and writing in many forms. This was about creating something new as a process of becoming-with place in some way: through a new awareness of the history, animal life, and plant species of the park; of the land, river, and waterways; of the economic, political, spiritual and storied dimensions of place; and of issues of special interest, accessibility, eco-justice, policy and policing, monuments and memorializing, marshlands and lawns, rivers and ponds, birds, turtles, dogs and insects.

It was about letting an inquiry lead us through our curiosity, observations, conversations, research, and being open. It was about listening in new ways: expanding the ways we see and what we pay attention to; documenting through pictures, audio, video, notes, drawings; posing questions and coming to learn through story, archival research, systematic study, interview, and using new tools. It was an invitation to be wild, organic, experimental, multimodal, and reflective in their writing.

Summer Writing Institute 2016

Having hosted 2 summer institutes, it was time to try something else for Fall 2016: a blended course (3 credit hours) offered online with 3 Saturday face-to-face workshops. Fifteen amazing educators signed up for the experience. Again, it was a wonderfully diverse group, from early years teachers to those who teach in high school classrooms and those who work as administrators and coaches to support literacy and professional learning in their schools and divisions. We introduced ourselves online through sharing an initial piece of writing in response to questions and mentor texts like these: What languages define you? (Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue"); Who raised you? (Kelly Norman Ellis, "I Was Raised by Women"); What do you know about yourself? (Tucker Bryant, "Some Facts About Myself"); What do you believe? (National Public Radio, "This I Believe"); and What objects have meaning to you? (Monica M. Clark, "Everyday Objects").

We met in person on October 1 for a Manitoba Writing Project tradition: the writing marathon. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights was our site, and our day there provoked and challenged us as writers and educators. On October 22 we met again, thrilled to have a beautiful day for our outdoor "writing in place" workshop. We began and ended the day at the Oodena Circle, sharing our writing in a meeting place that has brought people together for thousands of years. In between meetings, our writing online was inspired by our reading of Lifewriting and Literary Metissage as an Ethos for our Times (Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, & Leggo, 2009). Our final gathering was a writing retreat held at the Faculty of Education on a snowy but sunny December 10. Together, we explored the need for critical literacy in our classrooms and lives, shared our pedagogy projects with one another, wrote in solidarity with International Human Rights Day, and ended with a writing circle read around. We are writers!

Summer Writing Institute 2015

It was an amazing two weeks with another group of 14 educators, all with varied backgrounds and interests in writing and teaching writing. We connected quickly on the first day of the Institute, starting with a lively "speed dating" activity, writing "rambling autobiographies" (Rief) of our lives as writers, and turning those into six-word memoirs after a few rounds of "workshopping a draft" (Perl & Schwartz, 2014)—and that was just the morning! Highlights of our 10 days together included the amazing "demonstration" workshops that each teacher led, the luxury of dedicated time everyday to writing and developing our identities as writers, the growth and encouragement experienced through our writing groups, and our writing marathon at The Forks. We wish to thank all of our speakers and special guests for their contributions to the Institute: administrator Ricki Valcourt, Professor Karen Busby, Dr. Jessica Senehi, storyteller Jamie Oliverio, educator Lindsay Brown, and archivist Anne Lindsay.
It was also wonderful to welcome back several Manitoba Writing Project teachers from our 2014 Institute, who shared the work they have been doing in writing for/as social justice and human rights in their classrooms and communities.

Summer Writing Institute 2014

The inaugural Summer Writing Institute (July 2014) included fourteen participants who represented a broad range of teaching interests, levels, expertise, and experiences. The group included early years, middle years, and senior years teachers, as well as those whose interests are in education more broadly. Participants enrolled as part of a PBDE or to earn credit towards their M.Ed or PhD programs*. All readily admitted that a writing institute sounded daunting, but all were eager.

The focus of the Institute was to have its participants, the majority of whom were practicing teachers, to consider the value of writing, expression, authorship, and identity as a means for student articulation as well as empowerment. In this vein, the institute placed particular emphasis on writing as, and for, social justice with topics that included multiculturalism, gender issues, Aboriginal education, and incorporating English language learners, among many others.

For participants, these elements contribute to a memorable and even transformative experiences. For instance, a “writing marathon” at the Manitoba Museum generated for two participants the writing of powerful poems exploring Manitoba’s treaties. Sparked by a presentation given by Dr. Maureen Matthews, the curator of the museum’s special exhibit “We Are All Treaty People”, and a workshop on artifact writing provided at the museum by another Institute participant, the poems are now published online in the Institute Anthology. With Cree filmmaker Kevin Lee Burton, participants explored the possibilities of film to merge and juxtapose the languages, sounds, images, landscapes, and cultures of Aboriginal youth. With archivist Dr. Greg Bak, educators considered how critical inquiry through “archival thinking” could engage Manitoban students in learning about the history and legacy of Indian Residential Schools. With local storyteller and educator Marc Kuly, participants were invited to explore issues of social justice and human rights through narrative, drawing on the power of storytelling as pedagogy for truth and reconciliation

"The Summer Writing Institute was truly a transformative experience for two main reasons. Not only did it allow me to look more deeply into research around empowering students to express themselves in authentic ways in the classroom, but the supportive community that we built allowed me to increase my confidence as a writer. I returned to school in September feeling renewed and ready to meet my students' needs in the development of their own writing identities as they move forward on their journey to becoming empathetic, active participants in the world.”
-Cathy Oresnik, Pembina Trails School Division

Summer Writing Institute

What is the Summer Writing Institute? A Contemplative Answer From a Past Student

Ahh hello creative writing my old friend... and how in the world am I supposed to this in an academic setting?

This is what I wrote as I scribbled and scratched my way through my notes, trying to combine educational theory with prose and poetry. To be both intentional and free with my words, to take risk with my syntax, and be authentic with my meaning; while being original and grounded in theory. Indeed, in the Summer Writing Institute I reclaimed an understanding of what it meant to be a writer.

The journey of our summer began well before the official start date in July. As early as May, we were sent a myriad of articles, books, and video. These materials served as a foundation for the two-week course, gradually weaving a theme of mutual understanding that would become the cornerstone of our learning experience. And thus I encountered the first reclamation of being a write: Notice

Notice the themes, notices the ideas, notice the tensions, contradictions. Perceive the nuances, grasp the context, understand the dynamics. Observe the interplay, the subtle undercurrents, the quiet whispers of change. Acknowledge the complexities, the layers, the multifaceted aspects of each concept. Uncover the hidden meanings, the unspoken truths, the silent echoes of thoughts. Challenge the norms, question the status quo, confront the established beliefs.

Notice

Felicia Rose Chavez conjectured that writing is a political act; the very act of making meaning with words, is implying an interpretation that can either promote, challenge, equate, accept, or even disrupt the prevailing narratives and power structures in society. And thus I understood another truth I had forgotten: Power

Language, my language, has power. It wields the ability to shape thoughts, influence emotions, and alter perceptions. By writing we hold the responsibility to use this power judiciously, knowing that each word I choose can be a tool for enlightenment or a weapon of oppression. Power to challenge, inspire, enlighten, and present.

Power

Yes, what an experience internal reflexivity is when it is paired with provocative readings and intentional writing... But here in the course I discovered something novel to me. I did not reclaim and understanding, but rather became aware of it for the first time. As we shared our writings with our writing groups we began to be empowered by sharing. We began exploring possibilities of artistic decisions. Yes, we began to: Explore

Explore the why; the consonance here, and the end stop there. Delve into the rhythm of each line, the meter that guides the reader's breath. Unpack the choice of each adjective, each verb, the weight they carry in the tapestry of our narrative. Question the structure, the form, the boundaries – or the lack thereof – in our compositions.

In the Summer Writing Institute, I relearned what it meant to be a writer.While I cherish the identity of writing, I am proudly, a teacher first, and therefore I contemplated how I could take these lessons and apply them to my own practices? And there sat the pedagogical gold that I was hoping for:

To recap, I toiled with syntax and word choice, I learned to notice more, acknowledged the power in language, and collaboratively explored choice and meaning.

Language as System
Language as Sense Making
Language as Power and Agency
Language as Exploration and Design