What Is the Invitational Institute?
Every National Writing Project site—including Prairie Lands Writing Project— offers experienced teachers the opportunity to apply and participate in an annual summer Invitational Institute. During the summer, these Teacher Scholars prepare for leadership roles by demonstrating their most effective practices, studying research, and improving their knowledge of writing by writing themselves. Upon succesful completion of the Invitational Institute, they receive NWP Teacher Consultant certification and join our TC cadre, putting their knowledge and leadership to work to improve student achievement.
In Their Own Words
Here’s what some of our Summer Scholars had to say about their participation in Prairie Lands Writing Project’s 2007 Invitational Institute:
Trish Donaher, MWSU English professor
Jerri Fischer, St Joseph Lindbergh kindergarten teacher
Cathy Fitzgerald, Wellsville, KS, Special Education Teacher
Meredith Katchen, Missouri Western State University English Instructor
Amy Miller, St Joseph Benton High School Language Arts Teacher
Melissa Robinson, Cameron Middle School Language Arts Teacher
Stacia Studer, St Joseph Bode Middle School Communication Arts Teacher and Department Chair
Jennifer Vermillion, French/Spanish Teacher at Lathrop High School
See the 2007 E-Anthology for 2007 participant listing and photos.
Melissa Robinson, Cameron Middle School Language Arts Teacher:
I have new friends and colleagues, people I know that I will remain friends with for many, many years. I have new knowledge. I will use writer’s workshop, Romano techniques, Fantasy Island, creating art with writing or writing because of art. and this is only the tip of the iceberg that the macaroni penguins live on of the creative teaching innovations that I will use from this institute. Thank you.
Amy Miller, St Joseph Benton High School Language Arts Teacher:
I have implemented reader’s and writer’s workshops with my 10th grade students. They are actually becoming readers and writers and many are far less reluctant than they were last year. On the writing end, I have seen tremendous success with the writer’s workshop model, especially the incorporation of more narrative writing and the freedom for students to discover their own process. My students really enjoy sharing their writing to critique, get ideas, and just to share. They have developed their own scoring guides, which actually set the bar quite high. I have also loosened up journal options to include my prompt(s) and the Tom-esque “whatever you wish to write.” This has worked really well for all of my students.
On the technology front, I have implemented a wiki with my creative writing students. They worked on exploring theme ideas for their semester portfolios (idea courtesy Romano). They each created a page for a general theme. They selected an angle, included a description of the angle, ideas for pieces they might include or develop, and a sample poem. Then, they blessed, pressed, and addressed, using the comments feature, and finally added an angle, ideas, and sample poem to each other’s themes. They really enjoyed using the technology, building a “bank” of ideas, and seeing each other’s work.
Stacia Studer, St Joseph Bode Middle School Communication Arts Teacher and Department Chair
My Toolbox of Ideas
“Your Demos”
What haven’t I used? That should be the question.
Before School Started:
Spent my entire summer school paycheck buying classroom books like Thank you, Mr. Falker. I used that as a mini-lesson, and then I had my students write a friendly letter to a teacher that had impacted them. Good review practice for a friendly letter.
Jerri, for back-to-school night I “borrowed” your idea of the yellow construction tape and displayed it on my bulletin boards, so that parents could see we are developing a community together. Thank you!
Completed an application for a grant that would allow me to purchase materials from Janis’s presentation to create storybooks for our elementary pen-pals I can only cross my fingers for that one!
After School Started:
The first day of school, I had students take a reading/writing survey to see where they were as a reader and writer.
I started the second day with asking the students to bring in a picture and having them write a fifty-word caption that correlated with the picture. That allowed me to gain some insight into their lives.
Ruth, I used your “What does Writer’s Workshop look like?” as an introduction to my class for establishing routines and procedures.
Completed the Play-Doh activity with my students.
Blogged on a weekly basis in my classroom.
Used PQP & Microsoft Editing Tools as a revision strategy with my student’s personal narratives.
Talked to other content-area teachers about how to incorporate writing into their classrooms.
Decided I would give students the choice whether to write to my journal prompt or whatever they felt like writing about…and I not to grade them. I just made comments. I journaled and read with my students when they do.
I have incorporated more share time for sharing of writing and reading; also I have tried to create a more authentic audience.
Reflected and implemented my demo (conferencing) into an action research project for our performance-based evaluations with my district and the literacy academy.
Jennifer Vermillion, French/Spanish Teacher at Lathrop High School:
The first adaptations in teaching I made included the sticky note dialogue activity, the multi-question interview, and the object description activity.
Cathy Fitzgerald, Wellsville, KS, Special Education Teacher:
My students wrote a “This I believe” essay this fall. Using technology, we downloaded several oral, “This I believe” stories on an Ipod and played them in class. Some students agreed with the various views shared while others disagreed and stated their reasons. Students were then guided into writing their own essays. One of my students wrote about believing in ghosts because he reported seeing one at his grandmother’s house. Another student wrote about believing that participating in sports teams makes you a better person. Still another student wrote about standing up for what he believes. These are students who struggle to finish tasks; I am proud of the way they have worked to develop their voice in writing.
I believe the summer writing institute also served as a medium for me to rediscover my voice as a writer. This and the experience of other teachers sharing ideas and successes have proved to be a valuable resource for me in my current teaching assignment. I will try to use even more ideas from last summer such as blogging and wikis in the future.
Meredith Katchen, Missouri Western State University English Instructor
More than once I have found myself telling Tom or Jane that a particular classroom activity I’ve tried was a direct result of participating in the Summer Institute. One simple example is beginning my College Writing and Research class with an assignment to generate a burning question. Rather than stating what topic they wanted to use as a magnet for a collection of research, students had to identify, just as we had to identify, a question they wanted to explore and learn more about. If not for the PLWPSI I would probably have missed that chance to prod students toward taking control of their work.
Further, as a result of reading and discussing Romano’s book, I have re-crafted the assignment I had planned to give. I knew I wanted students to research and write about veterans of military service returning/returned to civilian life, but I had not considered formats for presenting their research and their takes. As a result of the PLWPSI the assignment is NOT to write a standard research-based paper. Instead of telling them HOW to do their project, the assignment focuses on the necessity of attribution. They can use in-text citation, footnotes, endnotes, or attachments – as long as they meticulously acknowledge each and every attributable idea and piece of information. They may write a standard paper, they may write a story, they may include interviews, artwork, poetry, and whatever else they think appropriate.
Jerri Fischer, St Joseph Lindbergh kindergarten teacher:
I sat there [first after-school learning team meeting at Lindbergh in fall 2007] that Friday and something amazing happened. We began discussing our year’s focus, and our teaching ideas. Ideas began spewing out of me, and interesting enough they were ideas I learned from this year’s summer institute. I talked to my team about different types of conferencing techniques, and forms we could use, more ways to get our students using writing in other content areas, and mini lessons to try to help build descriptive vocabulary. I probably said, “during the institute this summer,” ten times. Our first teaming was very productive as the ideas I had filed away to use this year emerged.
Trish Donaher, MWSU English professor:
Thank you all for making the Institute such a joy and for inspiring me to write even more. I completed a fuller version of a paper that I started in the Institute and I have sent it out to a journal. I've also been working on writing up my summer research on language attitudes for a conference next spring. Your input and ideas over the course of the summer really helped me think through these projects.
