Every year, NeWP hosts summer institutes for Nebraska educators.
2024 Institutes
Hybrid Summer Institute | June 3 - 21
Advanced Institute | June 3 - 19
2024 Hybrid Summer Institute
June 3 - June 21, 2024
9:00 am - 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday
70 hours (6 credit hours), either in-person or online
Nebraska Writing Project’s premiere program, the Summer Institute is open to teachers of all disciplines and grade levels. The 2024 Summer Institute redesigns the National Writing Project model as a hybrid experience to allow either in-person and distance access. This graduate-level course focuses on rejuvenating participants' own love of writing, inspiring collaborative inquiry with other teachers, and developing participants' own teaching practices. Participants may also qualify for tuition remission for 3 credit hours, reducing the cost of 6 graduate credit hours to only 3 in English or Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education.
Facilitators
Stacey Waite, Associate Professor, UNL Department of English
Jillian Harpster, Assistant Professor of Practice, UNL Teaching Learning and Teacher Education
Melissa Legate, Pierce Jr./Sr. High School
2024 Advanced Institute
June 3 - 19, 2024
9:00 am - 12:00 pm, Monday through Friday
45 hours (3 credit hours)
As teachers, we help students become comfortable with the discomfort of learning, so that they can engage new perspectives, gain experience discussing complex issues, and grow in their capacity as thinkers and writers. This work has become more difficult in a cultural moment saturated with fear. Fear drives book bans and curriculum censorship, with claims that such acts protect students from difficult ideas or information. Fear also impacts teachers, who may anticipate consequences for conversing with students about the many difficult issues threaded through literature and our students’ writing and lives--race, gender identity, suicide, poverty. Fear also prevents possibilities for dialogue and connection. In this Advanced Institute, we will come together to explore strategies for teaching difficult conversations in a divisive political moment and for communicating the value of this work to the public. Because of the additional labor this requires of educators, we will also consider how we can support ourselves, our students, and one another in this challenging time.
Facilitators
Shari Stenberg, UNL Professor of English/Women’s and Gender Studies, College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Fellow and Adele Hall Chair of English
Jennifer Long, Gretna High School
Application Information
Early Application Deadline: November 13, 2023
Final Application Deadline: March 6, 2024
The application process includes a 1-page introduction letter and a phone conversation with a facilitator. Send application letter to Dr. Rachael Shah, Director of Nebraska Writing Project, by e-mail to rshah@unl.edu.