NWP Radio Archive—What Is Your Site Reading for the 2014 Invitational Summer Institute?

Written by The Current
May 07, 2014

On the April 24, 2014 NWP Radio show, the topic was site readings during upcoming invitational summer institutes. Guests discussed the summer readings as well as how those readings have changed and stayed the same as the Common Core Standards have come online and ever more content is available digitally.

Host Joye Alberts of the National Writing Project was pleased to welcome guests Lil Brannon, Director of the UNC Charlotte Writing Project; Christina Cantrill, Senior Program Associate with the National Writing Project; Roxanne Henkin, Director of the San Antonio Writing Project; Ellen Shelton, Director of the University of Mississippi Writing Project; and Mia Zamora, Director of the Kean University Writing Project.

You can listen to the full recording of the show here, and see an excerpt and resources from the show below.

Excerpt from Show

Ellen Shelton, Director of the University of Mississippi Writing Project, on their use of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird during their Summer Institute:

One book that we come back to over and over is Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, because we have to develop teachers as writers. It’s really interesting with the Common Core discussions, this is becoming incredibly relevant, because Common Core is so large that a lot of teachers feel intimidated by it. So we kind of use that analogy of taking it bird-by-bird for incorporating Common Core into the classroom. The text gives teachers permission to fail at writing, and even writing instruction, but they get the idea that they have to keep trying it over and over again.”