The end of the school year marked the beginning of some continued education for some local educators with the 2022 Augusta University Writing Project Summer Institute launching the week of June 6.
“Our summer institute is like the heart,” said Augusta University professor and Writing Project director Rebecca Harper. “Every summer we bring teachers from throughout the community together to do intensive professional development.”
The Augusta Writing Project is AU’s branch of the National Writing Project, a nationwide professional development network to help educators cultivate skills and strategies to improve writing in their classrooms. This initiative is centered around the Summer Institute, which started at Augusta University in 2018.
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The intensive two-week program consists of various activities and intensive courses that complement the various other programs the Writing Project has throughout the year. The Summer Institute focuses, Harper says, on engaging writing by way of students’ interests and background knowledge.
Poetry, music videos, signs, images, even soap operas are used to explore different ways to analyze and convey understandings of literature and texts.
“The strategies and ideas we are discussing make writing fun and engaging giving students a variety of choices,” said Olga Malin, who teaches at South Columbia Elementary School in Martinez. “Students learn that daily writing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. My students enjoy writing across the curriculum and Writing Project gives a lot of ideas on making that happen in my classroom.”
Rebecca Chatfield teaches Writers Workshop and English as Second Language at Grovetown High School. After one week of participating in the program, the first year she has done so, she feels the lessons are apt for nurturing writing skills in her students.
“I feel like kids so many times kids hear ‘writing’ and it’s intimidating, and they don’t want to engage with it,” said Chatfield. “So I looked at this as a way to create student engagement and an environment where writing was looked at as a positive thing and not something that should be feared.”
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The Summer Institute program is by invitation only. Teachers who are interested must apply, and then undergo a screening process that includes an interview. The classes are also selected to represent a wide variety of teaching disciplines, from elementary school teachers to middle school math teachers to high school English teachers. Most students come from the Columbia County School District, but the class is populated with educators from Richmond, McDuffie, Aiken and Cherokee Counties
“My favorite lesson was related to names,” said Afinju McDowell, a seventh grade math teacher at Spirit Creek Middle School in Hephzibah. “We read an excerpt titled My Name from Sandra Cisneros, and we blacked out portions of it so it can say what we want it to say. There was a part that talked about wanting to have known my great-grandmother. I have no idea about who she was or anything, but my edit of the poem made me feel connected to her.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
