2025 Institute Deadlines
Early Application deadline: November 20, 2024
Final Application deadline: March 10, 2025
2025 Hybrid Summer Institute
June 2 - June 20, 2025
9:00 am - 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday
6 credit hours for the price of 3, either in-person (UNL City Campus) or online.
Nebraska Writing Project’s premiere program, the Summer Institute is open to teachers of all disciplines and grade levels. The 2025 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 who are Nebraska teachers 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.
For some years, additional scholarships may be available. Please contact Rachael Shah for more information.
Facilitators:
2025 Hybrid Advanced Institute
Media Literacy and Democracy Building
June 4 - 20, 2025
9:00 am - 12:00 pm, Monday through Friday
45 hours (3 credit hours), either in-person (UNL City Campus) or online
Today’s students are surrounded by a disorienting array of deep fakes, divisive clickbait, AI-generated content, and fake news. They need support and skills to help them navigate this complex landscape and to participate actively in our democratic society. This year's Advanced Institute will focus on democracy-building instruction and media literacy, as part of an initiative of writing project sites across the country sparked by the Boise Writing Project's Democracy Building Institute and the nonpartisan News Literacy Project. Our class will explore document-based guided inquiries, which position students as citizen historians and social scientists. We’ll develop curricula and strategies to help students investigate complex topics using primary and secondary sources, including data and multimodal texts. We will prioritize teaching through and for democracy to help students envision and shape the society they want. Participants’ work will culminate in development of a unit they can implement in their classes that follows tenets of democracy and open space for media literacy.
Facilitators:
Application Information
Early Application Deadline: November 20, 2025
Final Application Deadline: March 10, 2025
To apply, please send a 1-page letter of application to Nebraska Writing Project Director, Dr. Rachael Shah (rshah@unl.edu) that helps us get to know you and your interest in the institute.
Possible questions to address in the Summer Institute letter include:
- Who are you as a teacher? (For example, how did you come to teaching? What is your favorite part of teaching? What kind of classroom atmosphere do you try to create? Where do you find your teaching inspiration and community?)
- What is your current idea about the purpose of writing in your classroom? (For example, why are students being asked to write and what do students gain from the process of writing? What outcomes are you as a teacher looking for?)
- What does the practice of writing look like in your classroom? (For example, what are some of the writing assignments you give? How do students engage with and feel about writing in your classroom? What writing routines or practices do you lead students in?)
- This class will help you develop your passions and goals as a writer in a supportive environment, and we welcome people with any level of experience with writing. What's your relationship with writing like? What do you write in your job, academic, or personal life right now, or in the past? (For example, do you journal, write lesson plans, short stories, etc.?)
- What are you looking for from this class and the community of writers and teachers you would be joining? (For example, where are you “at” in teaching–what challenges and successes are going on for you right now? What are you looking to take away from this institute? What areas are you hoping to learn about from others in institute? What might you do with what you will learn?)
- Provide name of school and district, grade level and classes taught, complete addresses, phone number, and the best email address to reach you (including during the summer).
Possible questions to address in the Advanced Institute letter include:
- What has been your previous involvement with the National Writing Project and/or the Nebraska Writing Project?
- What draws you to this year's Advanced Institute? (For example, how does the topic resonate with your current teaching experience? What motivates your application?)
- What are you looking for from this class and the community of writers and teachers you would be joining? (For example, what are you looking to take away? What experiences or questions about the topic might you bring to the table? What might you do with what you will learn?)
- Provide name of school and district, grade level and classes taught, complete addresses, phone number, and the best email address to reach you (including during the summer).
The second step of the application process is a short phone conversation (15-20 minutes) with an institute facilitator to help us get to know you, answer your questions, and inform our institute planning.
If you have questions about the application process, feel free to contact Rachael Shah at rshah@unl.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Summer Institute?
You are enrolling in a class, but you are also joining a community–the Nebraska Writing Project, a vibrant network of educators dedicated to the teaching of writing across grade levels and content areas. The Nebraska Writing Project offers a variety of programs, workshops, and awards, for teachers, students, and community members, but the Summer Institute is our signature program. We follow the summer institute model developed by the National Writing Project in the late 1970’s, now offered by over 150 writing project sites across the country and validated by many research studies as an impactful model of professional development. The model is focused on developing teachers as writers, facilitating inquiry, and inviting teachers to teach other teachers. Rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge, we center collaborative inquiry and practice, and therefore the class is always co-facilitated by an English faculty member, an Education faculty member, and a local teacher.
What is the Advanced Institute?
The Advanced Institute is next-level institute that changes focus each year. Local teachers in the Nebraska Writing Project Board and Co-Directors team help propose and select topics that are responsive to current teacher interests. It's designed for teachers who have completed a National Writing Project Summer Institute with NeWP or another site, but sometimes we have teachers join us in special circumstances. The class is co-taught by a UNL faculty member from TLTE (Teacher, Learning, and Teacher Education) or English, and a local teacher, and it follows the Writing Project style and values.
What does it mean that these classes are hybrid?
You can attend in-person on UNL’s City Campus, live via Zoom, or a mixture of the two. We have an OWL device that facilitates interaction between in-person and zoom attendees, and we usually have a facilitator dedicated to each space.
What does the work of the Summer Institute look like? What will I do?
- You’ll write! One goal of the Summer Institute is nurturing teachers’ own writing practice, as we believe the best teachers of writing are writers themselves. You’ll have the opportunity to practice writing for your own meaningful purposes, and you will be placed in a supportive writing group.
- You’ll participate in shared inquiry by reading and discussing. The form of this shifts year-by-year, but often, there is a shared book that the whole institute reads and discusses, in addition to smaller inquiry groups shaped by participant interest.
- You’ll facilitate, as each participant develops an EQUIP, an interactive workshop that invites peers to engage in a problem, issue, or approach to teaching writing. You are not expected to arrive as an expert in your EQUIP topic–often teachers identify an area in which they want to grow, and you will receive individualized coaching from a facilitator as you develop your workshop.
Are these only grad credits in English? Do I have to enroll in a specific graduate program to take these classes?
The Summer and Advanced Institutes are cross-listed with the TLTE (Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education), and you can receive either English credit or TLTE credit. To take the class, you need to apply to the university, but you do not need to choose a particular academic program. If you do choose a particular related program in the future, these credits can usually be applied toward that program.
Will these credits count toward my academic program at UNL? Will it count toward my program at a different university?
The Summer and Advanced Institute are part of a variety of UNL programs, such as the Certificate in Teaching Writing, the MA in English, the online MA in Teaching Learning and Teacher Education, and more. Teachers have also successfully transferred their institute credits into a variety of programs at other universities. If you have questions about transferring, we recommend contacting your particular program to verify that they will accept these credits.
How much do these classes cost?
Graduate tuition at UNL for the 2024-2025 academic year is $365.00 per credit hour. The Summer Institute is 6 graduate credits, but for in-state teachers, it is half-price (3 graduate credits), making the class $1095. The Advanced Institute, at 3 grad credits, is also $1095 last year. For anyone who is not a Nebraska resident, tuition is $1066 per credit hour.
Depending on if you take other courses during summer, your total fee cost may differ. The fees for the Summer Institute are estimated to be approximately $440, but may be higher if you take additional courses at UNL during the summer session. The fees for the Advanced Institute are estimated to be approximately $370.
These general student fees include:
- Registration fee: $20
- Library fee per credit hour: $8.25
- ID card fee: $20
- Technology fee per credit hour: $11
- University Program / Facilities Fee (Summer rate): $272.15 per term
- Online Course fee per credit hour: $35
Fees may be higher if you take additional courses at UNL. Please feel free to reach out of you have questions!
More information on general Graduate student fees can be found here.
Are these institutes only open to English/ELA teachers?
No, the Nebraska Writing Project Institutes are for teachers of all grade levels, K-16, and all content areas. In the past, we’ve had everyone from high school math teachers to first grade elementary teachers participate and do exciting work within the institutes. Teachers have an opportunity to focus their major project on an approach to teaching writing that fits their particular context, and they also benefit from exchanging ideas across areas and levels in our group activities and discussions.
Are these institutes for published writers?
Definitely not! We welcome teachers who have any kind of relationship with writing, and our goal is not professional publication. One of our beliefs is that all teachers and students can see themselves as writers–and something powerful happens when they do.
After I apply, what should I expect? What will the phone call be like?
You will have a 15-20 minute phone conversation with one of this year’s facilitators. They will share additional information about the institute and the Nebraska Writing Project, ask you a few questions about your interest in the institute and your classroom, and then give you a chance to ask any questions you have.
How do I find out more about the NeWP?
You are welcome to explore our website, subscribe to our newsletter, attend any events that are open to the community, follow us on social media, and/or reach out to the director, Rachael Shah (rshah@unl.edu).