Meeting Pattern

• July 7 - 11 (Monday - Friday) 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
• July 14 - 17 (Monday - Thursday) 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Description

The Red River Valley Writing Project's Summer Institute offers participants a place to learn, share, and grow--as writers and as teachers of writing. Participants will prepare and “demo” classroom lessons for the group; participants will read and discuss best practices for teaching writing; participants will workshop and complete a writing portfolio with three distinct genres of writing.

This year's institute will focus on maintaining high standards for reading, writing, and critical thinking in the age of Chat-GPT. Whether we want to discourage the use of AI, or promote AI use and fluency, our goal as educators should be the same: to help students make more intentional and informed decisions about how they use language in relation to their audience and purpose as writers. 

Syllabus, Objectives, and Outcomes

Objectives:

• Explore the limits and potential of AI as a writing tool for both academic and professional writing situations;
• Learn and apply effective procedures for managing AI use in the classroom, balancing the often-competing demands of academic honesty and AI fluency;
• Design and adapt purposeful assignments and classroom activities in relation to AI;
• Develop writing process strategies and feedback strategies by participating in writing workshops;
• Read and discuss current education research and theory in relation to one’s teaching practice;
• Become familiar with a wide range of print and online resources for teacher development and instructional use, including the materials from the National Writing Project network;
• Develop leadership capacity in teaching writing and using writing to enhance student learning;
• Create teaching demonstrations and materials that are aligned with and exceed the State Standards;  
• Produce three genres for a writing portfolio (including one document focused on writing pedagogy, one document of workplace writing, and one document of creative writing).

 Required Text:

Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning by C. Edward Watson and José Antonio Bowen

Teacher Testimonials:

"I loved this opportunity to work with and learn from other educators!"

"Really excellent! I have got familiar with so many innovative ideas. It has opened up new avenues for me to rethink AI."        

"Demo sessions are really innovative. Group discussions are really helpful. Moreover, the way you organized each session is really excellent."

"The discussions challenged me to think about different aspects of AI. I am realizing it is not a black and white issue, and I will need to work through some of the gray areas to develop my own policy and level of use in the classroo

"Our book discussions and activities were especially helpful, along with the demos. Actually getting the opportunity to DO the activities - to get practice in prompting, evaluating feedback from AI, and comparing human vs. AI writing was all very helpful!"

"I loved the structure and format of the course. It really created high level thinking activities and a lot of great application to concepts. Definitely love this format."

"Everything seemed organized from the beginning and end of each day which made it easy to follow the learning expectations of this course. This course has been very practical in using AI tools in the classroom for us to learn about the nuances of AI tools."