The Manitoba Writing Project

The Manitoba Writing Project (MBWP)

The Manitoba Writing Project (MBWP) is an associated international site of the National Writing Project, the first and only site in Canada. The MBWP offers a 2-week Summer Writing Institute (SWI) every other summer for educators to become writers and teachers of writing. We launched our first SWI in 2014, with a focus on writing for/as social justice and human rights. In the summer of 2023, we offered the Summer Writing Institute as a new, 6 credit-hour, permanent course offering, Becoming Writers: Place, Power & Pedagogy in Teaching Writing, with 35 participants. The title reflects our focus on exploring our relationships to place through writing, our critical literacy stance, and our ongoing exploration of writing pedagogies relevant and meaningful to the communities where we teach and write.

MBWP Highlights
Over the years, we have:

conducted a 2-year research study on writing and the teaching of writing in Manitoba
facilitated a practitioner inquiry group called "Writing G/Rounds" with teacher leaders from the SWI to explore our teaching of writing
organized a 2-year series of free public events called "Passions, Pedagogies, and Publics," each featuring a panel of international and local guest speakers to create interdisciplinary and inter-institutional dialogue around writing in the humanities
organized and hosted the "Writing for Social Justice & Human Rights Forum" for 50 educators with support from the Centre for Human Rights Research
offered renewal retreats for SWI participants to come together in various places with special guests for a day of writing, walking, and renewal
co-presented with SWI teacher leaders at the Adolescent Literacy Summit, the Manitoba Association of Teachers of English conference, the Manitoba Education Research Network conference, the MTS/MASS conference, and others
visited schools to offer workshops and write with students
in the context of the Manitoba K-12 Education Review, organized and hosted a "Write to the Review" workshop, featuring speakers, resources, and time to write letters and submissions to the Commission
held a writing workshop and renewal retreat at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
launched "Writing Innovation Projects" supporting innovative writing projects proposed by teams of educators in K-12 schools
invited submissions for the "This Matters Most" writing challenge, recognizing participating students and schools
with teacher candidates, offered an online book and writing club called the "Read/Write/Share Club" for students in Gr 7-9
established and held meetings with the MBWP Advisory Board
co-hosted the "Becoming Writers/Unbounded Stories" workshop as an outreach event for writers interested in storying writing, sharing, and dialogue focused on place, pedagogy, and connection
piloted our first "Write Out, Manitoba!" initiative with a month of writing invitations and resources for educators to take their students outside to write

Summer Writing Institute Highlights

JULY 2021: Summer Writing Institute
When our SWI had to be offered online in 2021 due to COVID-19, we re-designed the course as an experience with walking curriculum. In preparation, we read Writing for Pleasure by Ross Young & Felicity Ferguson, Writing Toward Home by Georgia Heard, The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez, A Walking Curriculum by Gillian Judson, and articles from a special issue of the Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies on Walking: Attuning to an Earthly Curriculum. We discovered that walking in our own neighborhoods and communities–with focused invitations to be attentive to our senses, to consider what’s lovely/unlovely, to look critically at our human impact, to create mappings to inquire into issues of spatial justice—prompted powerful multimodal writing and teaching demonstrations.
Once again, we emerged from the Summer Writing Institute changed. Our readings, our writing, our individual and collective work related to colonization, education, and Truth & Reconciliation, and our critical inquiries into place, power, and writing challenged and encouraged us, invited and inspired us to take risks, and to wander and wonder into new pedagogical territories. We learned powerful lessons about what place can teach us when we go outside, when we attune ourselves to listening differently, when we look closely and again with new lenses and critical perspectives, when we slow down and unplug and realize new forms of connectedness, and when we write--open to knowing and becoming and new possibility. Once again, we look forward to hearing where our writing, walking, and critical place-pedagogies take us.
Photo: An orange painted rock with a message of Truth and Reconciliation found in the roots of a tree during a walk on a local trail.

JULY 2018: Summer Writing Institute
Our two-week intensive SWI focused on place-based literacies, with much our learning situated at King's Park, near the Fort Garry campus. With my colleague Dr. Jennifer Watt and an amazing group of 26 educators, we explored our own relationships to place; our identities as writers, teachers of writing, and literacy leaders; and our understandings of literacy and knowledge in connection to place. We were inspired in these explorations by several guests, who shared their knowledge and experiences in Indigenous knowledge and education; who led us in learning about weeds and all they can teach us; who taught us to net and identify wild bees and the habitats they need; who shared archival research of the park and taught us how to learn about place through archives; who spoke to us about parks as public and political spaces; and who engaged us in exploring parks mindfully and contemplatively. We were also inspired by our course readings (Yardwork by Daniel Coleman; Manitowapow by Niigaan Sinclair & Warren Cariou; and Poetry of Place by Terry Hermsen). Together, we published an anthology of writing, with pieces developed and workshopped in writing groups over the two weeks. We learned much from one another in our teaching demonstrations and from our guests. We have been excited to hear about where this work has led our participants in their schools and communities.
Photo: Participants in the Summer Writing Institute created pop-up writing installations on campus.