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Liz Knight

Keywords

CUWP summer institute, Central Utah Writing Project, writing projects, educational literature, experiential learning

Submission Type

Research

Preview

The Central Utah Writing Project is part of the network of over 200 National Writing Project sites. It was established in 2008 and serves the school districts of central Utah; every summer the CUWP sponsors a 3-4 week institute that brings together teachers from a variety of disciplines to study the art of teaching writing. This past summer I spent three weeks at the Central Utah Writing Project’s Summer Institute. I was there as the graduate assistant to the administrators, part-participant and part-observer. I was mid-way through the MFA program in Creative Writing at Brigham Young University, and had been teaching freshman composition classes as part of my program. Additionally, I had just spent the spring term as a graduate assistant on an in-state travel study program for BYU freshmen, which heavily emphasized experience-based learning. After spending six weeks outside, peering closely at bugs and tree rings to generate ideas for personal essays, listening to the histories of desert canyons as I backpacked or rowed a raft through them, and discussing leadership styles around a campfire, I approached the prospect of three weeks in a conference room with some wariness.

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