Invitational Leadership Institute

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Applications

Apply Now for the 2025 Invitational Leadership Institute! This is a competitive interview process. We will reach out in February to set up interviews in late February through March.

Formerly known as the Summer Institute, the Invitational Leadership Institute is a professional development institute that brings together outstanding teachers who work with students in all content areas and at all grade levels, PreK–college. We will spend three weeks immersed in writing, reading, and inquiry, joining a statewide network of MWP Teacher Consultants. All participants will explore ways to use writing more meaningfully in their classrooms. They will facilitate workshops that focus on questions they have about their own practice. And we will develop inquiry projects around themes of classroom practice, literacy learning, and equity. Invited Fellows receive graduate credit from the University of Minnesota paid for by the Minnesota Writing Project. This year (2025), the institute will be held in person at Bemidji State University. Offering the institute at BSU is made possible in part through generous sponsorship by the BSU English Department.

Key Dates

  • Tuesdays, May 6 & 13, 6–8pm (Online Orientation)

  • Monday–Friday, July 14–August 1, 9am–4pm (Institute)

Purpose

The MWP Invitational Leadership Institute is the heart of the Minnesota Writing Project. Its purposes are:

  1. To identify successful teachers of writing across all curriculum areas who will be effective teachers of other teachers
  2. To identify approaches to the teaching of writing and the uses of writing-to-learn in all subject areas that have been successful in real classrooms and that add to the profession’s knowledge
  3. To involve successful teachers in their own writing so that they can better help their students
  4. To make current research in the teaching of writing available to teachers 

Goals

The Institute offers participants the opportunity to:

  • Learn from other teachers about the teaching of writing
  • Anticipate challenges for teaching in the future: authentic assessment, multicultural writing concerns, computer-assisted instruction, collaborative learning, whole language, writing across the curriculum, the needs of diverse populations
  • Discover more about your own writing process
  • Become part of a community of teacher-writers
  • Explore current theory and practice in the teaching of writing
  • Consider ways you can share your strengths with other teachers as a consultant
  • Spend a significant portion of time at the Institute honing your skills as writers (an anthology of creative and action research pieces is published)
  • Earn graduate credit through the University of Minnesota; CEUs also available