Northern Michigan University launches site to help improve teachers’ writing skills

Northern Michigan University has launched its new Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project Site, part of the National Writing Project network. The site will host several workshops, events, and programs that are intended to help teachers enhance their own writing skills, as well as their ability to teach writing to their students, and enhance the community’s writing and creativity.

According to an article on Northern Michigan University’s website, Kel Sassi, who is an English professor and a co-director of the Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project Site, said of the project, "I am thrilled to bring the National Writing Project's proven model of teacher development back to Northern Michigan University with our new focus on decolonizing writing. Our goal is to empower educators to become better writers and, in turn, better teachers of writing. This will have a lasting impact on their students and the broader educational community.” Sassi previously directed the Red River Valley Writing Project in North Dakota, and is also hosting a summer reading group for teachers.

The National Writing Project is in its 50th year this year, and, according to its website, describes itself as “the nation’s largest network of teacher-leaders, K–university and across the curriculum, working together through local Writing Project sites to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities nationwide.” The organization has sites at colleges across the country and emphasizes writing as integral to critical thinking and civic engagement.

The theme of the Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project Site finds inspiration in the Indigenous term “storywork,” which was coined by scholar Jo-Ann Archibald. April Lindala, the other co-director of the Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project Site and a Native American Studies professor, shared the connection of the term to what the project site is aiming to do, saying, “When we write, we are communicating a message, in some cases a story. Storywork emphasizes the significance of story sharing. There is a responsibility of not only the person telling the story, but the audience, and even attention to space where the story is being shared is an important consideration. This is something we believe to be important to include in our work with teachers that will make our site distinctive from other NWP sites.”

This is not the first time Northern Michigan University has had a National Writing Project site on campus. From 1996 to 2006, it hosted the Upper Peninsula Writing Project, and from 2014 to 2016, it hosted the Northern Shores Writing Project. The Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project Site marks the return to affiliation with the National Writing Project this spring.

Among the upcoming events that will be hosted at the site are an Invitational Leadership Institute for teachers, which focuses on literacy and research, and is thanks to a grant from the Library Services and Technology Association, led by Marcus Robyns, an archivist with Northern Michigan University. Additionally, there will be writing marathons and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

For more information about Northern Michigan University, visit the school’s website.