Welcome from the Director of NH Literacy Institutes

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Welcome!

It is my pleasure to introduce the Summer 2023 courses workshops and workshops to be offered by the New Hampshire Literacy Institutes and the College of Liberal Arts.  For over summers, teachers from across the country have found their way to New Hampshire to recommit themselves to the humane and responsive teaching of reading and writing.  Each year, we have been impressed and gratified by the teachers who attend –their commitment to students and to literacy, their willingness to dive into the summer work, and their dedication to improving education. 

As in the past, we staff our summer institutes with instructors who know what public K-12 school teaching is like. They know the joys, the challenges, and the possibilities. They’ve been there and can offer credible, practical advice.  Our classes are small, so that participants receive individual attention, and are run in a workshop or seminar format.  

We are excited to be joined by Sarah Beck, from NYU, who will be teaching a class on humanizing writing assessment.  Shawna Coppola and Tomasen Carey will also be joining us, as well as Angela Gomez & Megan Marling, Denis Magliozzi & Kristina Peterson, and Ashley Healy, Isabelle O’Kane, & Whitney Forbes. Topics this summer include social emotional learning (SEL), teacher support for new and veteran educators, writing for inquiry, graphic novels, and more!  We have course options for those of you who are new to teaching, may be returning to teaching, and those working in grades K-5, as well as secondary and beyond.  Each week, we will also have notable keynote speakers, sharing their knowledge on a range of topics. 

In addition to our graduate credit courses, we will also be offering a series of three-day workshops.  We will be joined by Kabria Baumgartner, Northeastern University, and JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire for their workshop, Stories of Freedom 3.  A second workshop will be announced shortly!  Please browse through our website to see all the offerings, instructor biographies, and times.  If you have questions, please reach out to us at nhliteracy.institute@unh.edu or call 603-862-1168.

All of our courses and workshops are open to teachers – at all levels—interested in taking courses for their own enrichment and professional development. New teachers, or teachers returning to classrooms, are particularly welcome. The program is also open to those who would like to work toward a Master of Science for Teachers (M.S.T) degree in the Department of English.  

In addition to these programs for teachers and literacy leaders, we will also be offering our Writers Academy for students in middle and high school. 

It promises to be an exciting summer. I hope you can be part of it.

Sincerely,     

Christina

Christina Ortmeier-Hooper
Director, The NH Literacy Institutes at UNH