Teachers registering for an IWT workshop can choose from one day, weekend, or weeklong workhops; please see our current workshops for more detail.

All IWT workshops are guided by similar principles, and it is possible to learn these in any IWT workshop. Although most workshops have no prerequisites, we encourage teachers to take Writing and Thinking or Writing to Learn first because these workshops most broadly address issues of teaching and learning through writing. Other workshops—Thinking through Narrative, Writing to Read, Writing to Learn Math and Science, Fictions, and Poetry—apply IWT’s principles of writing instruction to particular areas and purposes. Writing and Thinking II is for participants from previous IWT workshops who want to extend, expand and revise writing begun in another workshop and learning from this experience how to guide students in the last step in the process of writing a finished piece.

Secondary and college teachers from public and independent institutions come together in one, two-day, and weeklong workshops that model the composing process, writing-to-learn practices, classroom strategies, and collaborative learning techniques. Professionals from the fields of medicine, law, and psychology have also attended and enjoyed participating in workshops and conferences.

IWT faculty is made up of high school and college teachers drawn from around the country; they come from the fields of rhetoric and composition, linguistics, literature, philosophy, history, anthropology, painting and art history. They are attracted to the IWT's teaching community and to the opportunity to explore new approaches to the teaching of writing and to learning through writing. Since 1982, about 125 faculty associates of IWT have developed its practices, drawing on the best techniques for teaching writing and on contemporary theories of knowledge and language.

Through the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at Bard College, workshop participants may earn one graduate credit for each weekend workshop, plus a process reflection paper, or two graduate credits for the July weeklong workshop, plus a process reflection paper and a lesson plan on using writing in the classroom. Graduate credit is not given for participation in one-day workshops or conferences. An additional fee of $100 is required, which pays for feedback on the first draft of the student’s paper, final grading, and first copy of his or her transcript. Students should send in a check made payable to Bard College with their first draft. For further information, please call Cecilia Maple, MAT Program, 845-758-7145, or e-mail mat@bard.edu.

We will provide letters to participants attesting to workshop participation. Please contact Judi Smith, IWT Program Administrator at jsmith@bard.edu or 845-758-7484.

IWT offers one- to three-day workshops on-site at schools and colleges. Curriculum Supervisors or building principals may initiate planning for an on-site workshop. However, teachers who have participated in one-day, weekend, or weeklong workshops at Bard are especially suited to determining which workshops will be most useful for their colleagues. Please see our on-site page

No. You may register for only one workshop at a time because workshops are offered concurrently. One-day workshops consist of three or four 90-minute sessions; weekend workshops consist of seven sequenced sessions, each lasting 90 minutes or two hours; weeklong workshops consist of 15 sequenced sessions. You may register for only one workshop at a time.