Teaching, Writing, and Acting across Difference

Bread Loaf Campus, Ripton, Vermont

February 16–18, 2024

Register Now

The Bread Loaf Winter Institute is a weekend professional development workshop led by renowned Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English (BLSE) faculty.

Deepen your teaching practice while earning meaningful professional development hours along with other passionate educators. BLSE has over a century of experience delivering innovative, relevant, interdisciplinary course content ideal for teachers of English and language arts, and its impact on K–12 classrooms is bolstered by the Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN), a nationally visible network of teachers and youth committed to using literacy to foster social justice.

Cost: $1,000 with on-campus housing, $820 without housing


  • Gain 12 hours of professional development credit focused on engaging across difference.


  • Expand your multimodal toolkit
    as you explore the power of creative and critical storytelling.


  • Collaborate with a multigenerational cohort
    of educational leaders and peers on reimagining your courses, curriculum, and pedagogical strategies.


  • Engage in energizing
    self-work, expressive writing, and critical reflection.

Weekend Offerings


Full-Group Sessions

Warm-Up Exercise: Who Invited Your Spirit to Come Out to Play?

Led by Craig Maravich 
Actor, Teaching Artist, and Director, Beyond the Page, BLSE and Middlebury College

Roundtable: Naming Our Terms

Keynote Address: Teaching and Learning across Difference: Students as Cultural Guides

Speaker: David Wandera 
Associate Professor of Special Education, Language, and Literacy, The College of New Jersey

Group Sharing: Writing and Reflecting

BLTN Presentation: What’s Writing Got to Do with It? Youth-Led Networking and Community

Led by Tom McKenna 
Director, BLTN Next Generation Youth Leadership Network; Communications Director, BLTN

Final Debrief: Sharing and Applying What We’ve Learned

Led by Beverly Moss 
Professor of English and Director of Second-Year Writing, The Ohio State University; Director, BLTN


Workshops

Engaging Community Literacy Practices in Our Classrooms

Led by Beverly Moss 
Professor of English and Director of Second-Year Writing, The Ohio State University; Director, BLTN

Immigrant Youth Doing School: Teachers’ Self-Work

Led by David Wandera 
Associate Professor of Special Education, Language, and Literacy, The College of New Jersey

Photos, Voices, and Histories: Telling Our Stories

Led by Michelle Bachelor Robinson 
Professor of English, Director of Comprehensive Writing, Spelman College

Writing Then, Reading and Acting Now

Led by Lyndon Dominique
Associate Professor of English, Lehigh University; Director, BLSE

Writing to Witness

Led by Brenda Brueggemann 
Professor of English and Aetna Endowed Chair of Writing, University of Connecticut

Awakening Creativity: The “Who” in the Classroom

Led by Craig Maravich
Actor, Teaching Artist, and Director, Beyond the Page, BLSE and Middlebury College


Additional Information

  • Each participant will take two different workshops.
  • Participants will be invited to bring a text, a lesson or curricular plan, or other teaching materials they plan to use in their classroom, and they will have the opportunity to work with institute peers on (re)imagining those in light of the institute discussions.
  • The institute will be held on the historic Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vermont, in the Green Mountain National Forest.
  • The event includes opportunities to come early or stay late for cross-country skiing at the Rikert Outdoor Center (on the Bread Loaf campus) and downhill skiing at the Middlebury Snowbowl (minutes away); discounted tickets are available.  

What to Expect

  • Keynote Address
  • Faculty Roundtable
  • Workshops
  • Film Screening and Discussion
  • Interactive Performance-Based Exercises
  • Presentation of Youth-Led Community-Based Learning
  • Group Writing and Sharing Sessions

Weekend Schedule

Friday, February 16

  • 3:30 - 5 pm Arrival and Check-in
  • Reception and dinner
  • Interactive theater workshop and entertainment

Saturday, February 17

  • Breakfast 
  • Keynote address, discussion, and group activity
  • Lunch
  • Workshops and group writing
  • Dinner
  • Performance and discussion
  • Social time

Sunday, February 18

  • Breakfast
  • Wrap-up and action plans
  • 11 am departure or skiing at Rikert or Snowbowl