Writers in the Schools Summer 2011 Internship
Early Childhood Literacy Curriculum Intern

Overview
Writers in the Schools (WITS) is recruiting an Early Childhood Literacy Curriculum Intern. This full-time internship will provide one intern with the opportunity to explore and document the best teaching practices of professional educators and creative writers who work with our youngest writers, grades K-2.

By teaching with and observing veteran teachers, writers, and artists in our annual Summer Creative Writing Workshops, as well as in other WITS summer programs, the intern will compile successful lessons, innovative teaching prompts, and tried and true classroom management techniques into a published curriculum. With this early childhood literacy curriculum, WITS will be able to train new writers during our program year on working successfully in K-2 classrooms as well as in future Summer Creative Writing Workshops.

The intern will work in a variety of areas, gaining experience in early childhood literacy, creative writing instruction, interdisciplinary education, arts education, and arts/non-profit administration.

The internship will begin June 1, 2011 and end July 26, 2011.

The salary for this 8-week internship will be $2,750.00

Description of Internship [Download complete description here]

June:
The Early Childhood Literacy Curriculum Intern will serve as a lead intern for a larger team of our summer workshop teaching assistant interns. During workshop hours, the intern will provide creative writing instruction to children in grades K-2 by team teaching with professional teachers and writers, offer constructive feedback to students on their writing, work with small groups of children who need extra or advanced assistance, and observe and document best teaching practices.

After workshop hours, the intern will help administration by preparing for faculty meetings, meeting with teachers, assisting in the production of anthologies, and in other administrative tasks as assigned.

July:
The internship will focus on compiling materials, documents, lesson plans, student writing examples, and training techniques to produce a published early childhood literacy curriculum. Working directly with WITS Administration, SLC educators, WITS creative writers, and K-2 students, the intern will comb through the WITS lesson archives, materials documented at the workshops during June, and materials produced by students to shape this cohesive curriculum. Also, the intern will produce a narrative of anecdotes and historical background information to highlight the 21-year collaboration between WITS and SLC. The intern will be responsible for the creation, editing, proofing, and publication processes for this curriculum.

The intern will be required to attend an internship organizational meeting, two workshop training days, the three-week summer workshops, and weekly faculty meetings. Additionally, the intern will have the opportunity to attend a WITS board meeting as well as meet with other key WITS staff members to learn about arts/non-profit administration.

Outcomes
At the end of the eight-week internship, the Early Childhood Literacy Curriculum Intern will have at minimum 60 hours experience working directly with K-2 students (as well as with professional literacy educators and creative writers). The intern will produce and publish a valuable early childhood literacy curriculum. Finally, the intern will have the opportunity to present this research and curriculum at the SLC Summer Institute on Reading, Writing, and Cultural Connections.

Eligibility/Requirements
The Early Childhood Literacy Curriculum Internship is open to all interested candidates who are currently undergraduate students enrolled in a college or university full-time and who will be returning to school full-time in Fall 2011 as undergraduate sophomores, juniors, or seniors.

Students who have a family member employed by ExxonMobil, Volunteer Houston, or Writers in the Schools are not eligible to apply.

Candidates must demonstrate an aptitude in early childhood education, arts education, creative writing, pedagogy, literacy education, and/or non-profit administration.

Interns will be subject to a criminal background check, which must meet WITS standards, prior to beginning the internship.

Writers in the Schools encourages applicants from all backgrounds to apply and is dedicated to a culturally diverse staff.

All materials should be submitted by April 11, 2011 to:

Jack McBride, Program Director
Writers in the Schools
1523 West Main
Houston, TX 77006
or via email: Jack McBride