2017 Summer Youth Program Is Here!
Register Today!

Classes run Monday - Thursday
Session 1: June 26 - July 13
​Session 2: July 17 - August 3

Online Registrations

program information

Welcome to the UCI Writing Project!

Established in 1978, UCI Writing Project is the 13th site of the California Writing Project and the oldest of the Subject Matter Projects on the University of California-Irvine Campus. We're located in UCI's Graduate School of Education.

We are one of 200 sites of the National Writing Project.

Note from the Director:

Carol Booth Olson, Professor, Director of UCI Writing Project.

 Established in 1984, the UCI Summer Youth programs offers workshops to over 2500 students, pre-K through grade 12. In these workshops, Teacher/Consultants trained in Writing Project strategies focus on helping students enhance the reading and writing abilities identified in the California Common Core State Standards.
​
​Our workshops offer a unique opportunity for students to develop their talent as writers as they experience a step-by-step approach to writing. Special attention is given to the domains of writing assessed on the STAR Direct Writing Assessment and the California High School Exit Exam: summary, narration, response to literature, and persuasion. Recognizing that affective motivation to learn is key to academic growth, our goal is to make the Young Writers' Project challenging and informative but also engaging and fun.

The UCIWP has trained 800 teacher/consultants from 85 local school districts and twelve colleges and universities. Additionally, the project has trained 675 teachers in its open program on Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking, and 600 teachers in the Governor's Professional Development Institutes. The project has reached over 20,000 teachers via conferences and inservice programs. We were the first CWP site to create a summer youth program, which has grown from 35 students and 2 teachers in 1984 to more than 2500 students and 200 teachers in 2013.

---

Carol Booth Olson, Professor of Education, Director of the UCI Writing Project and creator of the Pathway Project. Steve Zylius / UCI

Featured in UCI News: On the right path

Professor of Education and Director of the UCI Writing Project, Carol Booth Olson speaks of her Pathway Project, established in 1996, which fosters academic literacy of English learners in middle and high schools.

Carol Booth Olson:

“If I can feel like I’ve moved the needle, if I can feel like I’m reaching out to these teachers and they, in turn, can get these kids into college, into good-paying jobs in the workforce, that’s its own reward,” says Carol Booth Olson, professor of education, director of the UCI Writing Project and creator of the Pathway Project.

​Read the rest of the article here.

---

Young Writers posing for a picture.

2017 Summer Youth Program is just around the corner!

UCI Writing Project is back to celebrate its 33rd year of Summer Youth Programs with 5 campuses this year in Irvine, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, and Huntington Beach! Keep an eye out for our Summer Program flyers for more information. 

Online registrations open in the month of March!

Click the button below to our Summer Youth Website for more information about our Summer Program for Students: 

2017 summer youth program

---

2016 Annual Literacy Conference Recap:

The 2016 Annual Literacy Conference at the UCI Student Center was a great success, hosting over 500 educators from Southern California dedicated to improving students as readers and writers. Keynote speakers Deborah Appleman, Jeffrey Wilhelm, and Jim Burke covered the theme of the conference, Teaching Better by Design: Helping Students to Dive Deep as Readers and Writers, while Jan Burkins, Kim Yaris, Mark Overmeyer, Gretchen Bernabei, and Carol Jago presented an assortment of related workshops.