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MIDDLEBURY BREAD LOAF SCHOOL OF ENGLISH: AN INTRODUCTION

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Summer graduate program in English

  • Continuing graduate education
  • MA or
  • MLitt in English

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TWO UNIQUE CAMPUSES

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VERMONT & OXFORD

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AND ONLINE TUTORIALS

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COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS

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EMINENT FACULTY DRAWN FROM RENOWNED INSTITUTIONS ACROSS US AND UK

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UNPARALLELED RANGE OF COURSE OFFERINGS

Sample Offerings from Summer 2026

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Vermont

  • Documentary Filmmaking
  • Short Form Writing: Teaching and Beyond
  • Using Theater in the Classroom
  • PhotoVoice as Rhetorical Practice
  • Teaching Literacies Across Difference
  • Poetry Workshop: The Poetry of Peace
  • Latinx Literature
  • Women, Sex and Power: Manifestos, Memoirs, and Performances

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Oxford

  • British Theatre: Page to Stage
  • Romantic Ireland
  • Speed, Time, and Modernity since the 19th Century

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California (final year)

  • American Literature in a Global Context
  • Environmental Literature and the Global Imaginary
  • California Science Fiction: Octavia Butler

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Financial Support

Need-based financial aid is awarded to over 60% of our students, with an average aid award of over $7000

Special funding fellowships and scholarships for public school teachers and others can supplement financial aid

On the Vermont campus, student jobs are available that can defray the cost of tuition

Aid applications reviewed in two rounds: February and April. Apply early for best access to financial support!

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BREAD LOAF TEACHER NETWORK

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Advocacy Literacy: BLTN Teachers and Youth

  • Summer fellows and year-round collaboration (exchanges). Emphasis on teaching and learning across difference. �
  • Giving youth authentic audiences

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  • Recent themes: Anti-racist Teaching, Learning in Community Spaces, Teaching and Writing for Joy, Teaching in the Anti-Woke Moment, Making School Relevant, Composing Together�

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BLTN by the Numbers

  • A national and international network since 1993
  • To date, BLTN has provided over 1400 fellowships for teachers in over 300 schools in 23 states and abroad.
  • Rural roots, urban sites: From BLRTN to BLTN
  • Key Partner Organizations: What’s the Story? Beyond the Page, Andover Bread Loaf

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BLTN Next Generation Leadership Network

Peer Teaching of Video Skills: VT & SC

http://go.middlebury.edu/bltnnextgen

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BLTN Journal: Composing Together

HTTP://SITES.MIDDLEBURY.EDU/BLTNMAG

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Giving Youth Authentic Audiences

BLTN donor-funded student publications

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←BLTN teacher Kendra Bauer at Lowell High School, MA

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Collaboration between BLTN → teachers Sara Taggart (OH), Jacob Belvery (NB), and M.L. Kenney (Washington, D.C.)

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Staying Connected and Supported

  • Small grant support for school year work
  • Year-round access to BreadWeb, our digital community
  • Local/regional networking
  • Support for going public: presenting and publishing (e.g., conferences, BLTN journal)
  • Periodic optional workshops via Zoom
  • Year-round BLTN admin team support

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Staying Connected and Supported

“I am committed to building my students' literacy skills and critical thinking skills; I am committed to empowering them to take ownership of their own educational success. Working with BLTN in previous years has helped me feel supported in these efforts; the exchanges help my students know they are part of an education system that is bigger than themselves and their school.” - S.T. (Ohio)

“My past 4 years in BLTN have been everything I hoped grad school would be in terms of finding a small group of motivated educators who understand the importance of public education. I look forward to completing my studies and exploring how to stay connected with BLTN.” - J.B. (Nebraska)

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CO-CURRICULAR OPPORTUNITIES

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MA DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

The curriculum is divided into six groups:

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  • Group 1 Writing, Pedagogy, and Literacy
  • Group 2 British Literature: Beginnings through the 17th Century
  • Group 3 British Literature 18th Century to the Present
  • Group 4 American Literature
  • Group 5 World Literature
  • Group 6 Theater Arts

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Degree candidates are required to take one unit from Group 2, one from Group 3, one from Group 4, one from group 5, and one from either Group 1 or 6. The remaining five units are electives.

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AT BOTH CAMPUSES

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VERMONT CAMPUS

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Oxford Campus

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ONLINE TUTORIALS�

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Contacts:

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Applications open in September.

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blseadmissions@middlebury.edu

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Tom:

tpmckenn@middlebury.edu

or (907) 321-4920

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Bread Loaf Teacher Network: An Overview

July 13, 2026

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Today…

  • Introductions
  • BLTN Overview
    • Samples of Work: �-Language Exchange
    • BLTN Journal
    • What’s the Story?
  • Your Questions

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What’s the Story?:

The Young Filmmakers’ Social Action Team

  • Youth learn research, interview, and documentary filmmaking techniques under the leadership of Director Tim O’Leary
  • Multiple models of engagement adapted to meet the needs of students and their communities. Some sites operate as clubs, others as part of the academic day, and still others through hybrid or Saturday-based models.

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What’s the Story?

  • 11th year
  • Current cohorts at 13 sites across the United States, Navajo Nation, Canada, and Colombia
  • Summer Film Fest hosted at Bread Loaf; youth learn public speaking skills and present their documentaries

What’s the Story? sites over the past four years. Red pins indicate current, active sites; blue pins mark communities that have participated in previous years. Link to an interactive map.

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What’s the Story? -

Selection of 2026 Youth Documentaries

Indians: What's in a Tradition? (Roseburg, OR)

Informal Vendors

(Manizales, Colombia)

also… 1:54-2:47

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Andover Bread Loaf

  • Teachers participate in summer professional development connected to Bread Loaf study
  • Emphasis is on youth development through writing and the arts
  • ABL’s Family Literacy Night model has inspired many other BLTN projects

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Beyond the Page

BLTN teachers collaborate with a cohort of teaching artists from Middlebury College using the tools of theater to transform learning.

Canadian International School, Singapore

Family Literacy Night at The Sharon Academy Middle School, Vermont

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Types of BLTN Collaborations

See more at go.middlebury.edu/bltncollabs

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Types of BLTN Collaborations

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Types of BLTN Collaborations

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Types of BLTN Collaborations

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Types of BLTN Collaborations

See more at go.middlebury.edu/bltncollabs

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Language, Accents, and Identity: Reflections on a Recent Collaboration

  • January, 2026 project involving schools in Rhode Island, New York, Illinois, and Michigan
  • Students aged 14 to 50
  • Design inspired by Bread Loaf course and guest workshop from Middlebury Professor Dr. Shawna Shapiro

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Clarissa Segars, Admin. Assoc

csegars@middlebury.edu

Dr. Beverly J. Moss, Director

bmoss@middlebury.edu

Fallon Abel, Assoc. Director

fabel@middlebury.edu

Tom McKenna, Dir. of Comm.

tpmckenn@middlebury.edu

http://go.middlebury.edu/bltn