More About Teachers & Writers Collaborative
About Teachers & Writers
MISSION Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) seeks to educate the imagination by offering innovative creative writing programs for students and…
Workshops & Professional Development
Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) provides school-based and after-school writing programs led by professional writers for K-12 students, professional development…
Resources
Books T&W has published resources about the teaching of creative writing for more nearly 50 years. With more…
NY Poetry Out Loud
What is Poetry Out Loud? Poetry Out Loud (POL), an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and the…
Problem-based Learning in the Writing Curriculum: Supporting the Development of Writers in a Flourishing Writing Community
By Melissa McMullan “Can we start a club called Special for Special and do special things for people?” “That National Geographic article we read about the Paleolithic puppy got us thinking about doing our own story about the Paleolithic Era.” “We would like to design a DIY (Do It Yourself) project for the class where…
Trouble the Waters: Caribbean and Diasporic Writers Resource
By Jehan Roberson A region wrapped in mythology and mystique, writing that has emerged and continues to emerge from the Caribbean is informed by the region’s long history as a site of colonial interest and greed, of numerous nations’ successful battles for liberation, and as a region of constant migratory flow. The writers listed here…
Writing My Classroom
By Sheryl Lain I’d always jotted observations about my high school classroom and the students, but I didn’t consider these entries real writing, and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone else’s eyes but my own racing across the lines of words. Natalie Goldberg’s story in her book Writing Down the Bones changed all that. She told…
The Talk: Dr. Joshua Bennett on Obsessions, Music, and Blackness Across Time
By M.L. Thompson Dr. Joshua Bennett – @sirjoshbennett M.L. Thompson – @dreamyuncle LaQuann Dawson Jr. – @laquanndawson If the way things are will be the way things will continue, then we must address time—the boundless landscape of happening. Even before that, though, we must face the students, or at least have an idea of what…
Writing Through Trauma: Writing in the Wake of September 11
by Matthew Sharpe Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, I wanted to do something with my two Columbia University creative writing classes that addressed the disaster we had all just experienced. Each of the lessons I planned for my first class went awry. I began by asking my students to free write for five…
Plays Well with Others: Collaborative Poems in the Classroom
By Matthew Burgess “The best way to help children write freely is by encouragement, by examples, and by various other inspiring means.” — Kenneth Koch, Wishes, Lies, and Dreams “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” — Pablo Picasso If you walk into a room full…
Dream, Imagine, Evolve: Meet Javan Howard, Changing the Conversation about What It Means to Belong
By Wynne Kontos In the video, Javan Howard stands in front of the room and asks us to repeat the words, “My voice will change the world.” The video was recorded last fall, when Howard helped teach a training session for incoming teaching artists and education associates at Teachers & Writers Collaborative. So I recognize…
Who Am I? Exploring Stereotypes and Identity through Poetry
By Javan Howard Grades: 6–8 Genre: Poetry Themes: Race, Identity, and Stereotype Download: Who Am I? Exploring Stereotypes and Identity through Poetry LESSON PLAN Warm-Up (5 minutes): Define the Quote: Distribute Audre Lorde quote on index cards. Have students turn to those nearest them to discuss the quote: If I didn’t define myself for…
Speaking Lady Liberty
A creative writing lesson plan where students are asked to write poems in the voice of Lady Liberty.
Pen to Paper: Anthology of Worlds and Stories
Introductions I feel immensely lucky to have spent this year working with the students at PS 122. These writers are diverse in the best of ways: their humor, personalities, backgrounds, and interests, and the ways in which they analyze and respond to texts, range magnificently. These students, however, are united by a desire to learn,…