Articles, essays, editorials, and meditations on T&W’s mission, “educating the imagination.”
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by Robert Hirschfield Teaching artist Karen Fitzgerald describes what it’s like collaborating with Richard Lewis. “He never says no to an idea. I don’t think he knows the word no. If you have an idea that’s out there, he’s totally willing to explore it. He tries to figure out how it can work with what…
by Robert Hirschfield Picking at the soil grains of my childhood play a little longer Richard Lewis, 83, left his door open for me. It is on the fourth floor of a strange old office building in Astoria, Queens that houses three funeral parlors and a museum. Short,…
by Greg Graham In an age when digital literacy is viewed as the holy grail of education, and when teachers are urged to jump aboard the digitrain or get run over by it, Heather Sellers is one of the few voices bucking the trend, extolling the benefits of writing the way human beings have written…
by Erika Luckert We rarely think of sports as a subject for poetry, and yet, when I speak to devoted sports fans or athletes about their passions, they invariably wax poetic. I recently taught a residency at a middle school where one of the most impressive poems was written by an avid sports fan, Julio….
During the 2011–2012 school year, Teachers & Writers Collaborative partnered with Children First Network 534—a Bronx-based grouping of 33 public schools—to provide twelve writing programs in eight middle schools in Queens and the Bronx. With generous support from the New York Community Trust’s “Beyond Teaching to the Test” initiative, T&W writers taught fiction, poetry, and…
By Maryann Gremillion William is nine years old, has Asperger’s, and doesn’t like to write. I don’t know much more than this about him as I arrive at his house, wondering if there’s anything I know that’s going to help this child. When the front door opens he says hello quietly, peering at me from…
by Harriet Riley “Why is the berry red?” “Why is the bark gone on this side of the tree?” “Where do the squirrels go at night?” “Why is the path all dug up?” “If he could talk, what would the turtle say to me?” City kids have a lot of questions when they experience a…
By Matthew Daddona Marty Skoble, who, for the last 42 years has been the recognizable, cheery face of Saint Ann’s School, climbs the stairs two at a time to arrive at his first class of the morning. He’s 77 years old, and not an ounce of time is wasted on recounting his glory days. On…
By Olaya Barr Magical Realism has become the gateway of Latin American texts for most North American students. I can’t praise enough the serpentine works of Julio Cortázar and the uncanny humor of Gabriel García Márquez—these have influenced hundreds of authors and inspired literary movements across the world—but I suggest offering students some alternatives. Below,…
by Matthew Burgess This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned Eugene. I remember exactly where he sat, second row back, in the seventh-grade class as PS 187. I remember his laser-beam smirk as I read aloud from Joe Brainard’s book, and before I could send the students into their own lists of “I remembers,” Eugene…