LESSON PLAN To help young writers learn to engage a reader, Teachers & Writers Collaborative teaching artist Arhm Choi takes a different tack: old fashioned letter writing. In this multi-modal lesson, young writers focus on what makes a detail compelling—and what brings writing alive—all while highlighting the idea of writing as a lasting form…
FROM THE ARCHIVE Urban Word: Speaking Poetry to Power by Jenny Williams From: Teachers & Writers Magazine (Spring 2009, Volume 40, Number 3) Download Archived Article The students show up at today’s performance poetry workshop in typical teenage style: jeans and sneakers, hunched under backpacks and texting madly into their cell phones. Greetings and…
LESSON PLAN In this lesson on developing supporting evidence, Fulbright Fellow and long time Teachers & Writers Collaborative teaching artist Sarah Dohrmann attempts to generate student interest by appealing to these young writers’ favorite topic: themselves. In “This I Believe,” high schoolers are asked to take a scene from their lives and turn it into powerful…
LESSON PLAN In this lesson plan aimed at 4th graders, Teachers & Writers teaching artist Susanna Horng offers a fresh way to introduce young writers to the pleasures of revision. By looking at rewriting through the lens of genre instead of just “fixing” what has already been done, young writers get to experiment with style…
by Janet Hurley The day I mentioned the cross burnings was the day Aleesha became a self-avowed writer. I’d been visiting her fifth-grade classroom for several months, facilitating a year-long program I’d created for Isaac Dickson Elementary School in Asheville, North Carolina, called Writing to Change the World. I started this as a project for my…
FROM THE ARCHIVE A Teachers & Writers Collaborative Love Story (40th Anniversary) By Jane LeCroy From:Teachers & Writers Magazine(Spring 2008, Volume 39, Number 3) Download Archived Article I WAS IN FIFTH GRADE WHEN I WAS INTRODUCED TO THE AVANT-GARDE. It was my first experience of e.e. cummings and it was brought to me…
Did you know that Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) has been providing resources for teachers and educators about the teaching of creative writing for nearly 50 years? Gathered from our many years of writing programs in the field, T&W’s website has helpful materials and links to support your teaching. Take a look at some of…
LESSON PLAN Poet, composer, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative teaching artist Janice Lowe brings historical context to this lesson on narrative—connecting the persona poem to the Civil War, slavery, and the amazing story of a formerly enslaved Union Soldier. This lesson does include intense content, and might be best dovetailed with Social Studies lessons on…