Welcome to Teachers & Writers Magazine online! With this new version of the magazine, Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) continues the conversation we began in 1967, when the first Teachers & Writers Collaborative Newsletter was published. In this latest iteration, our discussion of the work and joy of “educating the imagination” and teaching creative writing…
EDUCATING THE IMAGINATION Christina Davis I began the poem “Because” after being asked to give a reading in support of Edward Snowden in fall 2014. I was in a cabin in the woods without Wifi at the time, and the invitation gave me an opportunity to reflect again on the “Nothing to Hide” argument regarding…
TEACHING ARTIST VOICE Kamilah Aisha Moon “What she had believed was indignation or rage or a deep intolerance for injustice came down to this: she was irreducibly in love with this bewitching planet, this thrilling life, this heartbreaking species she belonged to, with its capacity for stupefying destruction and breathtaking magnanimity.” …
EXPLODED LESSON PLAN For those who have been excluded from educational opportunities, a classroom can seem a forbidding place. Engaging entire families in school-based literacy projects not only supports student learning, but also strengthens the school community. In this lesson, Janet Hurley, co-founder of Asheville Writers in the Schools and Community, describes tweaking the “Where…
Ibi Zoboi Tone and voice are essential to a successful argumentative essay, especially to creating strong lead paragraphs filled with passion and pathos. But tone and voice can also be tricky concepts to convey to a class of middle- or high-schoolers. In the classroom, I use a variety of methods to introduce students to ideas…
EXPLODED LESSON PLAN High school students are at an age where they are becoming increasingly aware of the social and political realities of the world, and beginning to understand how these connect to the injustices they see and experience in their own lives. This exercise from T&W teaching artist Bushra Rehman uses the revolutionary voice of Sojourner…
INTERVIEW by Matthew Burgess Eve Ensler is the Tony Award-winning playwright, activist, and author of the theatrical phenomenon The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries. Eve’s plays include Necessary Targets, TheTreatment, The Good Body, and Emotional Creature. Her books include Insecure At Last: A Political…
TEACHING ARTIST VOICE Logan “Dirtyverbs” Phillips works to create new opportunities for the intersection of poetry and social justice in wider society. He is the author of Sonoran Strange (West End Press, 2015) and serves as coordinator of Spoken Futures Inc., a youth arts and advocacy organization based in Tucson, Arizona.
EDUCATING THE IMAGINATION Chessy Normile Stepping onto a wooden box with a crumpled piece of paper in my hand, I was already laughing. We had gathered on that Sunday evening—the first Sunday of the month, as usual—under New York City’s Washington Square Arch to celebrate William Carlos Williams. I announced the poem’s…
In addition to the collection of WITS organizations on T&W’s website, here are some more helpful resources! Resources for Teaching Artists Association of Teaching Artists The Association of Teaching Artists (ATA) was founded at a Summit in Poughkeepsie, New York in April 1998. New York State Teaching Artists, arts administrators, and leaders in statewide arts…