by Autumn Carter It was a chilly day in Texas, before spring break. He strolled toward our entrance, paused, smiled, and took a photograph of the chalk graffiti that read, “Rashad is Absent, again today!” Denicia’s art was paying homage to his novel’s character, Rashad. The chalk faded, but the love for reading and writing…
by Melissa Bryan Seeking Simultaneity Over the summer, in an online educational leadership course I attended, we viewed a scene from the film Invictus. In it, Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) explains to pro-Rugby player Pienaar (played by Matt Damon), what helped him survive imprisonment. Nelson relates that the poem, “Invictus” by William Ernest…
We interview Felicia Rose Chavez about her most recent book: The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom. In the interview, we talk about what an anti-racist workshop can look like at various grade levels. Dr. Chavez discussed her own experience as a teacher of writing and described her desire to examine her own…
By Ann D. David I have written “awk” in the margins of many a student essay, especially when I taught high school English. The feedback was accurate in that whenever I wrote awk, the writing was, indeed, awkward. And if the writer fixed that section, the paper would be better. Figuring out why the sentence…
by Caitlin Buckley Trying new things is intimidating, especially as a newer teacher. You feel green and yet you must find ways to engage students and help them grow. This is uniquely challenging as a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. Growth can be as slow as molasses on a winter day,…
By Erica Steinitz and Elizabeth Wilson As I stand up from conferring with a writer and look out to see whose writing I might lean into next, I am struck with a realization—there isn’t a writer who needs me. I am constantly evaluating the classroom to find where a writer is stuck, ready for the…
By Erika Watts “But I don’t know what to write,” the student says in frustration, looking at the blank paper ahead. “I don’t even know where to get started; my thoughts are all jumbled.” Often times when faced with a writing task, students want to jump right into the assignment, getting frustrated when the ideas…
By Lauren Nizol Last year, I met a writer, Michael, (a pseudonym for this post), who struggled to start drafts and would find himself using the last moments of writing time frantically composing. It was not unusual for him to produce little to nothing during writing workshop at the beginning of the year. The more…
By Laura A. Taylor Take a moment to think about a recent teaching day. What kinds of activities were your students doing? Perhaps there was a mini-lesson introducing students to a new writing tool, a small group strategy lesson, a collaborative analysis of a mentor text, peer conferences giving feedback on recent work, time for…
By Tracey T. Flores & Iris Treinies “I have a dream, that for 11 years I’ve been dreaming to meet my son again. In darkness, I left my hometown…A few years ago, I realized I can do more if I accept my reality and work with our possibilities…Any family shouldn’t be apart for any reason.”…
Writers Who Care 