Category: All #Writing
Shadows
Shadows carry a heavy burden of suspicion and fear, but in truth humans do some of their best work in the shadows. As I note in Conversations, my students are working on formal argument essays, for the unit required by my institution. However, as a National Writing Project teacher, I teach that argument is a conversation. My goal…
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Write Your Origin Story
What does your home taste like? What are the scents that remind you of home? What memories are sparked by the word home? This invitation to write is the first of three created for the Morehead Writing Project’s Small Poems, Great Writers project. I thought National Poetry Month was the perfect time to share these…
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Conversations
As my students continue their exploration of possible formal argument topics, for the unit required by my institution, I continue to stress, as a National Writing Project teacher should, that argument is a conversation. My goal is for my students to consider an issue that is important to them, urgent in their community, and offers room for…
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Invitations
My students recently embarked on a formal argument unit (required by my institution) but as a National Writing Project teacher I teach my students to view argument as a conversation. My challenge to my students when selecting their topic for this unit is to consider an issue that is important to them, urgent in their…
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Choose A Lens
As my students work on their rhetorical analysis essays, I ask them to consider the lens they will choose to use to examine their chosen text. This is something we should all do from time to time…consider the lenses we use to approach decisions and new experiences as well as live our lives. For a more formal…
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What Can Games Teach Us?
As my students start thinking about rhetorical analysis, I challenged them to think and write about the question of what games can teach us. We discussed some of the moral, ethical, and big philosophical questions that games invite us to consider. We explored the role of games in our human story from who plays specific…
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What Does It Mean To Be A Writer?
As my students polish their This I Believe essays and prepare to write reflections about their journey as writers, I challenged them as well as the Just Write virtual writing group to consider the question: What does it mean to be a writer? Every week we begin our Jam Sessions with this initial writing prompt: I am a writer from……
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What Do You Believe?
As my students draft their This I Believe essays, I challenged them as well as the Just Write virtual writing group to consider the question: What Do You Believe? We drew our inspiration from two poems: Credo by Andrew Zawacki The Answer by Carl Sandburg Both poets offer vivid imagery and intriguing metaphors as they…
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Understanding
Last year the Just Write virtual writing group wrote their way through Black History Month by connecting with the words, values, and lives of Black poets. I curated the poems with an eye toward poems that would connect us as humans (Week 1) and help us understand America’s complicated history (Week 2). This invitation to write began…
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How Do Games Shape Our Stories?
In our third week exploring games, my students and the Just Write virtual writing group drew inspiration from Ken Burns’ thoughts on baseball. As we learned in our first week in What Are Games? and last week in Why Do We Play?, games and play teach us a lot about ourselves, our world, and the others that inhabit that…
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Connection
Last year the Just Write virtual writing group wrote their way through Black History Month by connecting with the words, values, and lives of Black poets. I curated the poems with an eye toward poems that would connect us as humans. The first of four collections included two poems by Nikki Giovanni to bookend and…
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Why Do We Play?
In our second week exploring games, my students and the Just Write virtual writing group drew inspiration from the TED Radio Hour program Press Play. As we learned last week in What Are Games?, games provide a wonderful writing invitation as every human has life experience with games from our childhood games to gym class to…
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