<h1>Archives</h1>
    News

    Jump into Spring with an NYCWP Writing Boot Camp!

    March 18, 2021

    Looking to start a new piece of writing or creative project? Longing to get back to the page, but finding yourself blocked? Join the NYCWP for three days of generating your own creative writing! Over this three-day “boot camp,” writers will have the opportunity to engage with a variety of prompts and participate in micro-studies surrounding various craft elements, creative forms, and model readings. While participating for all three sessions is encouraged, as the activities will build, a pop-in model is also acceptable for those with limited time.

    CTLE credit available.

    • When: June 1, 2 & 3, 2021
      • 7:00pm – 9:00pm
    • Who: Writers of all levels
    • Where: online, zoom invitation following registration
    • Cost:
      • $20 per session
      • $50 for all three sessions

    Facilitators: Alan Holt and Mallory McMahon

    Contact: JANE.HIGGINS@lehman.cuny.edu

    News

    Writing with Youth Inside and Outside the Classroom

    March 18, 2021

    Writing with Youth: Inside and Outside of the Classroom with keynote addresses by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and Kelly Chandler-Olcott

    The 1st ever, virtual Northeast National Writing Project conference features live keynote addresses, teacher-led workshops, and teacher-writing sessions; there are pre-recorded sessions that participants can view on-demand. Through ZOOM and Google Docs, we anticipate the National Writing Project experience will be at its best – a coordination of ZOOM links and organized pre-recorded on-demand presentations…a menu of sorts.

    Our ignite sessions are pre-recorded and viewable as on-demand sessions while showcases and workshops are live providing participants flexibility to pace the conference experience that works best for them. Throughout the day, our community will have opportunities to gather for discussion and networking, as well, and pose questions to guide the conversation.

    The event begins at 9:00 a.m. and concludes at 4:30 p.m.

    We hope you will join us!

    • When: May 8, 2021, 9:00am – 4:30pm
    • Where: Online, information to follow registration.
    • Cost:
      • $25 for teachers
      • $10 for students
      • Free for Lehman College undergraduate students, teacher candidates, and Masters of Social Work students
    News

    College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP)

    April 15, 2021

    NWP’s first Teaching Routine Argument Writing online course was very well received and we are excited to announce our next argument writing online course, Creating an Argument Text Set. This is one of many courses being designed by teacher-leaders to disseminate the highest-leverage aspects of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP). Our goal is to make the most powerful aspects of this successful program available to more teachers both outside and inside the NWP network. In this Creating an Argument Text Set course, which will run from April 23rd-May 3rd, teachers will be supported in moving through a  process to build a text set that they can immediately use to engage their students in writing arguments. Please share this invitation widely with teachers in your area.

    For more information and registration, click here

    News

    Writing and Reading this Spring at the NYCWP

    March 19, 2021

    The NYCWP is currently has two programs underway: the Spring Writers Residency and the reading workshop “Reading Fiction Like a Writer.” Read about the programs below, and be sure to look out for similar programming in the future!

    The Spring Writers Residency

    This MFA-style workshop, designed for writers with works already in progress, draws participants through a series of intensive exercises, readings, and submissions of their own writing, toward a goal of improving and completing projects in various genres. Residents will be responsible for providing feedback to one another and participating in conversations about craft, style, form, function, and creative choices that deepen or texturize writing. Each resident will have the opportunity to submit two writing samples, which will be analyzed alongside mentor and master texts, to help each writer better understand their own strengths and points for future development.

    Reading Fiction Like a Writer

    Writers read fiction not just for enjoyment, but also to examine closely the “tools of the trade” as they look in the hands of masters. This monthly reading and discussion group will focus on how various writers use different forms, styles, and techniques to draw their readers into fictional worlds. We will read one novel per month, with a focus on works in translation and marginalized voices, to explore the relationship between story, form, and craft with an eye to apply these techniques to our own creative projects, regardless of genre.

    Participants are currently reading the following texts:

    • Slave Old Man, Patrick Chamoiseau
    • Human Acts, Han Kang
    • Weather, Jenny Offill
    • Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo
    • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong
    News

    Hindsight is 2020: Futures of Teaching and Preserving Mother Tongues

    March 11, 2021

    A virtual symposium on teaching indigenous and diasporic languages

    Held on March 19-20, 2021 and March 26-27, 2021

    The symposium seeks to reflect on the state of Indigenous and diasporic language preservation and instruction in the first two decades of the 21st century, and reflect on the future of learning and teaching in the digital era.

    This symposium seeks to bring Indigenous and diasporic language instructors, students and activists together virtually to discuss the strengths and challenges that have come with our “new normal” of online learning. This symposium seeks to dispel the stigma surrounding online learning by bringing in successful examples of years of training by instructors and students who have excelled in creating professional paths by combining language and technology. Over two weekends, there will be notable keynote speakers, panels discussing the challenges that students and instructors must contend with classes over Zoom, and also address the maneuvering between online and in-person learning in this ever-shifting context; workshops on innovative methodologies for child education and youth development by language activists; and performances by artists representing various indigenous and diasporic languages.

    Presented by The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU (CLACS NYU), The CUNY Mexican Studies Institute at Lehman College (CUNY MSI), and the Institute of Latin American Studies of Columbia University (ILAS).

    **Habrá interpretación simultánea al español disponible.

    **English simultaneous interpretation will be available.

    News

    Join the NYCWP for Writing Together #5 with the Gateway National Recreation Area and Park

    March 9, 2021

    Theme: Finding Our Way: With or Without a Map

    Who knew, a year ago, when we in the New York City Writing Project started meeting and writing together online, that we would still be doing this? Along with many others, our morale is ebbing and stress is as high as ever. (See this report.) We also have those feelings of never doing enough and of not being able to reach our students. Perhaps you also miss a casual, friendly community with colleagues. If any of this fits for you, we invite you to join teachers from the New York City Writing Project and find some relief and restoration in our own writing on Tuesday evening, March 16th at 7:00 PM Eastern.

    These past months of pandemic living have reminded us how essential our creativity is for expressing our thoughts and feelings and processing our experiences.  Many of us have found ourselves writing (or thinking of writing).  Many of us have found ourselves spending more time outside enjoying being part of a larger, more natural world of bright sunsets, cool breezes, wintry trees, local birds and animals.

    With this in mind, come join the NYC Writing Project and the Gateway National Recreation Area for another session of Writing Together.  We’ll write, share what we wish, and be inspired by nature, our experiences with the world around us, and by our connection with each other.  We hope you can join us! 

    When: Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 7:00pm

    Where: Online, Kumospace

    Contact: jane@nycwritingproject.org

    News

    Inquiry-Based Learning Through the Creative Arts for Teachers and Teacher Educators

    March 9, 2021

    Wednesday, March 10, 2021

    2:00 – 3:00 PM

    RSVP by March 10thhttps://lehman.libcal.com/event/7443754?hs=a

    *This is an online event – URL will be sent via registration e-mail*

    *Registration is required*

    Information:                 Stacy.Katz@lehman.cuny.edu

    This book presents a theoretical and practical guide to implementing an inquiry-based approach to teaching which centers creative responses to works of art in curriculum.

    Guided by Maxine Greene’s philosophy of Aesthetic Education -the authors discuss social justice implications of marginalized students having access to the arts and opportunities to find their voices through creative expression.

    The authors aim to demystify the process of inquiry-based learning through the arts for teachers and teacher educators by offering examples of lessons taught in high school classrooms and graduate level teaching methods courses.  

    Examples of student writing and art work demonstrate how creative interactions with the arts can help learners of all ages deepen their skills as readers, writers, and thinkers.

    Amanda Gulla is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in English Education at Lehman College. 

    Molly Sherman is currently teaching 12th grade at Kingsbridge International High School. 

    Read the eBook through the Leonard Lief Library.

    News

    Check Out the National Writing Project’s Upcoming Events & New Resources

    February 16, 2021

    The Write Time with Kwame Alexander & Tyler Jones

    It’s a knock out: Talking about Becoming Muhammad Ali with Kwame Alexander

    Kwame Alexander’s newest novel Becoming Muhammad Ali, co-authored with best-selling author James Patterson, takes up the childhood of Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky. Tyler Jones, a teacher-leader with the Louisville Writing Project, interviews Kwame about this knockout novel for this month’s Write Time. Catch the interview when it first streams on Facebook February 23 or catch it on NWP Radio after February 25.

    Save the date.

    Join a conversation (or several) with YA authors

    Once again this semester the Augusta University Writing Project invites you to join virtual conversations with authors about writing, literature, reading, and more. It’s free to register and you are invited to join whether you’ve read works by the author or not. It’s a great way to meet authors and other teachers of writing.

    Celebrate the light of Amanda Gorman

    So, Amanda Gorman has signed a modeling contract and will perform at the Superbowl. When was the last time our country was so excited about poetry? We can’t remember such a time. Don’t miss the opportunity to capitalize on this moment. In “Opening Our Classroom to Light and Joy” Tanya Baker reflects on the moment and shares a few resources for teaching Gorman’s inauguration poem “The Hill We Climb.”

    Free to dream, safe to thrive: Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 2021

    February 1–5, 2021 is the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, a national movement meant to center the lives of Black students and their families, as well as their history and futures in classrooms and schools across the country. The week of action was started as a one-day event in one school community in Seattle in the fall of 2016; the school’s act of commitment to their Black families was a spark. Christina Cantrill’s latest post has resources, creative challenges, and online events that support the week of action; writing resources are gathered here too.

    Read More →

    We all have space to squeeze in a 100-word story

    When YA author and NWP Writers Council member Kim Culbertson wrote about 100-word stories at Write Now at Medium, calling them “small, bright things,” folks wanted more of her insights into teaching with them. In this one-hour CoLab, Culbertson walks through four approaches to using and writing 100-word stories in the writing and literature classroom. Kim’s original post has been updated to include the recording.

    Read/Watch/Listen →

    “Trash drafting” might help the drafting/editing distinction click for students

    When Paul Thomas saw a Twitter thread by SciFi/fantasy writer Elizabeth May that ended in the intriguing phrase of the Trash Draft, he immediately saw important lessons for his own student writers. Check out his exploration of Trash Drafting as something that might help our student writers work through the drafting/editing process.

    Read More →

    Put sound, music, and student voice at the heart of podcasting projects

    There’s student voice, and there’s students’ actual voices. Podcasts give students the opportunity to share their voices with sound-rich journalistic or story-based compositions. Join a free, two-part workshop on February 22 and 24, hosted by KQED, the National Writing Project, and PBS Newshour’s Student Reporting Labs, to learn how to create your own podcast. Collaborate with your peers and discover ways to use audio storytelling to promote deeper learning in a range of learning environments.

    Register →

    News

    Writing Together #4 with the NYCWP and Gateway Recreation Area

    February 2, 2021

    Who knew, a year ago, when we in the New York City Writing Project started meeting and writing together online, that we would still be doing this? Along with many others, our morale is ebbing and stress is as high as ever. (See this report.) We also have those feelings of never doing enough and of not being able to reach our students. Perhaps you also miss a casual, friendly community with colleagues. If any of this fits for you, we invite you to join teachers from the New York City Writing Project and find some relief and restoration in our own writing this Thursday evening, February 11th at 7:00 PM Eastern.

    These past months of pandemic living have reminded us how essential our creativity is for expressing our thoughts and feelings and processing our experiences.  Many of us have found ourselves writing (or thinking of writing).  Many of us have found ourselves spending more time outside enjoying being part of a larger, more natural world of bright sunsets, cool breezes, wintry trees, local birds and animals.

    With this in mind, come join the NYC Writing Project and the Gateway National Recreation Area for another session of Writing Together.  We’ll write, share what we wish, and be inspired by nature, our experiences with the world around us, and by our connection with each other.  We hope you can join us! 

    When: Thursday, February 11, 2021, 7:00pm

    Where: Online, Zoom

    News

    Teaching Routine Argument Writing, an NWP Online Course

    January 28, 2021

    NWP Teacher-Leaders have been hard at work designing an online course on Teaching Routine Argument Writing. Our goal is to make the most high-leverage aspects of this successful program available to more teachers both outside and inside the NWP network.

    In this 4-week course, which will launch on February 17th, participants will explore, with an NWP provided Coach/Thinking Partner at their side, fun and powerful approaches for engaging students in routine argument writing about relevant issues. Please share this invitation widely with teachers in your area.

    Time and Cost Commitment:

    • 4 weeks from February 17 – March 16, 2021 (each week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday).
    • Three hours per week of self-paced coursework, plus any classroom activities or projects.
    • Additional time with your Coach/Thinking Partner as needed
    • $225 enrollment cost

    For questions and other payment options, email teachargument@nwp.org