Menu
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Summer is the time for dreams and adventures. Let your dreams and adventures also lead you toward a joyful start of your next school year.
Do you spend your school year wishing you had time to read and your summer voraciously catching up on the world of YA literature? Do you love the way you feel, slipping into a first-person narrative, and also feeling like you are getting your work done? If so, might we suggest that you peruse NWP’s collection of interviews with YA authors, The Write Time. We have catalogued nearly 50 author interviews, mostly of YA authors and all hosted by a writing teacher. Each interview is approximately 30 minutes long and contains two writing prompts that you might want to use or adapt for your own classroom. Just like the lake, this collection invites you to interact however you’d like, dip in a toe, or dive deep.And if you are inspired, tell us on Instagram, who The Write Time should interview next. Tag us (@nationalwritingproject) and the author and tell us why you (or someone you nominate) should be the interviewer.Listen/watch →
Luma Mufleh is an activist, twice-published author, entrepreneur, coach, and thought leader in refugee and English Language Learner Education. As an asylee, as well as daughter and granddaughter of Syrian refugees, Luma continues to draw on her personal experiences to fuel her passion for empowering refugees and immigrant children through education. In 2006, she founded Fugees Family, the only network of schools in the U.S. dedicated to refugee and immigrant education. Luma’s work is not only changing the lives of children and families, but also shifting the narrative around refugees from one of fear to one of courage and resilience. Her TED Talk on educational justice has been viewed more than 1.8 million times and she is the author of two books, 2022's Learning America: One Woman's Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children and the recently released memoir From Here. Connecticut Writing Project teacher-consultants William King and Jessica Baldizon will conduct the interview on July 11 at 4:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. ET.
Cohosted by Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, this third summer of Teens Write Across America Virtual Writing Marathon begins July 19. Hosted by teen writers for teen writers, this writing marathon will take participants around the country from West Los Angeles to Fairfield Connecticut and many other places! Join us to cultivate a writer’s eye, ear, and mind while writing and sharing in a judgement-free, supportive community of writers.The Writing Marathon will meet every Wednesday from July 19 to August 16 for 90-minute sessions from 8:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. PT). This marathon is open to all teen writers, experienced or just starting out. All participants are invited back on September 20 to share one piece of writing with teachers and authors from around the country for revisions. This is a chance to polish up a piece you’re proud of to enter in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
It’s never too late to join the DigDiscourse Summer Collaborative and now is a perfect time as Make Cycle #2 is about to get underway. Staring July 10 and over the next two weeks, we will be taking a deep dive into the practice of social annotation in the literature and humanities classroom by first engaging in it ourselves in fun and interesting ways. Teachers hosting this cycle will share some of the approaches they have used in their classrooms and with linguistically diverse students to help communities of learners engage in social annotation in generative ways.
The 2023 NAMLE Conference will have an interactive keynote on July 14 featuring The New York Times Learning Network editor Katherine Schulten and teen winners of the site’s Coming of Age contest. Together they will explore authentic ways young people can find themselves and their communities in the news, think critically about coverage, and, more importantly, raise their voices to engage with what’s happening in the world.
If you haven’t yet, summer is a great time to explore the Write Now Teacher Studio. Like your favorite summer camp, there are lots of activities to choose from. Join For Free Today
Do you want to be a travel writer, without ever leaving home?The Write Across America Virtual Writing Marathon is in full swing. Hosted by Writing Project leaders for teacher writers, this writing marathon will take participants around the country from California to Virginia and many other places! Join us to visit Writing Project sites around the country and to write and share in a community of writers. July stops will be hosted on the 11th, the 18th, and the 25th. Visit Events in the studio to RSVP. This will allow you to get calendar and email reminders.
Do you want to feed your inner teacher-leader?If so, don’t miss the second and third installments of the Write Center Summer Learning Series. On July 6, Yolanda Sealey Ruiz will lead “A Time for (Self) Love and Healing.” This workshop will activate personal healing practices for educators and provide a space to unpack and release the stress and sadness of the past three years and the current challenges to our profession. This workshop invites teachers to learn to make a serious commitment to finding joy and peace in teaching, and practice self-care in the moment and for the school year ahead. On July 13 Cathy Fleischer will lead “Telling Our Stories, Raising Our Voices: Becoming an Everyday Advocate.” In this workshop, you’ll learn ways to develop your personal stories of teaching into a more public narrative, starting from anecdotes and building toward an action plan to advocate for students and teachers.Do you want to start preparing for next year?If you are interested in some new ways to help your students use Writing to Understand Literature, check out this Deeper Dive. It has several creative and rigorous ways for students to interact with literature, and lots of great prompts for you to try them out yourself. Maybe you are more interested in finding or creating text sets to support students in reading and writing arguments; in this Deeper Dive you will work to answer the question: How do we design an effective text set based on topics that our students care about?
