NWP Radio

In this conversation with Rebecca Harper, director of the Augusta University Writing Project and author of Write Now & Write On: 37 Strategies for Authentic Daily Writing in Every Content Area, we will discuss writing instruction, daily writing, writing across the curriculum, and her upcoming Deeper Dive in the Write Now Teacher Studio.

Former teacher Laura Purdie Salas believes reading small picture books and poems can have a huge impact on your life. She has written more than 130 books for kids, including Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons (Kirkus Best Books and Parents Magazine Best Books of the Year), the Can Be… series (Bank Street Best Books, IRA Teachers’ Choice), and Bookspeak!: Poems About Books (Minnesota Book Award, NCTE Notable). Laura shares inspiration and practical tips with educators about poetry, nonfiction, and more.Lisa Lapina is currently teaching first grade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Bloomsburg University where she earned a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education in 2011. Following BU, Lisa attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating in 2013 with a master's degree in Reading, Writing, and Literacy. She moved to Maryland in 2013 and taught first grade for five years. She moved back to Pennsylvania in 2018 and taught first grade in Upper Darby, PA before moving to The School District of Philadelphia in 2020. She taught kindergarten in 2020 and looped with her students to first grade in 2021. It's been a joy for her to spend a second year with this class. Lisa is grateful for all of the ways that the National Writing Project has positively influenced her career as an educator!

Tiffany D. Jackson is the New York Times Bestselling author of YA novels including the Coretta Scott King— John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning Monday’s Not Coming, the NAACP Image Award-nominated Allegedly, Let Me Hear A Rhyme, Grown, and her latest titles Blackout, White Smoke, and Santa in the City. She received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University, her master of arts in media studies from the New School, and has over a decade in TV/Film experience. The Brooklyn native is a lover of naps, cookie dough, and beaches, currently residing in the borough she loves, most likely multitasking.Dr. Delicia Greene is an assistant professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning in the School of Education at the University at Albany, SUNY. She also holds an affiliate appointment in the Department of Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. Her work enhances teaching and learning in the urban secondary literacy contexts. Dr. Greene's research is at the intersection of digital literacies, Black girlhood studies, rhetorical studies, urban literacies, young-adult literature, and teacher education, where she examines (1) Black girls' literacy and language practices in out-of-school digital spaces and (2) teaching strategies designed to bridge Black girls' out-of-school and in-school literacy and language practices.

Join colleagues from the Bay Area Writing Project as they learn alongside youth through a partnership with YRMedia called Teach YR. Through this partnership, teachers dig into the ways that youth media informs, mentors, and pairs with curricular design and the teaching of writing in their context and classrooms. This NWP Radio show will share inspirational media created by youth for public broadcast, explore the connected curriculum that has been created by teachers, and invite participation of students and teachers to be a part of an ongoing community of practice dedicated to bringing youth media beyond the margins.

K-Fai Steele is an author-illustrator who grew up in a house built in the 1700s with a printing press her father bought from a magician. She wrote and illustrated A Normal Pig and her latest book is All Eyes on Ozzy! She was a James Marshall Fellow at the University of Connecticut, a Brown Handler Writer in Residence at the San Francisco Public Library, and an Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Memorial Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Born in Charlton, Massachusetts, K-Fai now lives in Lausanne, Switzerland.Heather Locke was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has been teaching for six years and currently teaches a fantastic group of second graders. As a kid, Heather had an amazing fifth-grade teacher who recognized her strengths and helped her grow. In high school, her volleyball coach and history teacher supported her through a difficult time. It is because of them that she achieved her childhood dream of supporting children through education.

Join us for a creative Write Out broadcast led by leaders of Outdoor Afro, the nation’s leading cutting edge network that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. Outdoor Afro leader Leandra Taylor and National Park Ranger Alanna Smith will lead us in creating and customizing journals to use for nature and historic writing. Don’t miss this event, just in time for Write Out and the National Day of Writing.Write Out (#writeout) is a free two-week event, led by the National Writing Project and the National Park Service. The event is organized as a series of online activities where educators, students, and the public are invited to explore national parks and other public spaces to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing. The theme of this year’s event is "Palettes, Storyboards, and Cadences" and will run from October 10-24, 2021 (which includes the National Day on Writing on October 20). Sign up now to receive links and information to support your planning and participation.Learn more and sign up: https://writeout.nwp.org

Join us for a “behind the scenes” exclusive as we engage in the power of stories, storytelling, and writing with partners from the Park For Every Classroom project. Park for Every Classroom (PEC) is a National Park Service partnership program that includes a network of educators, partners, and Park Rangers that collaborate to engage communities in place-based learning. In this special Write Out broadcast, we will learn about the work of PEC while we are also taken behind the scenes with Park Rangers who participate in both PEC and Write Out. We will get the inside scoop on how these Park Rangers selected their writing prompts for this year’s Ranger Sparks videos, and how they tie the prompts to the diverse stories of their parks. Learn more about Write Out at: https://writeout.nwp.org

Carmen Oliver grew up in Manitoba, Canada, surrounded by lakes and prairie grass where she built tree forts, caught tadpoles, and sailed on homemade rafts. She is the author of the picture book series Bears Make the Best Buddies (Reading, Math, Writing, and Science) as well as the nonfiction picture book biography A Voice for the Spirit Bears: How One Boy Inspired Millions to Save a Rare Animal, a Junior Library Guild spring 2019 pick. She’s also the author of the forthcoming picture books The Twilight Library and The Favio Chavez Story. Carmen’s work has been shortlisted for the Rainforest of Reading Award, The Writers’ League of Texas Awards and the CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards for Early Literacy. In 2014, she founded the Booking Biz, a boutique style agency that brings award-winning children’s authors and illustrators to schools, libraries, and special events. When she’s not writing, she loves gardening, cheering on her kids from the sidelines and blue-sky days. Carmen lives in Round Rock, TX with her family.Kristin Lessard has worked for the National Park Service since 2008, serving in varied professional roles across multiple disciplines. In her current position, Kristin oversees the park’s visitor service operations and engagement initiatives, which include history and fine art education programming for approximately 40,000 visitors a year, as well as dynamic youth and volunteer programs. Kristin graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and has extensive training in public programming and 21st-century visitor engagement techniques.Write Out (#writeout) is a free two-week event, led by the National Writing Project and the National Park Service. The event is organized as a series of online activities where educators, students, and the public are invited to explore national parks and other public spaces to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing.The theme of this year’s event is "Palettes, Storyboards, and Cadences" and will run from October 10-24, 2021 (which includes the National Day on Writing on October 20).

Varian Johnson is the author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Parker Inheritance, which won both Coretta Scott King Author Honor and Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor awards; The Great Greene Heist, an ALA Notable Children’s book and Kirkus Reviews Best Book; and the graphic novel Twins, illustrated by Shannon Wright, an NPR Best Book. Varian was born in Florence, South Carolina, and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he received a BS in Civil Engineering. He later received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is honored to now be a member of the faculty. Varian lives outside of Austin, TX with his family.Kim Tate is a fifth-grade dual language teacher at International Prep Academy in Champaign, Illinois, where she is a member of her school improvement leadership team, as well as co-chair of her school’s equity committee. In addition to being a children’s fiction enthusiast, Kim is a 2021-2022 Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellow and an NWP Panda Fellow. She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Millikin University, where she received her B.S. in Elementary Education. She is currently completing her MEd in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Often the story of teaching, of teachers, and of literacy is told by outsiders to education—media, social media, TV, and movies. These stories contribute to a public narrative that is too often dismissive and demeaning of teachers and of research-based practices. Teacher voices/teacher stories—the stories of those who are actually in school—matter and can help shift that narrative into one that speaks to the realities of teaching and learning.In this episode, NWP Radio talks with Cathy Fleischer and Sarah Hochstetler about Everyday Advocacy, the kind of advocacy that teachers can do as part of their regular teaching lives. Our guests will also discuss resources from the book, and the launch of a new website that was made possible by a National Writing Project seed grant and the collective efforts of colleagues who share this commitment to advocacy.

Felicia Rose Chavez is an award-winning educator with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Iowa. She is author of The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom and co-editor of The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4: LatiNEXT with Willie Perdomo and Jose Olivarez. Felicia’s teaching career began in Chicago, where she served as Program Director to Young Chicago Authors and founded GirlSpeak, a feminist webzine for high school students.Dr. Tonya Perry is a Professor and Director of the Red Mountain Writing Project. In 2000-2001, she was named Alabama Teacher of the Year and further awarded National Teacher of the Year Finalist. In 2012, she was named by colleagues and students the recipient of the UAB Teaching Excellence Award. On a national level, she serves as a member of the Research on Women in Education executive board affiliated with AERA, director of the NCTE Cultivating New Voices program, a member of the Beloved Community in the National Writing Project's Write Now Teacher Studio, and a former National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Executive Board Member.

What is "rhetorical problem-solving" and what does it mean to "write rhetorically"? Listen to our interview with Jennifer Fletcher, a professor of English at CSU Monterey Bay and the author of Writing Rhetorically: Fostering Responsive Thinkers and Communicators.

The original Declaration of Sentiments, the document outlining the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens, emerged from the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in July 1848. Then in 2020, a group of women and girls in the Western, Central and the Finger Lakes regions of New York got together “to use pens and voices” to write a new declaration for the 21st century, which they shared for the first time at the 2021 Convention Days in Seneca Falls, NY in mid-July. Join us for this NWP Radio show where we hear from the young authors of the now complete 2020 Youth Declaration of Sentiments, understand their journeys as writers and collaborators, and listen to their hopes and dreams for their 21st century document.

Join the National Writing Project’s The Write Time with Kwame Mbalia, editor of Black Boy Joy, two additional contributors Varian Johnson and Julian Randall, and Washington, DC area teacher, Cosby Hunt. Black Boy Joy, released on August 3, is a book that celebrates the excellence of young Black males, their happiness, their voices, and their stories. We are excited to discuss the project with them on this episode.

Join NWP Radio for an interview with Poet t.l. sanders, a poet and performance professional based in Kansas City, MO. As a Prairie Lands Writing Project Teacher-Consultant, a Missouri Writing Project Network Teacher-Consultant, a member of the National Writing Project Writers Council, a current curriculum director, and former elementary, middle, and high school English teacher (with 16 years of teaching experience), Poet embraces the value of our shared stories. Whether he is public speaking, teaching, writing, or breathing, he has a passion for empowering people. This episode of NWP Radio includes a conversation of his upcoming film The kNew-Born, which premieres July 18 through August 1 during the #kcfringe2021 Virtual Festival. To learn more and find tickets for the film premiere please visit: https://www.poettlsanders.com/ And, save the date for special Q&A with Poet for those who see the film, hosted in NWP’s Write Now Teacher Studio on July 29 at 3:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. ET.