NWP Radio

For National Poetry Month, NWP Radio has launched a special limited series called “The Story of a Poem” where we interviewed poets from the NWP Writers Council about their poems, their composing processes, and writers’ craft. This episode features author, poet, artist, and teacher, Patrice Vecchione.

Have you scoured the web for writing contests for your students? Have you worried over which publishing opportunities have students’ best interests at heart? Tune in to this show to hear about the resource you’ve been looking for. Guest Denise Hill, Editor-in-Chief, NewPages

After a full year of COVID, and the overlapping pandemics of violence against Black lives and attacks on Democracy, a group of educators and writers come back together at Beyond Storytime CoLab to share and consider what we have made, why we have made it, and the stories these objects carry for ourselves and others. See what we have learned, what we chose to carry forward, and how these objects and decisions inform our vision of teaching writing as well as our collective storytelling and history-making. See the slideshow from the show...

This NWP Radio CoLab features the authors of our March reading for LEARN: Marginal Syllabus. Jennifer Turner and Autumn Griffin, two Black woman literacy scholars, discuss their article and their work learning alongside two adolescents, Tamika and Malia, over a six-year period. This is the first month’s reading from the LEARN Marginal Syllabus, Spring 2021 co-developed with the National Writing Project (NWP) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) with support from Hypothesis. Each month, March through June, we will invite educators to collaboratively read and discuss an article published by NCTE that investigates the intersection of literacy and equity. Each reading with related author discussion will go “live” on the first Monday of the month. Related Links About the 2021 LEARN Marginal Syllabus Read and Annotate the article Watch the video/learn more

Kwame Alexander’s newest novel Becoming Muhammad Ali, co-authored with the best-selling novelist, James Patterson, is about the childhood of Cassius Clay, and therefore set in Louisville, Kentucky. This episode of The Write Time features Tyler Jones, a teacher-consultant with the Louisville Writing Project, interviewing Kwame about this knockout novel.

Join NWP Radio for a conversation with artist Rob Shetterly and educator Connie Carter. For more than ten years, Rob has been painting the series of portraits: Americans Who Tell the Truth. Connie works on education initiatives connected to the work. In this episode of NWP Radio, Rob and Connie talk about the role of art in truth-telling, the resources Americans Who Tell the Truth have amassed for educators, and how teachers can get involved in the Samantha Smith Challenge.

What does it look like, sound like, feel like to teach for a “living democracy”? This episode of NWP Radio features Philadelphia educator Joshua Block talking about his book Teaching for a Living Democracy: Project-Based Learning in the English and History Classroom. In this book Joshua unpacks the ways he works to make school a place where students can reconfigure understandings of themselves, their capabilities, and their roles in the world. Our discussion features student work, classroom resources, and prompts teachers to consider ways to create living democracies in their own contexts. Joshua has provided his slideshow as a resource for teachers; also see the first two pages of the book, courtesy of Teacher College Press.

Our Adapting Instruction series continues with four NWP teachers, working in different contexts and with different designs for virtual and hybrid learning. They share the tools and strategies they have found most useful in adapting their instruction for young writers.

Join teacher, author, and NWP Writers Council member Kim Culbertson, along with fellow educators, for a dive into 100-word stories. Kim will share how she has found short-form work a great test for herself as a writer and its applications for her work with students. (Also, check out her post about 100-word stories and the related handout.)

This episode of The Write Time features educator and author Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad. Dr. Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University and is the author of the best-selling book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. She works with teachers and young people across the United States and South Africa supporting best practices in culturally responsive instruction. Dr. Muhammad is interviewed by Christopher Rogers, a Ph.D student within the Reading/Writing/Literacy program at PennGSE. Chris also serves as Public Programs Director for the Paul Robeson House and Museum and serves as Curriculum Co-Chair for National Black Lives Matter at School.

In this episode of The Write Time we visit with award-winning author Lamar Giles and middle-school educator Kearstin Jacobs. Lamar writes for teens and adults across multiple genres, with work appearing on many "Best Of" lists every year. He is the author of the acclaimed novels Fake ID, Endangered, Overturned, Spin, The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, Not So Pure and Simple, and The Last Mirror on the Left as well as numerous pieces of short fiction. He is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books and resides in Virginia with his wife.

In the second of two NWP CoLabs with Katherine Schulten of the New York Times Learning Network, four fabulous National Writing Project teachers discuss how their students responded to the editorial contest-winning argument essays. The arguments are from Student Voice, a new collection of student writing published by Norton and edited by Schulten. This show is a treasure chest of compelling and relevant student writing and discussion from inspiring teachers. Guests Katherine Schulten TaSharra Hilson, Red Mountain Writing Project Shawni McBride, Northern California Writing Project Dylan Williams, South Mississippi Writing Project Dawn Viles, Louisville Writing Project

Celebrate powerful student argument writing in this NWP Radio CoLab featuring contest-winning student arguments. Katherine Schulten—a former a high school English teacher, New York City Writing Project teacher-leader, and the editor of the New York Times Learning Network— collected one hundred essays that were winners or runners up in the New York Times Learning Network’s argument writing contest. They are published in Student Voice. Katherine talks with Tom Fox about her work at the New York Times Learning Network, the origins of the essays, and how they were selected for the book. Best of all, she reads selections that show students’ passion, reason, and style.This CoLab is the first of a two-part series. The second CoLab features Katherine talking with four NWP teachers.

Candace Fleming awarded herself the Newbery Medal in fifth grade after scraping the gold sticker off the class copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond and pasting it onto her first novel—a ten-page, ten-chapter mystery called Who Done It? She’s been collecting awards (her own, not Elizabeth George Speare’s) ever since. Today, Candace is the versatile and acclaimed author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize honored The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of the Russian Empire; Boston Globe/Horn Book Award-winning biography, The Lincolns; the bestselling picture book, Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!; the Sibert-Award-winning Giant Squid; and the beloved Boxes for Katje. She contributed the chapter on Katharine of Aragon to Fatal Throne. Candace is interviewed by Ohio Writing Project (OWP) teacher-leader Megan Rodney. Megan is a former second- and third-grade teacher, and is currently the Elementary PD Lead with OWP.

NWP leader Michael Thompson and his wife Tina Deschenie join us on NWP Radio to share two new anthologies they’ve contributed to this year. Join us for an intimate conversation and powerful poetry. Related Links The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Wet (available in November through the Montezuma Food Coalition and Sharehouse Press)

On this episode we will talk about why and how working educators should take a more active role in thinking about retirement funding. Listen in to a conversation about the relationship between underfunded pensions and school quality and climate. And learn about resources available if you want to learn more or get involved in the conversation in your school or district. Related Links Equable.org Teacher Retirement U About Equable Equable is a bipartisan nonprofit organization that works to facilitate retirement plan sustainability and income security throughout the country. Through rigorous research and analysis, Equable unlocks creative solutions to tough retirement plan problems.

Join Writing Project colleagues and educators associated with the National Geographic Educator Network to learn about the Geo-Inquiry process developed to support students in developing the skills, knowledge, and tools of a geographer and provide pathways for investigating, understanding, and taking action through a geographic lens. We will hear from teachers who have explored geo-inquiry with their students, feature resources available to support this process in classrooms, online, as well as outside, and explore the potential for connecting across disciplines through writing and geography. Guests Jeff Dierking, Greater Kansas City Writing Project; English teacher and Curriculum Coordinator, Raytown School District Elaine Larson, Regional Director, Midwest; National Geographic Education Carrie Nobis, Red Cedar Writing Project, science teacher, Groves High School Rich Novack, Connecticut-Fairfield Writing Project, English teacher, Fairfield Warde High School