NWP Radio

This podcast describes an 8-week joint class project between Nebraska Writing Project teacher-leader Cara Morgenson’s Thematic Issues course for level three English Language Learners at Lincoln High School, Dr. Robert Brooke’s college junior Uses of Literacy students, and Homestead National Monument of America. The project focused on immigration issues in Lincoln, Nebraska, grounded in the historical study of the Homestead Act as a “first wave” of immigration in Nebraska, Morgenson’s students’ first-person accounts of recent immigration to Lincoln, and cooperative work with four local agencies providing support for refugees: Center for People in Need, El Centro de las Americas, Asian Community and Cultural Center, and the Yazidi Cultural Center. The project is an example of the place-conscious educational principle of “spiraling out” from local to regional/national/international issues. Guests Dr. Robert Brooke, Director, Nebraska Writing Project Cara Morgenson, Doctoral Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education; former Lincoln North Star High School English Language Learners Teacher

This podcast is the first of a seven-part series that introduces the big concepts of place-conscious education as used by Nebraska Writing Project teachers. Special guest Dr. Robert Brooke, director of the Nebraska Writing Project, situates listeners to place-conscious work in Nebraska in three stages: the Rural Institute program developed 1995-2007; the online Place-Conscious Institute and the suburban inquiry team 2008-2015; and the current community engagement/literacy programs of Husker Writers and the National Parks Service partnership. Then, four main concepts of place-conscious education are explained: Active citizens as opposed to migratory education The 3-legged stool of education, community vitality, and environmental quality Spiraling out from local community to regional, national, international knowledge Watershed and commonwealth as the crucial web of interrelationships We finish with examples of two exemplar projects: the Henderson/Bradshaw school consolidation project; and the Greater Omaha schools Urban Justice Project.

In this episode of The Write Time we are honored to have Laurie Halse Anderson join us to discuss writing, learning, and life. She is the author of Speak, Prom, Twisted, Catalyst, Wintergirls, The Impossible Knife of Memory, and more. Laurie is interviewed by NWP teacher-leader Rebecca Marsick who has taught elementary, middle, and high school, and is currently a Secondary Literacy Coach for Westport Public Schools.

In this episode of The Write Time, Jarred Amato the co-founder of Project LIT is interviewed by Connecticut English teacher Sean Astle. Jarred himself is a high school English teacher in Nashville, TN and Sean Astle is an English teacher in Connecticut where he is studying how young adult literature can be used to improve the literacy practices of all readers and writers. Each episode of The Write Time provides writing prompts along with a little time to write to engage listeners.

Listen to this conversation between children's book authors and illustrators Shanda McCloskey, K-Fai Steele, Mika Song, and Ana Aranda along with Texas educator and NWP teacher-leader Katie McKay. Together, our guests will examine works-in-progress and talk about how they can support young writers in understanding authors’ craft.

About Our Guests Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Young Elites series as well as the blockbuster Legend series. She has also been an artist in the video game industry, but is now a full-time author living in Los Angeles. Rose Brock is an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University and a co-founder of the national literacy initiative, Guys Listen. She is also the editor of Hope Nation: Young Adult Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration and the author of Young Adult Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide. Amanda Haugen is a high school ELA teacher in Pensacola, Florida and a teacher-consultant with the Emerald Coast Writing Project.

In this episode of The Write Time we visit with Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, and Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee. Jeff is the recipient of the William C. Morris Award and his work has been selected as an ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults.Jeff is interviewed by Dr. Susan Densmore-James, an Associate Professor at the University of West Florida, the director of the Emerald Coast Writing Project at UWF, and is known as The Book Dealer for her work with literacy and Young Adult Literature.

National Writing Project teacher-leader Janelle Q. Bence interviews New York Times Best-selling author Erika Sánchez in our special NWP Radio series, The Write Time. Sánchez is the author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and a recent recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. Each episode of The Write Time includes writing prompts and time to write to engage listeners.

We are pleased to have Sandra Murphy and Mary Ann Smith join us for this episode of NWP Radio. They are the authors of a new book just in time for summer professional development, Writing to Make an Impact: Expanding the Vision of Writing in the Secondary Classroom. Joining Sandy and Mary Ann are two teachers who are featured in Writing to Make an Impact, Brooke Ann McWilliams, who teaches middle school in Purvis, Mississippi and Laury Fischer, a long-time high school teacher now teaching community college at Diablo Valley College in Contra Costa County in California.

NWP Radio, in partnership with the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield and Penguin Random House Books, has launched a special series called “The Write Time” where writing teachers from across the NWP Network interview young adult and children’s authors about their books, their composing processes, and writers’ craft. In this episode, we're pleased to host a discussion with author Matt de la Peña and NWP teacher-leader Tracey Flores. Matt de la Peña is a #1 New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author. He has penned six critically acclaimed YA novels, including Mexican WhiteBoy and The Living, which was a Pura Belpré Author Honor Book. Matt’s picture book Love was a #1 New York Times bestseller, and Last Stop on Market Street was awarded a Newbery Medal. Matt lives in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Tracey T. Flores is an assistant professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Flores is a former classroom teacher, working for eight years alongside culturally and linguistically diverse students, families, and communities in K-8 schools throughout Glendale and Phoenix, Arizona. Her research focuses on Latina mothers’ and daughters’ language and literacy practices, the teaching of young writers in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, and family and community literacies. You can also watch the video of the discussion on YouTube and see past episodes of The Write Time via NWP's Educator Innovator.

NWP Radio, in partnership with the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield and Penguin Random House Books, has launched a special series called “The Write Time” where writing teachers from across the NWP Network interview young adult and children’s authors about their books, their composing processes, and writers’ craft. For this episode, our guests include Nic Stone, an Atlanta native and Spelman College graduate, and Connecticut educator Kim Herzog, a member of CWP-Fairfield. Nic Stone’s debut novel for young adults, Dear Martin, and her debut middle-grade novel, Clean Getaway, were both New York Times bestsellers. In this episode, Nic Stone and Kim Herzog are joined by Kristin Shultz, Penguin Random House, and hosts Tanya Baker from the National Writing Project and Bryan Ripley Crandall from CWP-Fairfield. You can watch the interview with Nic and Kim on the NWP YouTube channel.

We were so fortunate to have the one and only Gene Luen Yang with us to discuss his new graphic novel, Dragon Hoops. He was joined by Bryan Ripley Crandall, Director of CWP-Fairfield; Mark Crandall, Founder of Hoops4Hope; and teachers Abu Bility and William King. Kids are home. Teachers are home. Parents are home. We thought it would be a perfect opportunity to #StepForward with an incredible new young adult novel.

What is possible when youth are asked to engage in the discourse about what is meant by “adolescence”? Our May reading for Marginal Syllabus describes what happens when educators and youth partner together to explore historically situated views of adolescence. This article by Sophia Sarigianides details the ways in which one educator helped familiarize students with the genealogy of adolescence, understand the ways that discourses around adolescents/adolescence function in the world, question the implications of these discourses for themselves and their peers, and explore the possibilities for performance and taking action. Guests Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Professor & Coordinator of Secondary English, Westfield State University Cherise McBride, Ph.D. Student, University of California, Berkeley Christina Cantrill, Associate Director of National Programs, National Writing Project Remi Kalir, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado at Denver; Co-Founder, Marginal Syllabus Related Links "Performative Youth: The Literacy Possibilities of De-essentializing Adolescence"

Join us for an interview with Liz Prather, teacher-consultant at the Morehead State Writing Project, and author of Story Matters. We’ll talk about why narrative matters, how it works in informational and argumentative writing, and how to support students to write it better.

Join us for a conversation with Richard Koch and Elizabethe Dutro, to discuss their recent publications, The Mindful Writing Workshop and The Vulnerable Heart of Literacy. We will discuss literacy teaching that is informed by and mindful of the stress and trauma in all of our lives. Guests Elizabeth Dutro, Professor and Chair of Literacy Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder Richard Koch, Professor of English Emeritus, Adrian College, Michigan Related Links The Mindful Writing Workshop: Teaching in the Age of Stress and Trauma The Vulnerable Heart of Literacy

This author discussion features Sakeena Everett, Andrea Zellner, Anna Smith, Sam Reed, Joe Dillon, and Remi Kalir. The piece being discussed, "'Untold Stories': Cultivating Consequential Writing with a Black Male Student through a Critical Approach to Metaphor," shares Sakeena Everett’s work learning alongside a student in a summer program called “We Choose to Learn.” This university-based program was designed to prepare high school students of color—like her student Shawn—for college, and to engage them in learning opportunities that also drew upon their career interests in education. This rich ethnographic account calls attention to the way in which Everett supported Shawn to develop writing that lead him toward action against inequity. Read more at NWP's Educator Innovator.

Join NWP Radio to learn about NCTE’s Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL) and their annual conference. Our guests include Bruce Novak, the conference organizer; Mary Rose O’Reilley, this year’s keynote speaker; and Jeff Wilhem, director of the Boise State Writing Project. This year’s conference, “The Art of Encounter in Teaching and Learning,” will take place in Colorado, June 25-28, and there is a discount for NWP teacher-leaders. Guests Bruce Novak, Conference Organizer and Education Task Force Coordinator, Foundation for Ethics and Meaning Mary Rose O'Reilley, Professor Emerita of English, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota Jeff Wilhelm, Director, Boise State Writing Project Tanya Baker (Host), Director of National Programs, National Writing Project Related Links Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning The Peaceable Classroom Radical Presence Planning Powerful Instruction Teaching Literacy for Love and Wisdom