Over the years, one of the questions I have been asked most often is, “Who are your favorite poets?” I never know quite how to answer because my answer changes with the seasons. Some poets stay beside me for years. Others arrive when I need …
Year and Review
Last week, while I was on sabbatical and thousands of miles from home, I opened my email to find one of the lovely “Reply All” messages from the Ethical ELA community. A month earlier, we had gathered virtually and asynchronously to celebrate StaceyJoy, a California …
Free Summer Writing Renewal PD for Literacy Educators and Writers
JUST WORDS: A Gentle Workshop for Writing for Young Readers Recharge Your Writing Life Through Children’s Literature, Creativity, and Community Online • Free • Open to Educators, Writers, and Anyone Curious About Writing for Young Readers Looking for a different kind of summer professional development? …
VerseLove Closing Invitation
Congratulations! Look what we’ve made together. This month’s writing has been held in generous company. We are deeply grateful to the hosts who offered their time, creativity, and care—opening space for us to think, write, and listen together. These are humble people who ask for …
Look Around—Here Is a Poem!
Welcome.VerseLove is Ethical ELA’s celebration of National Poetry Month each April—an invitation to write, read, and reflect together. New to VerseLove? Learn more: https://www.ethicalela.com/verselove Our Host: Leilya Pitre Leilya lives in Ponchatoula, LA, a small town celebrated for its strawberries and kind, generous people. She …
VerseLove Opening Invitation
Landscapes of Our Lives Every April, VerseLove becomes a landscape—thirty days of poems written across classrooms, kitchen tables, notebooks, and glowing screens around the world. I am Sarah Donovan, founding collaborator of Ethical ELA and Verselove, and we’ve been writing poetry every April since 2017. …
Before We Begin: The People Holding VerseLove
As we prepare to step into the 30-day journey of VerseLove 2026, it feels important to pause here, before the first prompt is posted, before the first lines are written, and consider the people who are holding this space. Because VerseLove does not simply happen. …
Teaching the Weight of Words
Writing as Ethical Witness During Genocide Remembrance Month Each April, Genocide Remembrance Month invites us to pause and remember histories of violence that too often fade into abstraction or silence. Several major genocides have key anniversaries in April—the Armenian Genocide beginning April 24, 1915, the …
It’s VerseLove!
Dear Ethical ELA community, April is just around the corner, which means it’s time to begin preparing for one of our favorite traditions: #VerseLove, our month-long celebration of poetry and community writing. Each April, we gather as writers, readers, and witnesses to poems. Some of …
Rethinking the March Madness Poetry Bracket
A Humanizing Approach Using Living, Open-Access Poems Each March, many classrooms fill with brackets. Inspired by the energy of the basketball tournament, teachers invite students to read poems head-to-head and vote for their favorites. The structure is familiar and playful. It gives shape to the …