A very special thank you to Stacey Joy for supporting our writing lives this month. Please follow Stacey Joy on Twitter for more resources and inspiration all year long @Joyteamstars. We will see you back here on February 15-19 with Allison Berryhill. Please share the …
Inspiration Today let’s write Dramatic Monologue Poems. Sometimes people ask us to say something to our younger selves, your first-year teacher self, or your before-you-got-married self. Today’s inspiration comes from seeing a picture of me in 5th grade and remembering all the stress from being …
Inspiration Today let’s write Women Wonders poems. Although it isn’t yet Women’s History Month, I celebrate “wonder women” every day. My inspiration comes from the realities of the figurative and literal loads women carry. Process Think about the women in your life — the ones …
Inspiration Today we are writing Hot Lines poetry. Nicholson Baker shared his advice to writers: “Copy out things that you really love. Put the quotation marks around it, put the date that you’re doing the copying out, and then copy it out. You’ll find that …
Inspiration Today, we are writing Abuelito Who poems! Sandra Cisneros is today’s inspiration. Her quote spoke to me, and I have a feeling it’s inspiring more than just today’s prompt. She said, “When you have your heart broken wide, you are also open to things …
Inspiration Bop: The Bop poem form functions as a poetic argument, much like the persuasive speech we teach in speech and the argumentative essay we teach in English classes. The Bop has a distinct structure, but the refrain, I think, is the glue holding the …
Inspiration One of my favorite poems to teach is “An Echo Sonnet: To An Empty Page” by Robert Pack. (Scroll to page 2 for the complete poem.) The poem appeared on the 2011 AP Lit and Comp exam in the free-response section, tasking students with …
Inspiration Fib (Fibonacci poem): A Fib poem marries math and poetry. Gregory K. Pincus created the Fib to commemorate National Poetry Month in 2006. From that first post, a Fib movement began. Fibs are based on the Fibonacci sequence, according to this post from the …
A special thank you to Andy Schoenborn for his compassion and support during this month’s writing challenge. We so appreciate the time Andy took to develop these meaningful writing opportunities and to nurture our community. As we look toward November, please continue to invite colleagues …
Inspiration In her work, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Natalie Goldberg reminds writers that “sometimes a simple idea, such as the idea of leaving, can inspire profound writing” (p. 27). Let’s try tackling the emotion that can bubble up from the idea …