In this episode, we set the mood for the 2015 National Day on Writing (NDOW) by talking to members of our Writers Council about their current projects, their writing process, and what inspires them to keep writing.

A broad panel of teacher-leaders from NWP's College-Ready Writers Program talked about how they integrate regular—often informal—opportunities for their middle and high school students to practice reading and writing skills that build capacity and stamina for writing arguments.

We talked with Sandra Murphy and Mary Ann Smith, authors of the book, Uncommonly Good Ideas: Teaching Writing in the Common Core Era (a co-publication of NWP and Teachers College Press), and high school English teacher Brendan Nelson about research-based best practices, including practices that ease students from one kind of writing (narrative) to another (argument).

We spoke to authors who contributed essays to Jane Addams in the Classroom about how Addam's life, work, and philosophy provide ongoing relevance in today's classrooms and Writing Project sites. Listen to the recording and view resources from the show.

On this show, we spoke to guests from the St. Paul Public Library, the Science Museum of Virginia, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston about the YOUmedia Network and how it has changed staff and teen learning in their spaces.

The National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program Leadership Team gathered in St. Louis for the group's Summer Partnership Institute. Live from the institute, they share resources for teaching argument writing from non-fiction texts that have engaged secondary students across the country in considering multiple perspectives as they craft thoughtful arguments.

The National Writing Project is joined by educators who engaged in previous CLMOOCs to discuss and reflect on their journeys in making, remaking, remixing, hacking, and playing and how they've used these tools as resources in their teaching practice and in their personal lives.

Directors from NWP and the Connecticut Writing Project-Fairfield, lead a conversation with Kwame Alexander, the 2015 Newbery Medal winner, about how his work inspired teachers and students at a high-needs partner school to write across disciplines.

In this episode, hear the story of the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project's new design for an advanced summer institute. Guests Richard Louth, Kim Stafford, Susan Martens, and Tracy Cunningham discuss what to expect at the writing retreat in July (2015), "Writing in Good Company in New Orleans."

Each year, five National Student Poets are chosen from a pool of outstanding writers, grades 9-11, who have received a national Scholastic Art & Writing Award for poetry. In this episode we celebrate National Poetry Month with a conversation and some poetry reading with the 2015 National Student Poets.