NWP Radio

For this conversation, we are joined by Bronwyn Clare LaMay, author of Personal Narrative, Revised: Writing Love and Agency in the High School Classroom (2016, Teachers College Press and National Writing Project). Guests explore how students and teachers can bring their whole selves to the classroom and how drawing on their personal experiences via narrative writing can lead to a richer exploration of literature and other academic subjects. We dive deeper into Chapter 5 of the book, titled "Revising Narrative Truth," in collaboration with the organizers of Marginal Syllabus; this conversation kicked off a week-long “annotathon” hosted by Marginal Syllabus.

Join Kim Jaxon, Tom Fox, and writing mentors, Brittany DeLacy and Geoff Bogan, as they explain, theorize, and discuss why large, epic learning spaces are not only just as good, but perhaps even better learning environments than smaller courses. We offer two examples—a large, freshman composition course and a large scale writing program—to argue the affordances of designing for epic learning environments.

Recognizing that teacher leadership has become a hot educational topic, and that many organizations are working to grow and foster it and to put it to work to improve teaching and learning, the National Writing Project hosts this conversation with leaders from three teacher leadership development organizations in order to explore key questions about teacher leadership: what is it? How is it fostered? And what good does it do in the world?

In today’s world, how do we best build and maintain democratic societies that are pluralistic, open, and resilient to violence? What can we learn from history to help us in this inquiry? Join staff and teachers of Facing History and Ourselves in a conversation about lessons for democracy today from a case study on the Holocaust.

Last month, in an Educator Innovator webinar titled “Growing Up American-Muslim: Challenges and Opportunities in the Classroom & Beyond,” teachers and youth convened to discuss the experiences of American-Muslim students and teachers across geographic and educational contexts. In this webinar we are joined by authors of By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism (2016, NYU Press) and dive deeper into this topic by looking at a related chapter called “Storytelling and Surveillance: The Precarious Public of American Muslim Youth.”

The term “fake news” has been dominating the media, but what does it mean and why does it matter for youth? In this interactive webinar, experts from The LAMP, a nationally-recognized leader in media literacy education, breaks down key terms and ideas for understanding “fake news” with basic media literacy principles. We also introduce some free tools and activities that educators can use to help students deconstruct and critique “fake news” stories in the media.

We live in contentious and divisive times that have affected specific communities in very real ways. In particular, rampant stereotyping of Muslims in the United States today, coupled with surveillance and privacy concerns, have the power to paralyze, damage and isolate young American Muslim in classroom settings. Inadequate understanding of Islam also makes it difficult for educators to help students move past such stereotyping in productive ways. In this webinar, educators, scholars and students convene to discuss the experiences of American Muslim students and teachers inside and out of the classroom. Participants will consider the impact of Islamophobia, how—and if—to tackle politics in the classroom, how to create safe spaces for students from all backgrounds, and ways to support diverse learning.

Did you love Letters to the Next President? Are you looking for ways to keep students energized about issues that matter to them? Join us for a discussion with educators who are using the first 100 days of the new administration to continue (and start!) conversations, projects and civic action around issues important to students. The first 100 days goes through the end of April, so there’s plenty of time to get inspired.

How can you engage teens to be Changemakers? KidsTales.org, a nonprofit founded by a kid for kids, presents their changemaking story and explores how to create, engage, and sustain teen changemakers. Kidstales.org brings creative writing workshops, taught by teen instructors, to 8 to 12 year old kids that do not have access to writing experiences outside of school. During a Kids Tales workshop, kids spend a week creating their very own short story. At the end of the week, the stories are assembled in a collection and self-published as a real, physical anthology. This past summer Kids Tales taught workshops in five countries, serving 400 kids and engaging 100 teen writing instructors.

This webinar highlights strategies for representing multiple perspectives and addressing difficult topics, and discusses criteria for selecting and using primary sources in instruction, including thinking about audience, historical context, and point of view.