What is the NaNoWriMo Young Writers’ Program all about? Program Director Tavia Stewart-Streit shares portions of their inspiring manifesto right here:
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this month?
Are your students?
I’m in! So are the writers of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio. We’re connecting around this inside of our ning and hoping to support each other along the way. If you are a member and want to participate, head over there and join our group. Need some [...]
At NYSEC last week, I had the good fortune to drop into Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski’s session. Listening to these men speak to the joy they were able to reclaim for themselves as they worked on a project that made them feel 13 again was beyond inspiring. I took away something much more important [...]
I was introduced to peer review many years ago, when I first began seeking feedback on my own writing. The protocol we used was a lot less formal than the peer review we currently participate in at Communities for Learning though, and as a result, I don’t feel it was nearly as effective. Many people [...]
Harnessing the enthusiasm that many young writers generate during prewriting and helping them navigate the transition that turns that energy into writing they feel really good about can be tricky. Each time I’ve led a workshop or a Studio session, all of the excitement that kids have for their new project often begins to evaporate [...]
Nancie Atwell was the first person to influence my thinking about the power of writing workshop. It wasn’t until I began college myself that the whole notion of a writing territories list began to take shape inside my writer-mind. I can still remember how odd it felt to tote around my first list of budding [...]
Friday marked the final day of our summer Studio sessions, and I am still basking in the glow of two great weeks with incredible kids, teachers, administrators, and parents! Ironically, it’s when I have little time for blogging that I seem to have the most to share, and while I haven’t been able to capture [...]
Identifying and nurturing future teachers of writing is one of the greater pursuits of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio. To that end, we’ve created internship opportunities for veteran fellows who are in high school and interested in pursuing a career in education or writing. We’ve also opened assistantships to veteran fellows who are in middle [...]
Tomorrow, we begin another week of Studio summer sessions at Daemen. When writers and teachers first join us, some assume that our program is much like a day-camp for writers. It isn’t until they begin connecting with others and immersing themselves in their collaborative and individual projects that they begin to realize how very different [...]
We’ve been exploring the ways in which writers draw upon the Dispositions of Practice to improve their process and their craft in Studio this week. This morning’s crew participated in a collaborative writing activity that led to some meaningful discoveries about what can happen when we step back and let kids think, write, and problem [...]
