It’s hard to believe that Teachers Write wraps up this week! Today, we’re talking about one of the things that makes a poem different from prose — the way it looks on the page. Mentor poet Margarita Engle joins us for a mini-lesson on line breaks. The Power of Line Breaks in Free Verse Line…
Reading aloud is a great way to revise a poem, listening for the magic. The sounds that make a line sing. As today’s mentor poet Nikki Grimes tells us, poetic devices such as alliteration and assonance help to create that magic. Tiny Tricks to Make Your Writing Sing Using words with the same letter or sound…
One of the great things about being part of a writing community is that we’re constantly learning from one another. Today mentor poet Rajani LaRocca shares a challenge that’s all about how putting constraints on our writing can spark creativity — an exercise she learned about in a workshop with award-winning author K.A. Holt. Say…
This week, we turn our attention from poetic forms to subjects. Mentor poet Rajani LaRocca joins us with a challenge to write about names. What’s in a Name? Names are important in the real world and in fiction. When I write, I do a lot of research when I’m trying to choose character names. In…
Welcome back to Haiku Week at Teachers Write! Today, mentor poet Loree Griffin Burns shares her own haiku experience and offers up a writing challenge with lots of bonus resources to explore! Finding Haikus My haiku journey began in the summer, near a beach in Rhode Island. Not on the beach,because it was raining there…
Welcome back to Teachers Write, friends! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to write. This week, we’ll be focusing on haiku, a form many of us learned in grade school, but now it’s time to take our three-line poems to another level. Mentor poet Joseph Bruchac joins us for today’s mini-lesson! …
Welcome back, campers! Did you get a chance to play around with a found poem or two after Monday’s post? If not, no worries – you can return to earlier posts any time throughout the summer and beyond. Today, mentor poet Laura Ruby joins us with another challenge to experiment with poetic forms. Hermit Crabs and…
Welcome to Teachers Write 2023! It’s day one of our online summer writing camp, and whether you’re new to Teachers Write or a returning camper who’s been writing with us for years, I’m so glad that you’re here, that you’re making a commitment to write this summer. For yourself and for your students, who always…
Happy Summer, friends! Our new session of Teachers Write begins on Monday, and I couldn’t be more excited about the summer of writing that’s in store. Our focus this year is Poetry and Play. I’ll be kicking off the summer with a mini-lesson on found poems that includes a sneak-preview excerpt from my current…
Happy Summer, friends! It’s time for another summer of Teachers Write, our free, online summer writing camp especially for teachers & librarians. If you haven’t already registered, you can sign up here. Once that’s done, just pull up an Adirondack chair and join us with your notebook or laptop! Teachers Write begins on July 10th.…
