December 18, 2017
By Arianne True, WITS Writer-in-Residence This past week, my classes focused on details – what and where they are, and putting them into our own writing. We defined details, went over senses, and totally rocked an exercise on noticing them all around us in the classroom. For practice finding details in poems, we read Ada […]
Read More
December 13, 2017
By Karen Finneyfrock, WITS Writer-in-Residence I’ve have success and fun in the classroom connecting students with poetry that feature the seasons or the weather. Each November, I bring my fifth grade classes the poem “This is a Letter” by Rebecca Dunham. Young students are especially drawn to images like “the broken confetti of late fall leaves.” […]
Read More
December 7, 2017
When we receive submissions for the Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest, each year we are reminded of the wisdom, heart, and love of language that Elaine continues to inspire in youth today. The Language Arts Department Chair at Nathan Hale High School, Elaine Wetterauer was a warm and passionate educator who impacted the lives of thousands of students, […]
Read More
December 1, 2017
Cuando Estás Conmigo Dulzura era una cosa que no tenía. Entonces, cuando abriste la puerta estaba tan feliz. Tú haces brillar la habitación. Me trajiste afuera de la tumba. Tú me enseñaste que el mundo puede ser precioso. Pero el mundo es más precioso Cuando estás conmigo. When You Are With Me Sweetness was something […]
Read More
November 29, 2017
Tomorrow, Thursday, November 30th, poet and nonfiction author Kevin Young will be presenting on his latest work, Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News, and in conversation with Seattle writer Melanie McFarland at Benaroya Hall. Tickets are just $10 as part of our 2017/18 Hinge Series, and they’re still available here or […]
Read More
November 13, 2017
Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 14th, scholar of religions Reza Aslan will give an original, multi-media presentation on his new book, God: A Human History, an interfaith exploration of how different ideas of God have both united and divided us for millennia, as part of our 2017/18 SAL Presents Series. Tickets are still available here! In anticipation of Reza’s […]
Read More
November 6, 2017
By Danny Sherrard, WITS Writer-in-Residence The subject of the exercise is identity, and I’ve heard scary stories. The idea: to bring up themes like race and gender using you (the teaching artist) as the lab rat on the first day of class. What happens is you ask, Who am I? or, What do you know about […]
Read More
October 25, 2017
You Do Not Have To Be The Moon You do not have to be the moon. You do not have to follow the sun always in its footsteps you do not have to take fleeting breaths of cold clear nothing through deep craters like gills you do not have to shed a light on those […]
Read More
October 11, 2017
All You Ever Wanted Was A Semyon To Hold After Anastacia Reneé All you ever wanted was a Semyon to hold Why do you always have to be there for your little sister? Why did you get yourself into this? Don’t you dare be transgender Don’t you dare get hurt because you care Don’t you […]
Read More
September 29, 2017
Ronica Hairston, the mother of 2016-17 Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador Joseph Hairston–whose poetry you can find here and here–generously made these warm remarks in support of Writers in the Schools at our 2016-17 WITS Anthology Launch. At this celebration, over 60 K-12 students shared the poetry, stories, comics, and memoir from the brand new WITS […]
Read More