Nurturing Writers With Equity in Mind

Gail Boushey and Regie Routman

In the April 24, 2020, Tip of the Week, we presented six short videos where we demonstrate and discuss free-verse poetry writing as an easy and enjoyable way for all students, teachers, and families to succeed as writers. Because we are still living in uncertain and inequitable times, we decided it was important to reintroduce the series, which requires only paper and pen for writing. Now—close to the end of summer and the anxiety of an unpredictable school year—poetry writing offers a balm for the troubled soul. So we’re offering this series once again.

We have revised the order of the videos for more effective, efficient teaching. The first four show explicit thinking, teaching, and conferring. The fifth video offers multiple resources to support the process. The final video introduces both of us as teachers, writers, colleagues, and friends. Find the videos here. 

Give poetry writing with your students and children a go! You can’t do it wrong. A poem can be as short as a few words or as long as you like. The topic can be weighty, simple, serious, or humorous; it’s up to the writer. The writer gets to decide—word choice, rhythm, flow of the language, how to set the poem up on the page, to use punctuation or not, and much more. Flourishes of all kinds are possible and welcome.

Finally, we are excited to report that we will be hosting a one-hour live session, open to everyone, on August 18, 2020 at 8 p.m. ET. The topic is "Nurturing Writers with Equity in Mind". Watch the video series and join us as we begin our conversation on the power of poetry writing and how to get kids writing immediately, without stress for students and teachers.

We will do our best to respond to your questions and comments around teaching writing at the beginning of the school year. Let us know you are coming.

Please join the conversation! We look forward to chatting with you soon! 

PS. Be sure not to miss Regie’s new article 10 Actions That Put Student Writers First, just out @middleweb.

Regie Routman is a longtime educator who works side by side with teachers and administrators in underperforming schools and districts to increase and sustain reading and writing achievement and joy in learning for all students. She is the author of many books and resources, most recently Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners (Stenhouse, 2018). She can be contacted on www.regieroutman.org and on Twitter @regieroutman and Facebook @regieroutman.

Recently, Regie and her granddaughters co-wrote a resource entitled, "A Notebook for You" to jump-start student thinking with ideas for writing.  Find it here.