Education 2.0 & 3.0

Since 2009, youth in central New York have had opportunities to participate in Writing Our Lives conferences and afterschool programs in support of the writing they do. Dr. Marcelle Haddix, originator of Writing Our Lives, and Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall, Director of Connecticut Writing Project-Fairfield, have collaborated to provide locations and opportunities for young people to ‘speak their truth’ during community events in a celebration of writing. To date, over a dozen Writing Our Lives conferences have been hosted in Central New York, southern Connecticut, and even New York City. These conferences provide workshops that are led by professional writers, youth advocates, and performers. Writing Our Lives - A History of Hosting Writing Conferences For Youth offers a history of the work and shares ideas for supporting in- and out-of-school opportunities for writing.

Librarian and maker Colleen Graves recaps a lively and learner-driven session on makerspaces and embracing making as teachers of writing at the 2016 NWP Annual Meeting.

As science teachers look to English Language Arts for help with new Common Core literacy requirements, Tanya Baker, director of national programs at the National Writing Project, looks to the science museum as a model for creating spaces to let youth tinker, explore, and persist.