Opportunities and Resources for Teachers
Writing Our Hope is an online project committed to publishing works of creative nonfiction written by young people on the themes of hope, tolerance, and equality. The web project follows the August 2007 publication of Our Hope: Writings and Photographs on Tolerance and Equality by creative writing students at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School in Montgomery, Alabama.
Call for submissions
Writing Our Hope now accepts submissions from teachers and professors of bodies of work by their students, produced in the framework of a lesson that fits our themes, for publication as a supplement. See Supplement One: Point Loma High School for an example.
Check out our Bibliography page.
A Message to High School Teachers:
How can I do this with my students? How does this fit in with my curriculum and testing standards? You might be looking at Writing Our Hope and asking yourself these questions. The answer lies in the teaching of writing.
I agree with the NCTE standards that endorse the idea that writing and thinking are inextricably linked. A piece of coherent writing is clear, because it is well thought-out. Grammar's rules follow a distinct logic. Writing that has imagery, metaphors, and other literary devices displays the ability to use higher-order thinking skills. By conducting a lesson that utilizes Writing Our Hope, you will have a writing lesson that is rooted in higher-order thinking skills: how do you bring an abstraction, like tolerance or equality or hope, into reality by writing about it?
Assigning students to write a creative nonfiction work for Writing Our Hope is not only a worthwhile endeavor because students should seriously consider these very real issues in our modern diverse culture, it can also be a good practice for your state's Direct Assessment of Writing. Because many states now administer this test, writing an organized work of nonfiction on a particular topic is a fundamental skill in our current education systems, which require constant standardized testing. Many of these writing tests offer students a series of prompts, of which they choose one, and they must write an essay on the topic, something very similar to what a lesson plan for Writing Our Hope would teach them to do. (Likewise, upperclassmen who will be writing essays for college admissions and scholarship applications needs these skills, too.)
Please consider having your students take part in this project by writing and submitting their essays to the student editors of Writing Our Hope. Our goal is to publish as many works as we can, as many ideas as we can, as many teenagers as we can. But your participation is the only way that can happen.
-- Foster Dickson
If you are having trouble thinking of prompts or topics, consider using any of these: (Remember to encourage a hopeful tone in their writings.)
Discuss a stereotype that you think is unfair. Why? Have you been stereotyped?
Why is it important to speak out when you see or hear something that you know is wrong?
What does the phrase "No Child Left Behind" mean to you?
If you had to call yourself one of these, which would it be? Victim, Bystander, Perpetrator, Rescuer. (This one comes from Holocaust studies.)
How does being bilingual bring about greater equality?
Is there equality in which stories receive attention from the national media?
Did Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami in southeast Asia teach you anything about equality?
After the Holocaust, the world regretted not taking action sooner. Will we have the same regrets about the genocide in Darfur?
Why was the renewal of the Civil Rights Act in summer of 2006 so controversial?
The Holocaust was a choice, not an accident. How do we avoid it in the future?
Read and comment on the poem "Ballad of the Landlord." Does that still happen today?
After Pearl Harbor, Americans' views of Japanese people changed and they were treated unfairly because of it. How did 9/11 change how Americans perceive and treat Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent?
Is the Civil Rights movement over, or is it still going on?
Is the "green" movement in America a progression toward equality? How are the environmental conditions different in low-income neighborhoods, middle-class neighborhoods, and wealthy neighborhoods?
Is it important for healthy, organic foods to be affordable and available to all people?
Do all people have the same "family values"? What are your "family values"?
What do you hope that the U.S. military will do about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy?
Send questions or inquiries to BTW Creative Writing teacher Foster Dickson by e-mail: foster.dickson[at]mps.k12.al.us.
Writing Our Hope is an online project committed to publishing works of creative nonfiction written by young people on the themes of hope, tolerance, and equality. The web project follows the August 2007 publication of Our Hope: Writings and Photographs on Tolerance and Equality by creative writing students at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School in Montgomery, Alabama.
Call for submissions
Writing Our Hope now accepts submissions from teachers and professors of bodies of work by their students, produced in the framework of a lesson that fits our themes, for publication as a supplement. See Supplement One: Point Loma High School for an example.
Check out our Bibliography page.
A Message to High School Teachers:
How can I do this with my students? How does this fit in with my curriculum and testing standards? You might be looking at Writing Our Hope and asking yourself these questions. The answer lies in the teaching of writing.
I agree with the NCTE standards that endorse the idea that writing and thinking are inextricably linked. A piece of coherent writing is clear, because it is well thought-out. Grammar's rules follow a distinct logic. Writing that has imagery, metaphors, and other literary devices displays the ability to use higher-order thinking skills. By conducting a lesson that utilizes Writing Our Hope, you will have a writing lesson that is rooted in higher-order thinking skills: how do you bring an abstraction, like tolerance or equality or hope, into reality by writing about it?
Assigning students to write a creative nonfiction work for Writing Our Hope is not only a worthwhile endeavor because students should seriously consider these very real issues in our modern diverse culture, it can also be a good practice for your state's Direct Assessment of Writing. Because many states now administer this test, writing an organized work of nonfiction on a particular topic is a fundamental skill in our current education systems, which require constant standardized testing. Many of these writing tests offer students a series of prompts, of which they choose one, and they must write an essay on the topic, something very similar to what a lesson plan for Writing Our Hope would teach them to do. (Likewise, upperclassmen who will be writing essays for college admissions and scholarship applications needs these skills, too.)
Please consider having your students take part in this project by writing and submitting their essays to the student editors of Writing Our Hope. Our goal is to publish as many works as we can, as many ideas as we can, as many teenagers as we can. But your participation is the only way that can happen.
-- Foster Dickson
If you are having trouble thinking of prompts or topics, consider using any of these: (Remember to encourage a hopeful tone in their writings.)
Send questions or inquiries to BTW Creative Writing teacher Foster Dickson by e-mail: foster.dickson[at]mps.k12.al.us.