Kentucky expected students to write in every subject area across every grade. Teachers were held accountable for making students write in multiple genres for a wide variety of audiences. I saw the power this had on student agency, and passionately loved the incredible writing my high schools students submitted. Support for writing instruction was embedded in school-wide PD, Kentucky Writing Project support, and district leadership. It was an amazing, and a fortunate time at a particular location in history. It was there I was touched by the intellectual and professional investment of the National Writing Project. The summer as a Louisville Writing Project changed my life for the better. Finally, an organization in support of teachers, an investment in the expertise of teachers, and an intent on promoting research-based writing instruction. The liaison between the University of Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools was awe-inspiring. And lucky, because time would erase such support and investment as we knew it. When I saw portfolio assessment voted out, I knew it was an end for me in the bluegrass state. I moved to Kentucky because I believed in the power of writing within diverse spaces. Writing empowers. When it was taken away, I went on for a doctorate to ask more questions about writing instruction.
Fast forward another 15 years (this is my 31st year in education). I direct a National Writing Project site at Fairfield University, I did a doctorate on the writing of 8 African-born refugee-background male youth in and out of school, and I followed the pathways towards Assistant to Associate with tenure to Full Professor. The work, of course: service, teaching, research, and leadership all center around National Writing Project traditions.
I write, because I believe writing 'rights' the word and the world. I could throw citations in here (you should recognize Freire), but that is not why I'm reflecting now. For the past 15 years at Fairfield University, I've loved celebrating NCTE's National Day on Writing. Coupled with National Writing Project's Write Out, I get several more days to think about place, location, nature, and how the local influence the human being I am. Tonight, Dr. Richard Novack will lead undergraduate and graduate students on campus for an hour of writing outside. At 7 p.m., I am fortunate to interview (well, host) this years 2026 Write Out - Write Where We Stand Ambassador Grant Snider. His artistic work with comic sensibility has become one of the greatest tools for working in K-12 schools with writers. Block by block, his brilliance demonstrates the ways that writers (artists/illustrators) organize their thinking. Yes, the ways that thinking is developed varies by the multiple ways humans use to communicate. That is what teaching is for.
Yesterday morning, NWP offered a Grant Snider prompt to try a poetic haiku in comic book form. Knowing my time for drawing was limited, I used digital literacy skills (and Apples Pages) to cheat with photographs instead (the photo that goes with this post). I woke up yesterday reading reports of fallstreak holes in the sky (a fascinating phenomenon I didn't know about) and I was deep in a rabbit hole when I got the Snider prompt. It allowed me to think in verse (and visuals) to do the 5/7/5. The night before a friend gifted me a 'Crandle' she found at a store and I loved the pun immediately. It is a candle that smells really good - perfect for the cranberry-esque holidays ahead.
So, on the National Day on Writing and with Write Out - Write Where We Stand I have my 17 syllables: with eyes wide open / rabbit runs through fall streak holes / to light the Crandall. Yep, it's the perfect way to capture this special day.
Happy Birthday Abu & Lossine! Love that it always falls on the 20th. "Why you always asking so many questions about writing?"
