WRITING FOR SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING AND WELL-BEING

Join Hudson Valley Writing Project teachers to experience powerful practices that use poetry and other forms of writing to nurture expression, create community, and empower young people and their teachers.

KEYNOTE SESSION for all participants: 

RECLAIMING POETIC FIRE:

Enacting Dignity & Justice Through Performative Critical Micropoetry

English language arts and literacy teachers know that poetry writing is a powerful way to engage young people in what the poet June Jordan calls "truth-telling." There is a rich and robust tradition in which fearless writers leverage poetry as a form of social critique to identify societal contradictions, raise consciousness, foster personal reflection, disrupt normative sensibilities, and inspire social action, unapologetically. When combined with movement, poetry becomes a highly expressive and visual form of artistic storytelling where physical motion complements intellectual thought. 

In Jevon Hunter's interactive presentation, we will use a culturally-relevant inquiry framework to learn about Performative Critical Micropoetry, a form of short verse poetry that blends physical movement with social critique, offering writers of all ages meaningful ways to engage in artistic problem-naming, problem-solving, and empowerment. We will gain new perspectives and insights about how to support youth in rewriting, reauthoring, and remaking a world governed by dignity and justice.

Jevon D. Hunter is the Woods-Beals Endowed Chair for Urban Education in the School of Education and Professor in the Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department at Buffalo State University. An award-winning author and literacy justice educator, Hunter is the co-author of "#TeenPoetsMatter: Writing Critical Micropoems as Urban Social Critiques" (2020) and is currently collaborating with NYS teachers on a book, Unapologetic Teaching, Consequential Learning!: Enacting Culturally Relevant Inquiry in English Language Arts and Literacy Classrooms, which shares how teachers are championing dignity and justice instruction and learning in the classroom.

BREAKOUT SESSIONS:  

“MOMMA, WHERE ARE YOU FROM?"

Using Mentor Texts to Express Personal Identity through Poetry

Maya Projansky, Hudson Valley Writing Project

When writers of all ages have opportunities to write from their life experience, good things happen. In the spirit of Katie Wood Ray, we will take an inquiry stance, studying a powerful mentor text by Marie Bradby before writing our own poetry. (Grades 2-12)

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL WRITING IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM

Stephanie Conte, Newburgh Free Academy West Campus

Regular, low-stakes writing engages students and supports their readiness to learn, positively influencing academic performance and the classroom culture. In this session, we will write and look at students’ writing in response to social and emotional prompts in Global II History and geography classrooms. (Grades 5-12)

DEEPENING ANALYSIS USING COMMUNITY-BASED WRITING

Alex Sokolinski, South Middle School, Newburgh

What happens to students' capacity for thinking and analysis when we ask them to write from their experiences in the classroom? In this workshop, we will participate in community-based writing as a way to analyze culturally-relevant topics and discuss ways to elevate student voices in academic analysis. (Grades 6-12)

POETIC POSSIBILITIES

Darshna Katwala, Nassau Community College

How can the lenses of joy, fragility, and the natural world heighten our ability to notice and to wonder? In this session, we will explore the complexities as well as the subtleties of language through poetry. We will read and listen to sample poetry as we contemplate and compose our own poetic drafts. (Grades 6-College)

MARCH 29, 2025| 8:30am-12:00pm | Studley Theatre, SUNY New Paltz

HVWP is a NYSED-approved sponsor of CTLE.

Certificates documenting 3 CTLE hours are available upon request.

Registration fees: $20 in advance / $25 at the door | $5 for college students 

The Hudson Valley Writing Project's 2024-25 Saturday Seminars are sponsored by

the School of Education and Campus Auxiliary Services at SUNY New Paltz.

HUDSON VALLEY WRITING PROJECT 

newpaltz.edu/hvwp | hvwp@newpaltz.edu | 845.257.2836