WriteOn NYC! is a New School Funded Fellowship program providing MFA students high quality teaching experience in area middle schools and high schools. Our fellows receive intense, supportive pedagogical training, allowing them to design their own curricula and readying them to teach literature and creative writing classes to eager young New Yorkers.
FAQ
WriteOn Fellows, working in pairs, develop a semester-long theme, and teach weekly classes. They introduce representative literary role models and craft techniques to help unleash the poet, essayist or fiction writer within. Helping kids find their voice improves not only their ability to succeed in school, but their social and personal well-being. At the semester’s end, WriteOn Fellows host a reading celebrating the students and their families at The New School (since the onset of Covid, this reading has moved to a hybrid and/or virtual format). To prepare for this reading, WriteOn Fellows encourage and develop students’ public speaking skills.
The students may be from the High School of Economics & Finance, St. Benedict’s Prep, or the middle school boys of George Jackson Academy. They are motivated young writers who are eager to discuss and write poetry, fiction, nonfiction, YA, and writing for children!
In the pedagogy class, the Fellows will be introduced to best teaching practices, philosophies, and strategies to build an equalizing classroom. Fellows workshop lesson plans together in a supportive environment. The pedagogy class is led by former WriteOn Teaching Fellow and current Associate Director grace shields. Fellows will also receive five complimentary one-on-one coaching sessions through Daily Coaching LLC. We also encourage all WriteOn Fellows to enroll in Laura Cronk’s Teaching of Writing.
Rising second and third year MFA Candidates at the new school are eligible. You are a passionate, engaged student who thinks out-of-the-box. No teaching experience is required. Knowledge of contemporary, diverse writers is, of course, a plus. Teaching Fellows must be available once a week in the semester they teach. They will be expected to attend all WriteOn NYC!-related events. There will also be opportunities for Fellows to gain experience in non-profit strategy, marketing, and fundraising.
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A 500-word statement of interest. You may highlight your past experience or interest in teaching.
Be sure to mention texts you might use in class, what kind of co-teacher you would best work with, and what genres or concepts you would feel comfortable teaching (as well as those that might be a challenge!). Please indicate your preference for high school or middle school. -
Please provide a 500 word teaching statement in which you discuss how you might teach one
specific text and develop a writing prompt based on the writerly techniques used in that text.
Questions that you may wish to address in your statement include your target goal for the lesson, what kind of context you will provide for student writing, how you will structure the discussion, and what supplemental materials you might use. Consider the age of the students when selecting your text. -
A resume or CV.