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Keys to Inspiration: A Teacher’s Guide to a Student-Centered Writing Program

Tenets:
- Emotion and Inspiration are one and the same. When students trust themselves to write from the heart, they freely express their truth.
- Edward Albee said, “I write to find out what I’m thinking about,” and it’s true: Thinking leads to questioning, wondering, researching, analyzing, and synthesizing.
- Writing instruction is still too “top down.” Brenda Ueland taught us long ago that “. . . everyone has . . . something important to say.” If indeed we’re serious about placing students at the center of their learning, we need to start listening to them.
What people are saying:
- “Mr. Ford, my middle-school writing teacher, taught me to think like a writer, and as a senior English major I still consider him the most influential teacher of my writing career.”
Kirsten Slungaard, Harvard University, ’10
- “Steve Ford shows us that when students travel to their emotional center, inspiration follows and they write. Buckle up as he takes us on a genre-writing journey, entertaining us along the way!”
Judith Mitzuk, literacy coach, St. Paul Public Schools