“The concept of this book is brilliant! Rather than ask teachers, on top of all they already do, to learn and teach additional material about mindfulness, Bean provides a poetry-based curriculum where mindfulness and compassion are deeply integrated and woven into it. The result— writing and learning prompts that foster creativity and build better humans. I can’t wait to bring this curriculum to my daughter’s school!”
-Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness.
Write to the Core:
Inspiring Young Writers Through Mindfulness and Poetry
by Laura Bean
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Write to the Core is intended for those writing instructors who believe that students’ emotional lives are valid and welcome at school. The curriculum seamlessly integrates reading and writing tasks with mindfulness practices, so teachers with limited time can help students meet academic standards and build creative thinking skills, while at the same time fortifying their inner reserves and sense of community. Teaching self-awareness, emotional self-regulation, self-compassion and empathy not only prepares students to build more optimal relationships with themselves and their peers, but also with the craft of writing.
Each lesson is centered around a poem and includes a short, guided awareness practice, text-dependent questions, and basic and intermediate level poem-writing worksheets that replicate the structure of the original work. A brief section on current research in neuroscience and positive psychology, as well as extension activities are also included. -
Develop self-awareness, focus, and compassion
Understand and appreciate poetry as a literary art form
Recognize that their experiences and perceptions have value
Broaden their vocabulary
Develop their critical thinking skills
Enhance their creativity and writing skills
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“If there had been this kind of curriculum in the school system when I was growing up, I believe that I would have become more confident in myself a lot earlier in life.”
— Cristina da Costa Taylor, English teacher, Berkeley Adult School
We teachers only see the tip of the iceberg.
There’s so much about our students we don’t know–their home life, how they rank in the fierce social order of their peers. The Write to the Core curriculum helps us connect more authentically with our students and provides them with a creative outlet. Writing and sharing poems and stories about challenging thoughts and emotions fortifies their inner reserves and connections to others and inspires them to build their writing skills.
What is Mindful Literacy?
A visually impaired meditation teacher taught me that sometimes we see best with our internal perceptions.
At a mindfulness retreat, we were guided to close our eyes while he recited a poem from memory. In the stillness of the forest, the words bathed me in a feeling of safety and love. As an English teacher introducing mindfulness to my students,
I immediately felt the desire to share such a pure experience of poetry with my students, and use it as a jumping off place for their own creative writing.
This was the spark that ignited Mindful Literacy.
Two-thirds of students who participated in the Mindful Literacy program showed an increase in self-compassion.
40% advanced to next ELD level midyear, compared to 20% the previous year.
Following the emotional arc of the school year
The Write to the Core curriculum follows the emotional arc of the school year from the honeymoon phase in September through the disenchanting slog in the depths of November to the renewed commitment in January and the love and appreciation of post-standardized testing in May.
“I highly recommend this exquisite book for those working with middle school and high school age youth.
Laura has created a beautiful curriculum for allowing adolescents to explore the tender territory of their hearts, cultivate individual resilience and compassionate communities, while greatly enhancing their reading and writing skills.”
— Amy Saltzman, M.D., Author of Still Quiet Place for Athletes: Mindfulness Skills for Achieving Peak Performance and Finding Flow in Sports and in Life, Director of the Association for Mindfulness in Education
“The concept of this book is brilliant!
Rather than ask teachers, on top of all they already do, to learn and teach additional material about mindfulness, Bean provides a poetry-based curriculum where mindfulness and compassion are deeply integrated and woven into it. The result—writing and learning prompts that foster creativity and build better humans. I can’t wait to bring this curriculum to my daughter’s school!”
— Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and author of Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness
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