Final Update: I have recently been re-reading final student reflections from the Fall 2025 semester and I cannot emphasize enough how many students celebrate this simple classroom ritual, but I will share one student’s reflection to highlight some of its benefits:
“One of the most meaningful parts of the class to me was the writing practice. Beginning the class with the words, “My name is XXX and I am a writer from…” gave me a chance to pause and reflect. Sometimes I wrote about physical places, but other times I talked about my mental or emotional place. The simple routine helped me connect with my thoughts in a way I hadn’t before, and sharing those reflections with you and my classmates gave me confidence in my voice.”
I use this practice to take attendance, learn the names of students, and, perhaps most important of all, develop a sense of how the humans in my charge are feeling about the world, life, and their education journey which allows me to adjust both my lessons and policies as well as my own affect. But I love when students take the lesson that I most wanted them to take from a lesson or classroom practice and there is a simple reason I love repeating the mantra “I am a writer” throughout the semester – because I believe my students are writers and I want them to believe it too.
Note: I used the words final update because as I navigate the strange liminal space of my practice retirement I am considering how I will re-vision this blog and all its contains when I retire. As I practice retirement I will also venture beyond my usual rut of teaching, writing, and resting at home (rinse and repeat). Check out my third act third space to learn more about some of the ways I will jumpstart my retirement in and through writing 2026 (as well as join in my conversation about practicing retirement).
What’s Really New? Spring 2025 semester will be a strange liminal space for me as this is my final semester as a full-time employee of Morehead State University, but as part of a retirement incentive I will teach a reduced load so I will not be in the classroom writing with students as I love although I will be teaching/writing with online students and I have some Morehead Writing Project plans in mind. I keep calling this semester my practice retirement as I still have the training wheels provided by long-time connections. This week of pre-semester preparation has focused primarily on the writing invitations I will use with my students and other writing communities this semester because I have serious thoughts about the journey I want to take as a writer in community with other writers. However, as I practice retirement I will also venture beyond my usual rut of teaching, writing, and resting at home (rinse and repeat). Check out my third act third space to learn more about some of the ways I will jumpstart my retirement in and through writing 2026 (as well as join in my conversation about practicing retirement). Watch this space as I re-vision what this blog and all its contains will become when I retire. One thing definitely remains true – starting off the semester as well as each class with writing that we create and share in community is a powerful teaching and learning experience.
What’s New? Now that we are in our second week of writing the stories of our lives I love changing up our daily check-in writing ritual. Last week I shared Joseph Fasano’s Hearing Wolves Through the Dark Pines and I challenged my students to write in response to “I am a writer from the fear of…” using Fasano’s closing line for inspiration: “What have you been afraid of all your life?” That prompt launched our exploration of our origin stories. This week we are writing about the soundtracks of our lives and so I opened class with Kalki Koechlin’s Noise and asked students to write in response to “I am a writer from (what is noisy in your world right now).” I loved the variation in responses because (thanks to the combination of our long experience with this ritual and Koechlin’s inspiration) some students wrote about the actual noise in their world while others wrote about the noise in their head. I can’t wait to see the artifacts students create inspired by these mentor texts.
Original: The National Writing Project has a long standing practice to write into the day. Every in-person summer institute I have ever been a part of began the day with this practice. Many writing project events, such as Write Across America, also often begin with the leader inviting participants to write into the gathering. As a National Writing Project teacher focused on inviting my students into a writing community I have long been a fan of the bell ringer. While I have often advised teachers to take care to handcraft icebreakers and bell ringers, the number one tip I want to share before the new school year kicks off is to create a ritual that invites your students to feel like a writer and support the creation of a community of writers. As Mike Kaechele notes, class rituals have power.
As a teacher who has witnessed the power of a classroom writing ritual for the past two years I cannot recommend this practice enough. My ritual is simple: I ask my students to write this sentence stem into their notebooks and then respond in writing for just a few minutes:
My name is ____ and I am a writer from…
Borrowed from Richard Louth, founder of the New Orleans Writing Marathon and Director of the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project
We then go around the room beginning with me: My name is Deanna and I am a writer from… Students can simply share their completed sentence or more of their writing as they choose. This simple process is how I take attendance and offers me the ability to take a quick check of student mood and well-being but the ritual is so much more.
This writing ritual is the first collective action of our class and clearly establishes that writing is the priority. The ritual repetition of both writing and stating “I am a writer” many times over the course of the semester has power. The ritual sharing of our writing also has power as it makes clear that student writing is valued and celebrated in this classroom. Class rituals have power and this is definitely a ritual you want if you are interested in making writers and creating a community of writers.
I actually had zero interest in changing this practice for the coming year, but a recent conversation with some amazing National Writing Project teacher leaders has me reconsidering my ritual question.
During the Write Across America stop in Connecticut hosted by Rich Novack (a big proponent of place-based writing and NWP’s Write Out), we began writing to this question:
I made a note of this question because I thought it was such a powerful writing prompt and one I knew I could use with my students and writing groups in the future. I love recognizing and encouraging emerging writers to contemplate and explore their unique journey. So much of our writing focuses on this journey (because authentic writing and PBL are awesome) that I like the idea of leaning into this question.
Write Across America facilitator and writing marathon expert Kelly Sassi noted that she likes to use:
I am the kind of writer who…
That question connects powerfully with my emphasis on authentic writing and focus on audience awareness. Throughout my classes I constantly challenge my students to think about their audience but also to think about who they are as a writer. Even if I don’t use this question as our opening ritual it is certainly one I will use for reflection.
Many writers engage in the simple practice of considering how their day is going and reflecting on their best and worst moments.
What question can you ask as part of your writing ritual?
