Free Writing and the Poetic Power of Translanguaging

Free Write is a creative space for educators to connect, generate ideas, and share inspiration through writing. This session is an opportunity to experience Free Write--a monthly, online workshop--live and in-person! The form in focus: Translanguaging poetry!

Translanguaging is the natural way bi/multilingual people use all their language practices fluidly to communicate, make meaning, and express themselves--mixing languages and language features rather than keeping them strictly separated. Translanguaging poetry can open the door for powerful exploration of bilingual experience and community, potent metalinguistic conversations, and deep development of literacy--leveraging every communicative asset to enhance what we can do in English Language Arts.

The session is intended to deepen educators’ own understanding of bilingual experiences and identity, invite reflection on linguistic equity in curriculum, and amplify teacher’s repertoire of translanguaging/poetry strategies that can be used practically in many grade levels, content areas, and interdisciplinary settings

In this session we will

• Explore various examples of translanguaging in poetry and reflect on poetic forms as a way to represent the bilingual experience and express bilingual ways of knowing
• Examine translanguaging poetry to prompt our own thinking/writing and imagine how this form might apply in the context of our own culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms and learning communities
• Engage in writing, reading aloud, discussion, and storytelling together
• Emerge with insights and ideas from the community writing experience to feed our teacher spirit and refresh our practice
• Enjoy a curated collection of resources to engage students in experiencing and creating translanguaging poetry