About

InsideOut Literary Arts Project places professional creative writers as teachers and mentors in schools to engage K-12 students in the pleasure and power of poetry and literary self-expression. InsideOut uses innovative classroom techniques and celebrates students’ creativity by providing performance opportunities and publishing their work.

Core beliefs and convictions:
-The teaching of self-expression through poetry empowers and transforms people’s lives.
-Creativity exists in every individual and every individual’s story deserves to be told.
- Nurturing an individual’s creativity benefits society as a whole.
-Exposure to poetry and creative writing inspires broader intellectual curiosity.
-Every student is worthy of experiencing self-expression through the literary arts.
-Participation in the literary arts gives students a voice that transcends geographic and socioeconomic barriers.
-When students’ creativity is publicly celebrated, their self-esteem and confidence are greatly enhanced.
-Participation in a writing class helps students learn to know and appreciate one another’s differences and similarities.

Within the classroom, children:
-Enjoy the power of reading and writing
-Learn basic literacy skills
-Enhance critical and analytical abilities
-Exercise their creativity, imagination, and originality
-Engage in an individual dialogue with the writer-in-residence
-Become active members of a community of writers
-Revise and edit their stories and poems in preparation for publication
-Evaluate and celebrate their accomplishments over the course of the 25-week residency

Through this program, the teachers:
-Expand their approaches to teaching writing through observing and participating in InsideOut classroom activities
-Gain confidence as writers themselves
-Gain personal understanding of the subtleties of writing and being a sponsoring teacher through Teacher Writing Workshops
-Form strong ties to like-minded teachers to provide support and share discoveries.