Write to the Core: Inspiring Writers Through Mindfulness and Poetry

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.

Laura Bean has an MFA in Creative Writing and spent ten years practicing meditation and teaching writing at the college level in Kyoto, Japan. Her work has been featured at a mindful youth conference sponsored by the Center for Mindfulness at UC San Diego, in UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Magazine, and mostly recently, in the Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully (COSEM) anthology entitled Educating Mindfully: Stories of School Transformation Through Mindfulness.