Back to School: Interview with Aly Mirasol, Young Writers Program Educator

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program helps over 85,000 kids, teens, teachers, and families set creative goals and tell stories they care about. We asked some of our amazing YWP educators to share how they take on the NaNoWriMo challenge in their classroom. Today’s advice comes from Aly Mirasol, a middle school Humanities teacher in West Seattle, Washington.

Q: What grade/ age level do you work with? What type of NaNoWriMo group is it (whole class, club, homeschool, elective, etc.)?

A: 6th-8th grade

Q: How long have you been doing NaNoWriMo with your students?

A: 2 years

Q: How do you structure the entire project (for example, do you start prepping in October and write in November, do you have kids work on it all year, etc.)?

A: We start prepping at the beginning of October, write all of November, and edit in December/January! I then send the books to be published in February and they usually arrive in March.

Q: What does a normal NaNoWriMo day look like for your students?

A: We’ll do 15 minutes of writing to start class—some instrumental music to set the tone—but since it’s a combo English/History class, we move into other curriculum after. The first and last days of November are full writing days; other than that, they’re encouraged to keep writing at home, and most of them really go for it.

Q: How do you set and manage word-count goals?

A: We have conferences at the end of October to determine individual goals. They’ll do a 15-min practice session to see how many words they can get in that time, and then we’ll look at examples of different story lengths. Halfway through the month, they have the option to change their goal if they talk to me and provide ample reasoning.

Q: How do you manage grading? Do you grade?

A: I grade based on effort—are they trying to write every day?—and then we have an editing checklist for after November. I try to keep the month itself low-stress and more about their creative process, less about worrying over a grade.

Q: How do you approach revision/ publishing (if at all)?

A: I use Barnes & Noble, which we really enjoy since the books come out looking very professional! They’ll grab an editing partner and work through formatting, grammar, etc., and I help them with that as well.

Q: Any NaNoWriMo tips or tricks to share with other educators? Hard-won lessons? Ah-ha moments?

A: We made a progress chart that the kids could opt-in for, and they really seemed to enjoy coloring their graphs each day with how much progress they made!

Q: Have you ever run into resistance from your administration about doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, how did you manage it? What do you say to people who don’t see the point of having students write novels? 

A: Luckily, no resistance. To people who question it, I just talk about the passion that comes out of it & how great it is for the kids to have the freedom to write about whatever they want and come out of the process as a published author.

Q: What are the most meaningful things you or your students take away from the project? What’s your best NaNoWriMo memory?

A: I had an 8th grader this year who I was having trouble connecting with at first– very withdrawn, quiet– but he went all-in on this project and just started to shine. Now that he’s graduated, he still emails me and is working on publishing a short story now, and we started a book club for over the summer! I just think it’s so great to see kids come into their own during this project.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: I love NaNoWriMo so, so much, and my kids do, too. Thank you for everything you do. :)

Aly Mirasol is a middle school Humanities teacher in West Seattle, Washington. Aside from all things reading and writing, they like to spend their time swimming in the ocean, coaching, playing outdoors, and relaxing with their two cats. Their current project is building a massive bookshelf to hold an ever-growing collection of books—some of which are their students’ own NaNoWriMo projects!