<p>Today’s podcast will be featuring a poem by Rhina P. Espaillat, “Weighing In.” As I read this poem, I want you to think about what love means to you. How do you express love to yourself? What would your life look like if you loved your body? Think about three things that you love about your body. Is there a difference in the way people are treated based on their weight? Do you remember the first time someone made a comment about your body size? How old were you? How did your parents/caregivers talk about bodies? Keep these ideas in mind as I read.</p>

In this series, I will be reading mentors texts and providing you and your students some quickwriting and/or discussion-based writing ideas. Writing can seem very challenging, especially to students who haven’t had a ton of practice. So, providing short, consistent and relatively low-risk opportunities to write can make all the difference in eliminating the intimidation factor that often comes with on-demand writing. I usually like my students to start our sessions by beginning with a quickwrite or, what I like to call, Writing into the Day.