TAKE IT TO THE STREETS
Teenagers have a lot to say and are willing to say it if they are given an outlet and opportunity to do so in a way that makes sense to them.
The average teenager writes over 2000 words a day — on Twitter, in text messages, on Facebook and Instagram; yet students complain when teachers assign them an essay or a report of this length. Have you ever been in a public school bathroom? What do you see on the walls? Do you have students who doodle song lyrics or quotes on your desks or their book covers? The fact is, teenagers have a lot to say and are willing to say it if they are given an outlet and opportunity to do so in a way that makes sense to them. There are a lot of non-traditional methods to meet your grade level writing standards that do not require a computer or a word document or loose-leaf college ruled notebook paper. Here are some examples of authentic writing experiences I’ve provided for my students. These are just a few ideas to get your students writing. Please contact me for more ideas and for detailed plans, including Ohio’s Learning Standards and rubrics. More great ideas can be found here: and also here:
Graffiti Wall: provide a space where students can write whatever they need to say, as long as it is school appropriate. The idea is to allow them to write anonymously. I cover a wall in the hall outside my classroom with butcher paper and hang a few Sharpies. You’ll be surprised at how honest, and provocative, and introspective some of the samples will be. You can limit them to great quotes from the books they are reading, song lyrics, or 6 Word Stories, just to name a few.
Where the Sidewalk Ends: for the price of a box of sidewalk chalk from the dollar store, your students can express themselves in a visually graphic way and add beauty to the community at the same time. Select a poetry form from your content standards and have students create an original work adhering to those guidelines, then take them outside and let them write on sidewalk squares with colored chalk. There are products you can purchase that will create an invisible ink effect, or a reverse image effect, using stencils and a stamping technique.
Fakebook: have students create a research project about an author. Using a simple powerpoint template, the students can include all the Who, What, Where, When, Whys that you would assign for a traditional research paper, yet allow them to present the information in the form of status updates or conversation threads. A report on Emerson, for example, would require that his “friends” are Thoreau and Alcott and Fuller so students should create imagined conversations between them.
140 Characters: start a classroom Twitter account where students can respond to the topic of the day in different poetic forms or statements.
Black-out Poetry: have students take a page from an old book in the recycle bin and black-out entire sections leaving only a few words on each line. The left-open words will create a powerful piece.
Lyrical Literacy: students love music, and even if the genre is not your favorite the messages in their favorites are just as meaningful and poetic as The Swans at Coole or any Shakespeare Sonnet. Have students re-craft their favorite lyrics into a Shakespearean, Spenserian, or Petrarchan sonnet.
Micro Poetry: students write short 1 line poems on postcards which can be mailed anonymously. This is a great way to incorporate more art into writing, as well.
Post-It Poetry: students can use bright post-it notes to jot down words and phrases and then arrange (and rearrange) them on a display in your classroom or in the hallway — for lower grades, you can color code the parts of speech (yellow = nouns; blue = verbs; pink = adjectives).
Write 3D: most teachers limit the display of student work to the walls of their classrooms. The ceiling, though, provides another fun surface for students to get creative. As part of a literature project, have your students incorporate visual literacy standards by painting an acoustic ceiling tile with a great quote or scene from a novel or a representation of a character.
Diagramming Mobiles: practice sentence diagramming by creating 3D models using string, drinking straws, popsicle sticks, and Scrabble tiles. Have students diagram 1st lines from great novels or just simple sentences. Hang the diagrams from your ceiling, or line a hallway.
Slam Poetry Debates: instead of assigning a traditional 5 paragraph persuasive essay on the need for school uniforms or the banning of cell phones, let your students present their arguments in a Slam Poetry form and have them face off against a classmate with an opposing viewpoint.
Silhouettes: Mark Twain said, “Every man is a moon and has a dark side that he never shows anyone.” Have students create their own light/dark sides using only words that they find in magazines or print ads. Hang them from the ceiling so the light and dark sides are visible. Your local librarian will be happy to provide the magazines.