“changing the world for girls through media”
Teen Voices is a website for a magazine, by the same name, that encourages girls to express themselves and create social change through media. The website features fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submitted by teen girls, as well as book reviews, and articles about successful female authors. This website can encourage and inspire young, female writers, revealing the power in these young women and their writing. Teenvoices.com also encourages the education of women, and provides articles about college prep and careers.
I would encourage female students to visit teenvoices.com during free time in the classroom, after assignments are finished, or at home on an individual basis, in hopes that the site would inspire my students to read and write. Many young girls experience similar angst as they navigate their adolescence, and reading the writing of other girls who share in their challenges may be enough of a connection to encourage a girl who is usually disinterested to read, or encourage girls to express their thoughts and feelings through writing. Even if my students are not moved to try to submit a piece to the website, they may be inspired to start a journal, or try their hands at poetry; no matter what the student decides to do, having adolescent girls reading, writing, or thinking about what they have read is important.
“Fiction, Essays and Poems by America’s Teens”
Merlyn’s Pen is a website for a magazine, by the same name, that showcases the writing of middle and high school students. The website offers access to young adult writing that is highlighted in collections, and that can be filtered by title, author, genre, topic, author’s grade level, author’s state, and author’s region. In addition to reading the best work of peers for inspiration, enjoyment, or motivation, teens can submit their own work to the editors of the site. Every entry to Merlyn's Pen receives personalized feedback and words of encouragement that attempts to build “positive associations with the writing process.” This feedback encourages revision and sets high standards for student work to be published in the magazine or on the site, and the site provides an audience for young authors.
As a teacher, I could use Merlyn’s Pen to find pieces to read in class, introduce students to the website to choose independent reading (opposed to having all independent reading be novel-based), and I could point students to the website for writing inspiration. Many of the pieces on MerlynsPen.org could be tied into units being covered in a middle school ELA class, and students could be inspired by the work of another teen being used in the classroom. For students who are moved to submit written work, the website could be not only a source of inspiration, but of encouragement and feedback.
I hereby affirm that I have neither given nor received help on this work.
I hereby affirm that I have neither given nor received help on this work.
Beth, this is a great website. One challenge I constantly face with students is their resistance to creative writing. Using this site to show them that their peers are creating original pieces on topics that matter to them, may finally inspire my students to try it out for themselves. The plethora of examples provided allows students to find at least one piece that speaks to them. I think the idea to use pieces from the site in your class is great. Many times we read literature in class that is decades or centuries old. Although themes cross these barriers, it would be much easier for students to identify with stories filled with tweets, texts and other 21st century events. Also, tying any grammar or effective writing activities to exploration of this site would provide students with real life examples which would increase their interest in typical classroom activities.
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