On Teens and Writing ...

TEEN WRITER'S GUIDE: YOUR ROAD MAP TO WRITING by Jennifer Jenkins is a resource that I will definitely be recommending. Jenkins, an educator and co-founder of Teen Author Bootcamp, clearly understands and communicates well with teens.  She uses a very conversational tone and plenty of personal examples to pull them into thinking about writing.  Each chapter offers some simple exercises and I think this could potentially be a great book for a summer read (or remote learning?). It seems that it could be used at a relatively individualized pace, while still providing opportunities for class discussions and peer feedback. Each chapter (some discuss choosing your audience, character development, world building, or dialogue, for example) ends with a summary and an exercise or two to help aspiring writers take their story ideas further.  Generally, these involve essential questions from the chapter (what is your character’s greatest weakness, strongest desire, stereotype, etc.) and a journaling task.  Later chapters include valuable points about grammar, sentence structure, and even getting published. Jenkins says, “my hope is that this book inspires your students to color outside the lines, challenge basic ideas, and discover a deeper level of creativity.”

Super Family Fun Card Games and more ...

SUPER FUN FAMILY CARD GAMES by Corinne Schmitt is a great resource in these stay at home times. Of course, there are online sites, like Bicycle Cards that offer rules and suggestions, but this book contains 75 games for all ages – categorized by skill level (easy, medium or hard) and whether they are best for two or more players, two players, or just one person. Need a refresher on some old family favorites?  Classics like Go Fish, Slapjack and Crazy Eights are included and so are Kings in the Corner, 99, Canasta and Euchre.  There are plenty of new (to me, at least) games like Pepper, Guess My Number, and Emperor Solitaire as well. Enjoy!!   

Oh, here’s one more idea: have you and your family tried Sporcle? We played it years ago and the site was recently recommended again by a student since it has an astounding variety of timed quizzes to play alone or virtually with friends. For example, can you name the 50 single syllable words that rhyme with cat – that (hint) is not as easy as it sounds!

Citizen Science, Climate Change, and Earth Day

THE FIELD GUIDE TO CITIZEN SCIENCE by Darlene Cavalier, Catherine Hoffman, and Caren Cooper is a surprisingly interesting and very engaging book that tells readers “How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference.”  There are a variety of projects to do online, at home or in nature, by yourself or through groups, some of which could easily be organized by schools, particularly as we shift to more remote learning. Each project page names a location, provides a website, lists goals, tasks, and outcomes, while also helpfully describing “why we like this.”  The entire book is worth a look, but a few examples follow. One is Budburst through the Chicago Botanic Garden – which has encouraged participation of over 10,000 citizen scientists to contribute observations on seasonal changes in plants. Another is called Deep Moji which is coordinated by MIT in order to explore emotion research and potentially teach AI about emotions. And a third example is Flu Near You which, like the CDC, tracks the spread of influenza. There is a history element, too, at projects like the Smithsonian’s Transcription Center whose volunteers have transcribed over 380,000 pages of field notes, diaries, manuscripts, etc. since 2013. That is a quick sampling – there are many more ideas! The authors encourage educators to investigate web sources such as the following:

 -- SciStarter – they have an Educators’ page and suggested projects by grade level, from elementary school through college
-- More lesson plans developed with NC State at Students Discover 
-- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology 
-- And STEM resources from Starnet Libraries (seems particularly slow to load) 

Many of the activities are understandably geared to younger students, but it is exciting to see the opportunity to build an interest in science. The authors also recommend several books and viewing public television efforts such as The Crowd and the Cloud or Nature’s American Spring Live. 

THE STORY OF MORE by Hope Jahren (Lab Girl) is subtitled “How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here.” She divides the text into sections titled Life, Food, Energy, and Earth, with an Appendix called The Story of Less. The last was of particular interest – there she outlines a number of steps (examine your values, gather information, and look at making your personal activities, investments and institutions consistent with your values) and summarizes additional eye-opening statistics (e.g., demographic and energy use changes in the last 50 years), plus provides a long list of recommended reading and data set links. Jahren’s credentials are impressive – recipient of three Fulbright awards and recognized in 2016 as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, she is currently a professor at the University of Oslo.  THE STORY OF MORE received a starred review from Library Journal while Booklist notes how its foundational approach to climate change is YA-accessible.  Classes could readily use this text to prompt discussion and further exploration. Listen to a five minute excerpt here. 

Referring to many of the same events as Jahren does, EARTH DAY AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT by Christy Peterson is subtitled “Standing Up for Earth” and it, too, contains important lessons for our students.  There is certainly high interest in this topic by our students and their entire generation.  The publisher, Lerner, has provided a concise, easy to read text filled with helpful maps and graphs, as is typical of their non-fiction work.  This title is probably best suited to middle school and early high school, although we have ordered a copy to provide some basic background for interested students.  For many, it will help to compare and contrast the environmental movement’s origins (sections on Love Canal, etc.) with today’s concerns.