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.”