Classroom teachers often feel pressure to choose between using standards-based lessons and activities that engage their students' creativity and encourage personal expression. In Jump Write In!, however, the experienced writer-teachers from WritersCorps offer numerous exercises that do both: build key standards-based writing skills and give voice to youth.

Through poetry, fiction, personal narrative, and playwriting, students will improve their writing skills by being invited to put their truths on the page. Perfect for a moment of inspiration as well as for deeper exploration, these easy-to-use and field-tested activities engage students from a variety of ethnic, educational, and economic backgrounds and encourage the recognition that their voices matter. The book's eleven chapters include Dozens of exercises accompanied by teachernotes and suggestions Links to standards for each activity Examples of student work An overview of the writing process fromicebreakers to editing Suggestions for further reading

Praise for Jump Write In!

"This book provides powerful material for everyteacher's toolbox."
--Herbert Kohl, author, teacher, and director, the Institute for Social Justice and Education

"WritersCorps has proven, in a wide variety of educational settings, that language arts standards and creative expression can share the same page."
--Claudia Anderson, principal, Ida B. Wells High School, San Francisco

"Armed with this workbook any teacher can be confident of tapping into the magical interiors of youth and bringing this magic to the outside world. This book made me want to race to the page!"
--Ruth Forman, poet

"Sharing great writing by students isthe way to inspire learning. WritersCorps lessons help keep them coming back."
--Dorothy Langlois, Ethnic andAmerican Literature Teacher, San Francisco

Through poetry we tell the world who we are, where we're from, what we love, what we think, how we feel, and why we hope. "Tell the World" is a stunning collection of poems by teens who have taken part in workshops run by WritersCorps, a national alliance of literary arts programs for youth. Their words represent the thoughts, hopes, and dreams of teens everywhere, offering both insight and empathy.