Student Voice Teacher's Special: 100 Teen Essays + 35 Ways to Teach Argument Writing

Help your students craft convincing arguments with award-winning mentor texts written by teenagers and companion teaching guide.

This bundle includes one copy each of Student Voice: 100 Argument Essays by Teens on Issues That Matter to Them and Raising Student Voice: 35 Ways to Help Students Write Better Argument Essays, from The New York Times Learning Network.

At a time when examples of “student voice” are everywhere, from Greta Thunberg to the Parkland students to the teenagers in the streets of Hong Kong, the argument writing that students study in school is still almost entirely written by adults. It is a wholly different experience for teenagers to study the work of their peers. It’s relatable. It’s relevant. And it doesn’t feel like an untouchable ideal.

In this new collection of 100 essays curated by The New York Times, students will find mentor texts written by their peers—13-18-year olds—on a wide range of topics including social media, race, school lockdown drills, immigration, tackle football, the #MeToo movement, and COVID-19. For any teacher who feels that students write better when they have some choice over the topic and form, when they write for an audience beyond the teacher and a purpose beyond a grade, and when they get to sound like themselves, this anthology is an invaluable resource to accompany any composition text.

In the companion teacher’s guide, Katherine Schulten—a former teacher and writing coach herself—provides teachers with 35 strategies and classroom-ready activities for using these peer mentor texts with their students. Raising Student Voice also includes 500 writing prompts, a “topic generator” with questions to help students decide what they’d like to write about, and a sample essay annotated with the comments of Times judges.