Tell Your Story: Teaching Students to Become World-Changing Thinkers and Writers

Learn how to increase students' skills as writers and storytellers with an innovative, inclusive, and empowering framework for teaching writing that centers student voice.

Tell Your Story: Teaching Students to Become World-Changing Thinkers and Writers explores how to help students see themselves as writers and storytellers who are developing the skills and techniques to communicate in ways that resonate with various audiences. When students make that shift and see themselves as active and valued participants in their own communities, cultures, and literary journeys, they become powerful writers eager to explore and share ideas.

With the strategies in this book, you can

- Create an environment of belonging that fosters creativity and confidence.

- Demonstrate the value of oral and visual storytelling.

- Teach story structure, both old and new and in a variety of genres.

- Offer a variety of role models and exemplars through mentor texts.

- Assess and confer with student writers to help them improve their skills.

- Value students' voices as future agents of change.

When you help students unlock the stories they want to tell, you'll see writing anxieties and resistance fade as students come alive to the multitude of ways in which they can make their voices heard. Storytelling can be a wellness practice, a tool for empowerment, and a method for self-understanding and self-expression. For all students, storytelling is a path to lifelong learning and to realizing the full power of their voice and their potential to change the world.