Wacky Wednesday: Tween/Teen Writing Contest & National Poetry Month for Teens

photo by pink sherbert www.flickr.com

Clara Gillow Clark is holding a writing contest for students in grades six through ten. The contest goes until April 9. To enter the contest, you write a 250-word entry to one of these prompts from a book called Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter:

Writing Prompt #1: I DARE YOU Rewrite a scene from your life. Think of something that happened today. Something that wasn’t perfect–maybe something that was even downright mortifying–and rewrite it as you would have wanted it to happen. (Tip from Clara: Remember that scenes have a beginning, middle, and end!)

Writing Prompt #2: I DARE YOU Think of two people you admire. Now think of the thing you admire most about each of them. Combine those two qualities into one person, and write about that person in the following situation: She or he is walking down the street, and a strange man hands your character a small sealed carton and says, “Don’t let anything happen to this!” Then the man sprints away. What does your character do next?

Here are the prizes that tweens/teens can win:

First prize: $25 gift certificate to the bookstore of the winner’s choice, a guest spot on Clara’s blog, and his/her choice of any one of Clara’s books

2nd prize: a gift certificate for $15 to the bookstore of the winner’s choice, a guest spot on Clara’s blog, and a choice of one of Clara’s books.

3rd prize: A guest spot on Clara’s blog and choice of one of Clara’s books.

To find out more details & rules, how to enter the contest, and to check out Clara’s blog, go here.

Here’s the book, Spilling Ink, if you want to check it out. It’s perfect for students grades 5 to 9 (according to Booklist):

As other Wacky Wednesday posts pointed out this month, it will soon be National Poetry Month 2010 (like tomorrow–it starts). My past Wacky Wednesday posts had some ideas for elementary and middle grade students. For teenagers, poetry that they write can often be filled with teenage angst and focus on very dramatic topics such as lost love, peer pressure, or drug abuse. In a high school classroom, you could challenge students each week during National Poetry Month 2010 to do a different form of poetry. For example, week one instead of writing haiku like younger students often do, ask them to write a tanka. The next week, challenge students to write a villanelle. Maybe the third week, you will give them a certain rhyme scheme like ABAB ACAC and so on. The last week, challenge students to write a sonnet.

Throughout the week, give students several examples (modern, too, if possible) on the form of poetry you are requiring them to write. They should write more than one rough draft and then choose one to take through to publication. It’s not important which forms of poetry you choose as long as you choose a specific form, and don’t just allow free verse. Free verse is what most teens naturally write!

Do you have any poetry ideas for teens?