ReadWriteThink: Summer Activities - Learning Beyond the Classroom

For Ages 14–18

Literacy Activities

Music in Movies: You Pick the Soundtrack
Explore how music can have an emotional impact on a scene in a movie, then help teens write and film a scene of their own.

Connecting with Young Adult Authors through Writing
This activity guides teens in reaching out to authors of books they love by composing personal letters or connecting to authors through their websites or blogs.

Explore Your Reading Self
In this activity teens are encouraged to explore their reading history as they remember books they liked reading as children and then revisit these old favorites.

Writing a First Resume
Using a variety of online resources, help teens through the process of compiling personal information and shaping a resume. Teens then revise the resume to match the needs of a specific job posting.

MyTube: Make a Video Public Service Announcement
Invite teens to explore issues that are important to them, and then write a script and film a video public service announcement.

Telling Good from Bad in Movies and Television
In this activity, you can discuss with teens how they can tell the “good” characters from the “bad” ones by watching for clues that the movie makers have left.

Creating a Safe Online Profile
Teens explore online names then choose a screen name or e-mail address for themselves as well as decide on personal details to include in a safe, online profile.

Speak Up! Writing a Review
After watching a movie, listening to a CD, or eating at a restaurant, help teens write and publish reviews that include their opinion of the experience and support for their impressions.

Personal Playlists: Ten Favorite Songs
Help teens create a wiki with everything people should know about their top ten favorite songs. Then have them invite their friends to add their favorite songs too!

Recording Family Stories
Teens create a memoir of a family member through writing, photographic collage, painting, video, musical composition, or sculpture. For an alternate focus, they record community stories instead.

Comic Book Show and Tell
Teens explore the comics-making process with this hands-on approach that lets them become both comic book writers and comic book artists.

Soundtrack for My Life
Invite teens to create an autobiographical soundtrack. After brainstorming lists of important events in their lives, teens select music that represents those events.

Children’s Book Project
Teens who are caring for younger sibling or babysitting children after school, on a break, or any other time can entertain them by making their own picture books to read together.

The Year I Was Born: An Autobiography Project
Teens tap the knowledge and memories of their relatives to create autobiographies of their own births or other significant life events. Help them answer the question, “What happened the year I was born?”

Bio-Graph: Graphing Life Events
Teens can be more than observers at the family reunion! Encourage them to take the time to learn about family members’ significant personal experiences by interviewing them and sharing their stories with everyone.

Blog About Courage Using Photos
Engage teens in this activity in which they use photographs to examine and write about courage on a blog.