PENS ON FIRE is designed as a book for teachers to give writing experiments to teens. I wrote it with Keren Taylor at WriteGirl (writegirl.org) when I was the Curriculum Director of WriteGirl. For years, Keren and I had worked together to create engaging monthly writing workshops for over 100 teens and mentors. Over the course of that time, many teens would tell us that they wished teachers at school taught writing this way.
I understand why many of them don’t. It’s a lot of work to come up with interactive, multi-media experiments when you’re working every day. So, we put our most popular experiments in this book to give teachers some fast ideas for teaching poetry, fiction, song-writing, screen-writing and journalism. A hundred percent of the proceeds from this book go to the continuing good work of WriteGirl.
REVIEWS
I've searched everywhere on the Internet and at teachers fairs for something like this to help me make creative writing fun and interesting for my class. 'Pens on Fire' is amazing!
Mark Taylor,
LAUSD Teacher of the Year 2008
What a fantastic 'out of the ordinary' creative writing resource! The 'experiments' are aptly named and incorporate common everyday objects. I love that they are called experiments. Anyone who has taught a group of students knows that every lesson is an experiment of some sort. We are all learners whether we are at the front of the class or sitting in the seats. The book totally eliminates the students from saying, 'I don't know what to write about.' Another exciting aspect of the book for me is that every page inspires even more ideas. This is truly an unusual find. I love it!
Judy Goodfellow former Principal,
Haztic Elelmentary Abbotsford, BC Canada
These writing experiments give teachers the tools to provide engaging prompts for students to explore the joy of writing. The ideas are easy to read, require minimal materials, and make writing fun. Each lesson can easily connect to the standards of focus in a classroom. I've used many experiments from 'Pens on Fire' with much success and consider it my 'go to' guide when working with kids or even challenging myself.
Anne Carnes,
Education Consultant