Damon Norko April 17, 2006

SLM521 -- Student Publishing – Elective #6

Introduction

Given my style of teaching and my area of specialty, the subject of student publishing is definitely of interest to me. For one thing, I was “student published” in High School, having works of mine in the school paper and literary magazine. This was a source of great pride and inspiration for me.

Later at college, I became a “regular” at the local Kinko’s, running off poem broadsides and later five separate chapbooks. During this time I got to work as a writer for IBM and hone my professional skills.

Ultimately, it was this attitude toward writing that led me to become a teacher. After many years of honing my craft, I felt I had some expertise to impart. Indeed, I am very attracted to students who work on their own to write stories, poems & the like. I offer to give opinion and guidance. When possible, I try to assign writing projects that tap into the young person’s creative energy.

Now, with the internet, it’s much easier to reward successful creative works. Here’s my collection of interesting sites to publish student works, in the field of English/Creative Writing.

Safety Precautions

The guidelines suggested for student publishing are remarkably easy to follow. If a teacher is willing to act as a contact person, then internet traffic can be successfully screened. The basic rules to follow are detailed on my permission form.

Recommended Sites

Interestingly, almost all of the sites listed in the assignment were unavailable. Only one was available, below:

http://www.cyberkids.com/we -- Cyberkids is a nicely-organized and graphically-appealing site that is tailored to the 7-12 age group. Interestingly, most of the kids published here have their full names attached to their poems, stories or artwork. I would advocate having the teacher (i.e. me) submit the work with only the last initial attached. Still, the poems are very sweet and the stories entertaining. It’s a great site to have children check out as well, for there is an extensive (educational) games section.

The remaining sites I found on my own:

http://www.cyberteens.com – I am not sure if this is put out by the same folks as Cyberkids, however it is truly “teen-oriented”. The poems, stories, and artistic photos published are hip, cool and “edgy”. The “home” screen has a lot of other things like shopping, games, and links. By selecting the “creativity” link you get to the gallery. This site is worth a look, especially for the older students.

http://www.kidpub.com/kidpub -- Here’s a great site devoted exclusively to stories from 12 & 13 year-olds. According to them, there are 44,000 stories available here! It is well-designed and nice-looking but they charge a one-time fee of $6.95. This fee allows posting stories and replying/commenting on other kids’ stories. But you can still read them for free. A unique aspect is that you can tell just how many times a particular story has been read. Also, kids can give their own bio, including such items as “what books I am working on” and “what I plan to do when I grow up.”

The fee is not so staggering, and I do think this is a quality site. It might not be for ever kid, but for those over-achievers who simply must see their names in print, it’s perfect.

http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink – Midlink Magazine is “For the Students, by the Students, ages 8-18”. The editors claim it is the oldest children’s publication on the web (since 1994). It is non-profit and high-quality and teachers are encouraged to submit material as well. It is predominantly for class project ideas, but I did see some creative work as well. Sometimes student work is included under an umbrella theme, such as a project entitled “Our Voices in Verse” which showcases a classroom full of poems. All kinds of subjects are covered – this site will definitely make my “teacher sites” folder as well.

The best thing to do with this site is to head right for the archives. This is a very worthwhile site whose raison d’etre is specifically for incorporating internet technology into the classroom. That’s just what we are looking for!

http://www.realkids.com/club.shtml -- The “Young Writer’s Clubhouse” is an excellent site to steer young writers. There are interviews with published writers, especially those who started writing at a young age. There is a list of tips for getting started as a writer, plus a FAQ section. Most importantly, there is a place to submit one’s own work for the purposes of receiving critiques from peers. There is a registration requirement for this, and you must agree to a short contract (“I will ignore rude comments.”). With the registration, there is the option to provide things like web addresses, etc, so it’s important to bring parents into the loop here. But this site looks like it is worth the effort.

http://www.teenink.com – This is an online magazine for teens and by teens. There’s a lot on this on this home page – contests, ads, music, teacher info and more(!), but mainly it’s centered on a very current list of articles. This is a catch-all site and definitely slanted more toward the journalism end of things, but it’s excellent nonetheless. They publish a poem, a fiction story, and a non-fiction story each day, in addition to reviews and other things. The main thing about this site is it is very, very current

http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk – Kids on the Net is a prototypical site, based in the UK. However, I did find at least half of the children published here were from the USA, and there were many from other parts of the world. (You just have to advise your students about the British spellings of some words, lol.) The site is interactive – the kids can comment on others’ writings in addition to submitting their own. The only student data published is first name, last initial, and city & country. And they emphasize that “every submission is checked by a human editor before being published.” And there is lots of supporting links to kids projects, teacher sites, and more.

http://www.poetryzone.ndirect.co.uk/index2.htm -- The Poetry Zone, another UK site is a great place for the budding poet. Not only can a student submit his or her work for publication, but they can read interviews with famous poets, play a “poetry challenge” and tap into competitions. The graphics are neat in that the site resembles a spiral notebook. The site supports ages 5-18 – organized into age groups. The sections are updated weekly and then archived. Again, links and teacher support is provided.

In addition to online publications, these two are samples of hardcopy sites that have excellent web support:

http://www.teenink.com – Here’s a monthly print magazine that is “written for teens, by teens”. Some items are indeed published on the site – such as artistic photos, for instance. There are lots of other links to teacher info, colleges, book & movie review etc. A nice place to let student writers know about. they also have an offer whereby you can buy 30 copies of the issues for your class.

http://www.stonesoup.com -- Wow! This is a quality traditional hardcopy literary magazine, with significant web-site support. It’s so well-done that I would be proud if any of my students were published here. It’s safe in the sense that only subscribers will receive copies of the magazine. They don’t show kids’ last names, but they do have a small picture of the authors next to the byline.

Conclusion

There seems to be something afoot in the realm of student publishing, judging by the sheer number of websites that are no longer working. Indeed, one of those sites made reference to changes in regulation that made it impossible to profitably go on. The fee-based site mentioned above may have the only solution.

In any case, I think it’s important to provide a venue for student work to be seen. In addition to the online resources surveyed above, I think each and every writing class should make it a matter of course to publish some sort of chapbook of student work. It is one artifact that the students will have in the future, and hopefully look back upon as a pleasant school experience.