Do your reading discussions ever feel a little stale? Are the same talkative students the only ones responding? Are you doing most of the talking?

Thankfully, whole-class discussion is not the only way students can converse about reading.

When your class gets in a discussion rut, have students work on text rendering.

What is text rendering?

Text rendering is the practice of picking out, sharing, and reacting to a short section from a reading. At a basic level, the process asks students to do the following:

Our students, ever the digital natives, are awash in images. They scroll through them—scrutinizing, liking, and commenting. They capture, share, and meme-ify them. They create their own images and even break news with them.

As writing teachers, we can tap into this energy for imagery by inviting students to incorporate visuals in their writing and storytelling. But when we do so, we should also teach how to use images ethically and effectively. Captions can help.

My freshmen recently turned in a lengthy inquiry project. They had been working on it for weeks, and it was thrilling to see their research and writing take its final form. I was particularly excited to review one student’s exploration of a historic neighborhood. And indeed her work was engaging, insightful, and well-researched.

There was an issue, though. The project included erratic capitalization and numerous misspelled words. Reflecting on this, I realize I should have done a better job of preparing her and the rest of the class to edit their final drafts.

Young people routinely pass through our classrooms, and despite our brief time together, we form lasting bonds. We want our students to have happy, enriching lives.

It usually warms our hearts to hear life updates from former students: news of a college acceptance, a new job, a wedding date, a baby on the way. However, sometimes news of a former student leaves us shaken.

In recent years, youth suicides have risen at an alarming rate–up 57 percent for people ages 10 to 24. Many of us–too many–know of students or former students who have attempted or died by suicide. We mourn for their families and friends. And we grieve, too. The trauma ripples through our schools and communities.

The spike in youth suicide rates is part of a broader mental-health crisis affecting young people. As Derek Thompson reports in an important and illuminating piece from The Atlantic, 44 percent of high school students felt “persistent sadness and hopelessness” in 2021. Another large study found that one in four high school girls seriously contemplated suicide during the pandemic. These sobering statistics are clear calls to action: All sectors of society must pitch in to address the mental-health crisis of young Americans.

In our classrooms, we can play a vital role in supporting students' mental health and addressing pervasive sadness.