Website review by Mieke VanderBorght, Common Sense Education | Updated March 2022
Youth Voices
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Youth Voices

Aging online community hosts authentic student writing

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Learning rating
See full review
Community rating
Based on 4 reviews
Privacy rating
Not yet rated Expert evaluation by Common Sense
Grades
7–12
Subjects & Skills
English Language Arts, Communication & Collaboration, Creativity
Great for
Creating Media, Social Media, Digital Citizenship
Price:  Free
Platforms:  Website
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Take a look inside

8 images
The homepage features schools that use the site.
Check out some of the most popular discussion threads.
Find content on a wide variety of topics, from politics to poetry to personal narratives.
There are quite a few ways to structure a new discussion.
Explore, create, post, and comment from your profile page.
Search for a group to join; some are private, others are open to the public.
Teachers can browse the curriculum suggestions.
Search through the archives to read through what's been posted.

Pros: Puts student writing up front. Focuses on both writing and commenting.

Cons: Navigation is very confusing; high school writers sometimes submit provocative content.

Bottom Line: With some patience and understanding, this could be a good space for supporting healthy student expression.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Teachers may need to spend a significant amount of time exploring Youth Voices to understand what it does, how it works, and how it can fit with their students. It's a site that admirably puts student writing front and center, but it has an aging layout with little guidance, some outdated resources, and poor organization. The community of other educators and curriculum guides offer some help. The collective networking and thinking among the Youth Voices educators has resulted in usable classroom resources for you, including a series of writing challenges, discussions grouped along various themes, integration of art and writing, and curriculum-based documents that validate how online writing communities meet the needs of students across subject-area classrooms. Because students can post whatever is on their minds, teachers will likely want to keep a close eye on what they're posting. 

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Standards:

Youth Voices is a home for young writers seeking an authentic audience and a space to publish writing across a wide range of genres. The site is essentially a blog, so students can easily align their interests and make meaningful connections with other young writers. Students touch on issues ranging from the environment and politics to personal narrative stories and video gaming. Some students also add multimedia components like video. Contributions can earn students badges.

Students will need to create their own accounts and set up a profile. Once they have their own space, students can begin writing blog posts, which are designated to certain areas (such as argument, stories and poems, video conversations, etc.). A convenient place to start is to look at the Guides tab, which gives suggestions for using Youth Voices for a variety of writing exercises such as assessment and reflection, poems and stories, and multimedia response.

It's clear that the teachers behind Youth Voices have a lot of passion for student expression. There are lots of prompts and ideas for inspiring students to contribute something meaningful. And the site is full of posts on hot button topics, students making impassioned arguments, and lots of positive feedback. The comments open up a range of discussions, and writing on the site can be powerful. Schools can also choose to create private groups so that all the sharing happens within the school rather than the community at large.

The major downside is that the site isn't at all user friendly, and both teachers and students may not have the patience to figure it all out. It's also showing its age, both in terms of aesthetics and just general usability. There are a few resources that don't seem to exist anymore, and no clear onboarding flow to showcase the best stuff. That said, the site is free and remains flexible for the needs of teachers and their students. And if teachers help guide students (or vice versa!), they may find the exercise rewarding. It's important to note that many of the writers on the site are high school students, so the content and subject matter can walk the line of appropriateness at times. 

Overall Rating
Engagement

Students will like having a real audience, and it's nice that student writing is front and center on the homepage. It's due for an overhaul: There's a lot going on, a confusing layout, and dead ends.

Pedagogy

There's a focus on writing and commenting well. Activities earn badges. It feels a little like a social network, so students can learn writing and communication skills as they share opinions.

Support

There's little overall vision of what the site does and how to use it. Tutorials and resources show teachers how to use Youth Voices in the classroom, though they're not easy to find.

Common Sense reviewer
Mieke VanderBorght Researcher
See how we rate and review

Key Standards Supported

Writing

  • W.7.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.

  • W.7.1a

    Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.

  • W.7.1b

    Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.

  • W.7.2

    Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

  • W.7.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

  • W.8.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

  • W.8.1a

    Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.

  • W.8.1b

    Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.

  • W.8.2

    Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

  • W.8.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

  • W.9-10.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

  • W.9-10.1a

    Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

  • W.9-10.1b

    Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns.

  • W.9-10.2

    Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

  • W.9-10.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

  • W.11-12.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

  • W.11-12.1

    Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

  • W.11-12.1a

    Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

  • W.11-12.1b

    Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.

  • W.11-12.2

    Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

  • W.11-12.3

    Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

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Community Rating

(See all 4 reviews) (4 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Jeremy H. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Fulton Middle School
Middleton, United States
A great tool to collaborate with other students on writing from around the U.S.
Youth Voices is a great platform for sharing writing and receiving feedback from other writers. I really appreciate the fact that students can connect with other students of the same age. It is simple for students to use and the set-up is not time consuming. The best feature is the research components it offers to students.
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