Let’s Talk About Money
Uneasy about discussing money with your students? Start here.
YES! Article archive
Let’s Talk About Migrant Caravans
Uneasy about discussing the migrant caravan—and its related issues like immigration, the wall, family separation, and xenophobia—with your students? Here are some resources to start the conversation.
“Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolution” Student Writing Lesson
If you were to host a potluck or dinner to discuss a challenge facing your community or country, what food would you cook? Whom would you invite? On what issue would you deliberate?
Six Brilliant Student Essays on the Power of Food to Spark Social Change
Read winning essays from our fall 2018 “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” student writing contest.
Winter 2019 National Student Writing Competition: Border (In)Security
Want to inspire your students to write? Here's an opportunity for them to write about their position on the U.S. border as a barrier to immigration, and what can happen when someone makes an unfair assumption about them.
Let’s Talk About Gentrification
Uneasy about discussing the housing crisis —and its related issues like gentrification, environmental racism, and homelessness—with your students? Here are some resources to start the conversation.
Let’s Talk About Brett Kavanaugh
Uneasy about discussing the U.S.Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh—and its related issues like judicial temperament, sexual assault, Roe v. Wade, privilege—with your students? Here are some resources to start the conversation.
Let’s Talk About Mental Health
Uneasy about discussing mental health—and its related issues like self-care, anxiety, depression, and suicide—with your students? Here are some resources to start the conversation.
Fall 2018 National Student Writing Competition: Feeding Ourselves, Feeding our Revolutions
Want to inspire your students to write? Here's an opportunity to write for an audience beyond the classroom about what food they would cook if they were to host a potluck or dinner to discuss a challenge facing their community or country.
“Letters of Hope” Student Writing Lesson
Think about what matters most to you about our country’s future. Write a letter to someone important to you, describing that future you imagine and hope for.
About the YES! National Student Writing Competition
The YES! National Student Writing Competition is a quarterly writing opportunity to respond to a thought-provoking YES! article and writing prompt. Students not only write about something meaningful for a real audience—they also have the chance to get published by an award-winning magazine.
Spring 2018: “Letters of Hope” Middle School Winner Lucy Shuler-Morgan
Read Lucy's letter to Emma González, activist and survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, about how González inspires countless kids like her who sometimes feel they are too young to make a difference in the world.
Spring 2018: “Letters of Hope” High School Winner Charlotte Wagner
Read Charlotte's letter to Mary Magdalene about how she's working to make sure the stories and struggles of women like her will be truthfully told and recognized.
Spring 2018: “Letters of Hope” University Winner Carly Nelson
Read Carly's letter to her friend Peach about the paradox of support systems and finding hope from those who share struggles of being disabled and fighting bureaucracy.
Spring 2018: “Letters of Hope” Powerful Voice Winner Malena Vargas Sáez
Read Malena's essay, "The Righteous Path of María the Sage," a letter to her grandmother that seeks to harness her strength and resilience in order to overcome today's corrupt and turbulent times.
Spring 2018: “Letters of Hope” Literary Gems
We received many outstanding essays for the Spring 2018 Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we'd like to share some excerpts that caught our eye.
Carolina De Robertis Response to “Letters of Hope” Essay Winners
Carolina De Robertis responds to the winners of our Spring 2018 Student Writing Competition.
About Student Writing Lessons from YES! Magazine
Use the YES! article, prompt, and sample essays in each writing lesson to bring the real world to your classroom—and to take your students’ writing to a new level.
Spring 2018 National Student Writing Competition: Letters of Hope
For the 2018 spring writing competition, students will write a letter to someone they look up to, describing a future they imagine and hope for our country.
Let’s Talk About Mass Incarceration
And related issues like race, poverty, and punishment.
“Less Stuff, More Heart” Student Writing Lesson
If you could ask for any non-material gift, what would you ask for? What would make this gift so special to you
Let’s Talk About Decolonization
Uneasy about discussing colonialism—and its related issues like Standing Rock and Indigenous-led resistance—with your students? Here are some resources to get you started.
Winter 2018 National Student Writing Competition: Less Stuff, More Heart
For the 2018 winter writing competition students will write about the non-material gifts that they would like to receive for a special holiday, milestone, or birthday.
Winter 2018: “Less Stuff, More Heart” Middle School Winner Eva Vallier
Read Eva’s essay, “Stolen Stories,” about longing to hear her family’s stories about the Japanese internment and experiencing the weight of history.
Winter 2018: “Less Stuff, More Heart” High School Winner Alejandra Wagnon
Read Alejandra’s essay, “Broken Mirror,” about the challenge of living up to people's expectations and wanting to be true to one’s self.
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