When I first started teaching 8th and 9th graders (many moons ago), I made the fateful mistake of ending the school year with a research writing project. I thought students would be so engaged in the topics I selected for them. As it would turn out, this was not the case. So, I began to think about what writing topics would actually engage my students, especially in those final weeks. As I looked around my classroom at my naturally egocentric student body, I realized that the topic they would be most interested in writing about was themselves!