Writeacher, can you suggest possible topics for email conversations among teenagers?
1) I will ask my students to introduce themselves, describe their daily routines, their hobbies and interests and the place where they live.
They will do that with the help of our arts teacher so that your students we'll get to know more about the attractions of our area.
2) Then, I may ask them to talk about fashion, clothes that are in at the moment, the music they like.
It would be nice if they could learn popular Irish songs and translate them into Italian.
All those are good idea.
You should also encourage them to write their thoughts about current events (without getting into anything volatile) and maybe about books or stories they've read and how they do or don't like them.
I used to go into quotation books and websites and put famous ones on the board to get students started on journal topics. You can find them everywhere -- www.quoteland.com is a good one, but not the only one.