Teachers: Share Lesson Ideas for Class-Authored Books!

Do you create whole-class books with your students (or would you like to do so)? Join the blog—with everyone's help, we can make our new "Class-Authored Book Contest" a success!

Let's use this blogspace to share ideas, resources, weblinks and questions about class-book projects. For teachers who have never attempted collaborative writing or book publishing projects, we'd like to provide specific lesson ideas and guidance. For veteran classroom publishers, we'd like to provide fresh inspiration and exciting new tricks.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE IDEAS:

First, "Follow by email" in the right hand corner. (An invitation to join will be sent to the email address you submit.) You can unfollow whenever you wish.

We'll add your email address to our authorized list of bloggers, and you'll receive an invitation to log on. Note: Blogger is a Google App feature, so if you don't have a gmail account, you'll be asked to create one for free. I'll also send my personal email address, just in case you prefer to send your contributions to me via email.

What kinds of posts do we need?  If it seems interesting and useful to you, it will probably seem interesting and useful to someone else. Some examples:

• start-to-finish lesson guides for writing & publishing projects
• online articles that describe teachers' experiences with class book projects
• lists of published books to use as "mentor texts" 
• real-life group activities that inspire kids to think, draw, and write 
• lesson ideas to guide kids through the writing process
• simple, easy-to-manage art projects that can be used as book illustrations
• crafty ideas for hand-binding class books
• ideas for producing multiple copies of the same book
• user-friendly internet resources for digital publication and printing
• how class book projects address the new Common Core State Standards
• other tips that might help...

Your post may contain just a brief explanation + weblink, or you may copy and paste entire lesson plans and images. (If you'd like to submit PDF or Word documents, you may send them via email.)

Together, we will compile a wide range of resources. Once we get several ideas, Bookfest volunteers will start to organize them on a separate, easy-to-reference page!

—Melissa King, Great Valley Writing Project / Great Valley Bookfest Volunteer