There's something magical about seeing children excited about reading a new book - the smiles on their faces, the effort they put into figuring out the words, the time they spend examining the images. But children's books aren't cheap, they don't always reflect the children we teach, and they aren't always written to teach the things we want children to learn. The solution? Create your own class books!
There are so many reasons to create your own class books:
- Students love them. (So does everyone else!)
- You can target each book to what your students need - everything from reading skills to vocabulary to content knowledge!
- Community building. Accomplishing a goal together makes students feel like a cohesive unit.
- It's much cheaper than buying books and a great way to build a wonderful library on a budget.
- Representation. Your students are actually in the books, so they'll reflect their own faces, interests and ideas, in all their beauty and uniqueness!
- Engagement. Class books are kid favorites, and they'll work hard to read the words and view the pictures they created with their friends, building skill and enthusiasm.
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My favorite class book ever was based on Christopher Myers' book Black Cat. It was a six-week project incorporating research, a poetry unit, lessons on drawing, sculpting and collage, and children's Arabic language learning. We read Black Cat at least ten times before starting. We studied the pictures, the text, and talked about how Christopher Myers might have gone about creating the book. (We also invited him to visit us in Khartoum - and he did!) We noticed that Black Cat made Christopher Myers' Brooklyn neighborhood look really cool, and we wanted to do the same for Khartoum. (And I wanted to produce a picture book about Sudan - something sorely lacking!) When we were done, we had a stunning book celebrating Sudan, filled with information children had gathered during our study, co-created by every member of our class, with translations (to Sudanese Arabic, French, Spanish, Korean and Japanese) and images provided by families and other members of our school community. Kadisa, Kadisa was one of the very few picture books available for young children about Sudan.
If I wrote down everything I want to say about creating class books, this blog would be far too long to post, so here's a quick overview of some possibilities.
Lower Elementary and Early Childhood
List books using sight words build one-to-one matching and sight word knowledge.
- My name is _____. (Illustrate each page with a photograph of a child or other member of the school community.)
- I like ________. I like singing. I like running. I like hugging. I like tickling. (Children illustrate the sentence they drafted or dictated.
- I like to ________. I like to dance. I like to play. (What's the difference between this and "I like ____?" This includes the sight word to and the other includes the suffix -ing. Which do you want children to practice?)
Books describing one object or person encourage children to observe, think and craft their words carefully.
- Thank you books: Create a book to thank a visitor to your class. Each child draws a portrait of the visitor and dictates or drafts a sentence or two about the person.
- Post-Interview books: Each child draws a portrait of the interviewee using information from the interview to put them in context. Children then draft or dictate a sentence or two using information they gained from the interview. Put the pages in a logical order before binding.
- Observation/Description books: Choose one object or concept to describe. (e.g. An acorn is round. An acorn is hard./My hand is big. My hand is smooth. My hand is brown./I am tall. I am funny. I am kind.)
Middle and Upper Elementary
Summary books help children synthesize information and use topic-specific vocabulary.
- Concluding a unit of nonfiction study (simple): Each child drafts a few sentences about something they learned from the unit of study and illustrates it (or includes a relevant photograph or diagram).
- Concluding a unit of nonfiction study (complex): Have the class help draft an outline for the book. What chapters can be included? Is a glossary needed? Should there be a table of contents? Should labeled diagrams or other images should be included? Should there be a section with photographs? When you've created an outline together, assign or allow children/groups to choose the parts they will create.
Song books allow children to internalize song lyrics, building vocabulary, phonological awareness and content knowledge.
- "Zipper" Songs: Each child creates a verse for a song that allows singers to change the words. (e.g. This is the way we walk to school, walk to school, walk to school. This is the way we jump and play, jump and play, jump and play./In Spanish, hola means hello. In Arabic, marhaba means hello./Down by the bay, where the watermelon goes, back to my home I dare not go, for if I did, my mother would say, "Did you every see a fly wearing a tie? Down by the bay!)
- Songs with Set Lyrics: Type one or two lines from the lyrics of a song on the bottom of each page. Have children illustrate the lyrics on their pages.
Anthologies build community and allow children to learn about each other by sharing their independent or group work with the classroom community or beyond.
- Poetry: Have children select their best/favorite poem from a poetry writing unit, revise and publish, collect into one book. If you can, copy the anthology for each child!
- Poetry 2: Select one format/theme for poems and have each child contribute a poem. The format Margaret Wise Brown uses for poems in her book, The Important Book
is a wonderful way for children to introduce themselves at the beginning of the year and a touching way for children to celebrate each other later in the year.
- Stories: Celebrate the end of writing unit by creating an anthology of children's stories. Just collect children's published drafts into a book and bind it!
- Recipes: Have each family contribute a favorite simple recipe and combine them into a class book.
Simple Books with Big Ideas allow older children to build literacy skills and sight words while exploring age-appropriate themes and writing skills.
- List Books: Based on list books with sophisticated ideas. Langston Hughes' Black Misery is a great example of this. It explores racism and hardships with the repeated phrase, "Misery is..." (e.g. "Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.") In my fifth/sixth grade class, we created a class book on this theme, and then created one called Joy.
- Books for Little Ones: Create a series of stories by having older children create picture books for a younger class.
Some additional thoughts:
I use the word "draft" frequently here for the writing children are doing because it's important that you type/write the text in standard spelling, using accurate punctuation and grammar before "publishing." You want children to see strong examples of well-written, clear, easy-to-read text as they reread these books. You can leave children's own writing or have them do their own editing and revision but, especially for younger children, you should add standard text above or beneath their writing.Creating bilingual books is a great way to involve families in the writing and reading of class books! Have children, families or community members contribute accurate translations.
Professionally published books are super-exciting for older kids! Lots of online companies will do this for you, but it costs money. You can fundraise or, if you're lucky, your school will provide the funds!
Quick binding if you don't have a binding machine: Leave a large margin on the left side of your page (or on the right or top if you're binding there). Staple the pages together. You can cover the staples with a strip of heavy or colorful tape if you want to make it look more professional. Use card stock for front and back covers and/or laminate them to make your books last longer.
A note to grownups who have kids at home: I made many books for my son from the time he was a toddler, using photographs from family outings and writing the text by hand or printing it out. He absolutely loved these books in which he was the main character! We had Jibby's Trip to the Zoo, A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry, and many more. When I was feeling creative, I wrote the text in rhyme. When I wasn't, I just captioned each photo. As my son got older, I created annual photo books capturing the year, and got them professionally printed by online companies. I sometimes included favorite quotes or songs in a section of the book. When we were moving to Sudan, I had family and friends in New York write letters that I included in a book of his favorite New York people, places and things. My son is 24 now and he still has and enjoys looking back at these books!
I published a new version of Kadisa كديسة .
Click here to check it out.
