I am trying to focus my classroom instruction on authentic student writing this year. I feel that if students feel that they have a real audience, then they will craft better writing. I have devised several ways to publish their writing.
I recently signed my class up for ePals. This is a program that matches classrooms from around the world. Your students e-mail other students their age. They can share their history, experiences, culture, etc. You can also set this program up so that you and the other classroom work on a project together. I want my students to not only establish a relationship with their ePal, but to talk about the literature that they are reading. I am hoping that it will broaden my students’ thinking. If this is something that you are interested in also pursuing, I would visit their site at http://www.epals.com
I am also going to use amazon.com to publish my students’ book reviews. They can post the reviews on books they have read under an account that I created. The website allows them to select under 13 as an option. When that is selected, the review shows up as “Kid’s Review” so I don’t have to worry about them adding their name or any personal information. I have just started this project, and will post my classroom experiences soon. The title of the post will be Amazon Book Reviews.
Another project that I am going to start next month with my students is a Holiday Letter. Every year, my husband and I seem to get letter after letter from family members telling us about their year. It really is a “year in review.” It seems to me that this is just another form of summary writing, which, let’s face it, most students struggle with. I am going to have my students write their own Holiday Letter and then mail it to family members that they don’t live with. I then plan to piggy-back this with summaries later on in the year.
I am also looking to incorporate dialog journals into my class. Another teacher in my district and I have started talking about ways to share our students’ writing with each other. So far, she sent my students some writing to assess. I am hoping that this will lead to a dialog journal of some sort. I haven’t completely worked out the logistics yet, but it is something that I am excited about.
I really think that all of these authentic writing projects will help my students refine and polish their writing. At least, that is my hope!
November 12, 2008
ellclassroom2
Ellclassroom 
2 responses to “Writing to Publish”
Chip Brunk
January 28th, 2009 at 16:34
These are great ideas. Another to consider is a free book making program at StudentPublishing.com. Every student gets a free paperback book made from their story. You just have to send the company’s form home with students that offers families an additional hardback, soft-cover or paperback book. Very easy and very good quality.
Kevin Byers
December 28th, 2008 at 16:42
I’ve been brainstorming various ways to encourage real world application of writing with my AVID kids this year. Three that have been successful…
1. Postcrossing.com allows us to write short messages to others in the world. We then receive postcards from others. Kind of like pen pals, but you don’t write to the same person more than once and you don’t get postcards from the people you write to. Doesn’t make a lot of sense until you read the site.
2. Students writing comments on my class blog.
3. Creating a social network that the students have access to. As it is closed to non members, our Ning.com site is a great way for the students to blog and message each other. The messaging is allowed to be informal, but the blog posts are required to be written well enough to be published. The kids love it!