Publishing
Now that you have a room full of authors, you need to celebrate their accomplishments! The final stage of the writing process is publishing. You have helped hone their talents, now give them some time to bask in the glory of their hard work.
We have included some templates to help elevate kids’ writing to the final stage. Simply download the templates, copy and paste your students’ work, and print!
Educational research has proven the benefits of students having the opportunity to share, converse, and question each other about their writing. These opportunities create a climate that encourages a community of writers. There are many ways to give each author his/her moment of glory:
- ❏ Designate an “author’s chair” from which an author can share his/her work with the class at a special time each week. Students can question and discuss the writing process as peer writers.
- ❏ Congratulate each writer with a special pencil upon the completion of his/her work. You can hand out a special colored pencil or one that says “You are an author!” on it.
- ❏ Give each author a badge of honor to wear with pride. Use sheets of address labels and print “I’m an Author!” on them. A simple sticker will announce his/her accomplishments to friends and family at home.
- ❏ Arrange a night at a local bookstore at which your budding authors can share their work with friends and family.
- ❏ Adorn a bulletin board with large/freezer-size plastic bags. Insert a story into each. Now classmates can easily remove a story to read and return it to the decorated board. Students will benefit from reading each other’s work.
- ❏ At the end of the year, have each student choose one story. Collect the students’ work into an anthology of sorts. You can have them bound at a copy center or you can self-publish at one of several online sites.
- ❏ Create a free blog for your classroom community. Publish stories online to your selected blog viewers.
- ❏ Create “living stories” by videotaping students reading and sharing their stories. The videos can feature the writers or just the illustrated copy (aka, Reading Rainbow).
- ❏ Have a class celebration at which the edibles are inspired by the stories. The “menu” can feature the story titles.
- ❏ Have a book making night for students and families. Have arts and crafts supplies with which families can turn a simple printed document into an adorned, bound book.