Can every student be an author? You bet! Whether they’re just starting to write or are already accomplished writers, the motivation to write better and write more grows exponentially with the promise of a published product. Luckily, your students don’t have to wait for a publishing house to come calling. They can use Pixie to write, illustrate, and publish original works of literature.

As adults, we seem to shy away from things with blank pages, whether in a journal, a notebook, or on a computer screen. The blankness requires us to provide the input and our first response is “What do I do now?” Kids, on the other hand, view the blankness as an opportunity—no rules, no numbered sequences, just a vast area to explore, create, and show us what they really know and understand.

Your first decision when creating a book is whether the finished product will be a class book, where each member or group contributes a page or a section, or a book with individual authorship. Individual books can use the same rubric and instructions for each student. You can make desired content and length decisions based on your time and instructional requirements. Class books will necessitate a division of labor and topics, and more time for collaboration. Here are a few of my favorite projects.

A-B-C Books
You can use an ABC book for learning and reinforcing the sounds of the alphabet, of course. Beyond that, alphabet books are a great way to reinforce vocabulary for any science or social studies concept and a great way to further explore a chapter book. For example, after studying the ocean and marine habitat, each student in my class created a letter page explaining one topic we had covered in the unit.

Adapt Your Favorite Book
If your class has a favorite book, especially those with a repeating pattern, challenge your students to come up with their own variations (see sidebar on page 22 for suggestions). You’ll notice that some emphasize particular parts of speech or a particular rhythm. Part of the challenge is in having students recognize the various aspects to determine how they can create their own. This is the fun of playing with language and is also a terrific activity for English Language Learners. As a class, students can generate lists of possibilities, so everyone has the opportunity to contribute to every page. It is also very important to credit the original author, which opens discussions about copyright, even at a young age.

Life Isn’t All Fiction
Your classroom books can also be the culmination of nonfiction studies. Your students’ writing and illustrations will demonstrate the depth of their learning and show any gaps they may have in their knowledge. With very large topics, it will be necessary to split the content up between individuals or groups to ensure you cover all content standards for that topic.

Time to Take a Test
Perhaps your classroom or school uses a structured reading program such as Reading Counts (Scholastic) or Accelerated Reader (Renaissance). If so, you have the ability to write your own test questions for books, including books your class has written. It is unbelievably empowering for young authors to have a student earn points for reading his or her book! Just imagine the question “Who is the author of this book” and seeing his or her name on the screen along with Dr. Seuss and J. K. Rowling!

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