Sixth-grade students at Heineman Middle School recently wrote and published books containing their own “nature myths” as part of a unit in three literacy classes.
The multidisciplinary assignment challenged students to research, write, and illustrate mythical stories that answered
Sixth-grade students at Heineman Middle School recently wrote and published books containing their own “nature myths” as part of a unit in three literacy classes.
The multidisciplinary assignment challenged students to research, write, and illustrate mythical stories that answered questions such as “Why do we have lightning?” or “Why do turtles have a hard shell?”
Each student was assigned two pages of the book: one for their typed story and one for their full-color illustration.
“We purchased a copy of each class’s book for our school library. Parents also had the opportunity to pre-order books,” said teacher Mrs. Beverly Smith. The classes of both Smith and teacher Mr. Wayne Blake participated in the project.
The classes published the books through a company called Student Treasures Publishing. The classes were responsible for putting the books together into a manuscript, which was then mailed to the company. and mailed our manuscript in. There was no cost for the publishing beyond the pre-orders.
In addition, the teachers each received one free copy of each book to keep in their classrooms.