Writing with a Purpose {#SOL16 Day 22}

This Spring at the school I teach at, we are having a writing celebration!
I'm so excited to share with you what we've been working on.
This week things are starting to really come together, and I'm so proud of their work!

Last year we did something very similar, so students knew a lot more 

about it this year coming into it, which was great. They were already excited about it and I also was thrilled with how many of them wanted to share their stories from last year.

Background: 

Last year, our amazing ESL teacher brought a great idea to our writing committee. 

Her idea was to make cartoneras as a school to showcase student writing. 

She had done this in another school she taught at, and thought it would be fitting for us as well. 

Cartonears are cardboard books.We created the Star Center Cartonera, which is our own 'publishing house' to make these wonderful pieces.  

What is a Cartonera? 

A cartonera is a cardboard book, that was first developed in Argentina in order to support the cardboard collectors in that area.  They wanted to support the people who collected the cardboard, recycle it and then help people in need of reading materials at a low cost.  They would recycle the cardboard and make books with it.  By using this material, they would be able to make books more cost effective for people to own.

Steps:

1. First we had students pick a piece that they've written from their writing treasure chests.

(My kids have done a ton of non-fiction writing this year, so I did encourage them to pick one of those stories, but it was not mandatory. 

2. We took time to edit and revise their pieces both in small groups with me and with other students.

3. Students made final copies of their stories on our special cartonear paper.

4. In art class, they got to design and create their covers for their stories. They were able to use all different forms of materials!

5. We did illustrations for the pages in their books and also made an "About The Author" section for the back to share with their readers. 

My students are just about finished up with their stories now!
I'm really excited with how they turned out. 

For more information, or to participate in your own cartonear project, read Heather's blog post here.