| Creating books in class is a fun and engaging class | | | | stories from the creative writing classes, drawings and |
| project, and gives your students something they can | | | | paintings from the art department, and the list goes on. |
| keep forever. Here are a few tips on how to get | | | | The Project: |
| started. | | | | When you are putting your book together, unless you |
| Picking a Theme: | | | | intend the books to be your own project as, for |
| Before you get to putting a book together, the first | | | | instance, surprise gifts to your students, it will provide |
| thing you will have to decide is what you want your | | | | them a great learning experience if they are involved in |
| students' books to be about. Fortunately, there pretty | | | | every aspect of the work from inspiration, to creation, |
| much countless projects in just about all of the major | | | | to the finished product. If your class were to, say, take |
| disciplines that you can successfully create books | | | | a vote on what kind of book they would like to create, |
| around. In the English department, for instance, you can | | | | it stands to reason that they will be more engaged in |
| put together books of your students' writing work, | | | | the process and be more likely to follow through. |
| either individually or collectively. Your history class can | | | | Just like with any book, there should be a good mix of |
| create a book about a major event such as the Civil | | | | text and graphics. If it is some kind of science or |
| War. Even the science-based classes can make | | | | business study, for instance, there should be at least |
| books out of field studies and findings from various | | | | some photographs and/or charts and graphs. |
| experiments the class has undertaken. | | | | For younger students, you may want to create a |
| Gathering Your Material: | | | | template that each student can work with, such as a |
| As mentioned above, there are at least a couple of | | | | place to put a photo, and lines to fill in. |
| different ways to go about putting your book together. | | | | Printing and Binding Options: |
| For instance, your book can either represent the work | | | | There are numerous options, of course, but if you are |
| of the whole class, or of each individual student. In the | | | | using color in your graphics, you will want to use a |
| former case, you can assign various tasks to each | | | | color printer if your school has one. As far as binding, |
| student that will represent his or her contribution to the | | | | you can take a look at what kinds of machines your |
| final product. This is a great way to impart the lesson | | | | school has on hand. Chances are there will be a plastic |
| of working together to create something of value, and | | | | comb binding machine, or perhaps even spiral coil unit. |
| of setting and meeting deadlines. You can also create | | | | These are both great options and very useful to have |
| a separate book for each individual student that | | | | around, so if your school is lacking one, it might be a |
| represents his or her work throughout the school year, | | | | good thing to request. You might also check with your |
| or for a particular learning section. Some other options | | | | library to see if they have a thermal binding machine. |
| include creating department-wide books, such as | | | | These machines can create hardcover books in a |
| cookbooks for home economics classes, poems and | | | | matter of minutes, and are very inexpensive. |