When Do I Get To Start My Novel?

This was a recurring question from one of my fourth graders this year.

Let me back up. I took it upon myself to try something different during Covid-19. As we started school fully remote, I was determined to find a way to make learning fun, personal and engaging.

What if students captured their learning in book form? It could keep papers together. It could save time and energy to on printing out the traditional worksheets. It could become a safe experimental place for engagement and dare I say pride. Drawing can strengthen intuition.

Creativity Through Arts captures learning in hand written format. Just as with any new language, creativity takes practice too. Learning creative thinking skills through the experience of drawing, sketching, making graphic organizers, writing and reflection can get messy. A portfolio of learning is beyond a keepsake. I may become a student reference book of creative thinking skills and a testament to engagement with the self and coursework.

Seriously, how many people want to write a book? How many people do write a book?

“I wrote a book.”

Imagine that sense of empowerment for a child, for any of us to say that.

I was unsure how exactly I could get kids to write a book. I learned along the way, we all did. I will do things differently next time. Yet here we are, feeling proud at the end of the school year, each student with a newly-minted book in hand.

New ways of learning and new types of classrooms clearly are happening around us. Before the internet, there were books. I what ways might the low tech cognition required for book writing blend with what is available online? Think paper bound sand box and have some fun with it.