Title: Coming Soon: Writing a Children's Book

In this online unit, high school students work to create personalized children's stories for elementary students. The final products are presented on VoiceThread.

Role: Student — Students generally have fewer privileges within a course.

Section 1
  What makes a good children's ...
  Alignment to MN State Standards
  NETS Student Standards
Section 2
  Before we begin the writing project, take a momen...
  Get started by watching the "Favorite Childr...
  Favorite Books Video
  After viewing the video, think about titles of b...
  Assignment 1: Favorite Children's Book Discussion
Section 3
  Writers need to consider several things when crea...
  Children enjoy stories that are descriptive and li...
  Writer's Toolbox Video
  Good children's books appeal to basic needs that ...
  What makes good children's literature?
  Listen to an excerpt of Book! Book! Book! by Debor...
  Excerpts from "Book! Book! Book!" by Deborah Bruss
  Practice working with these techniques!
  Assignment 2: Writing Practice
Section 4
  Now that you've learned about some of the writing...
  Browse a digital library database to find 3 child...
  International Children's Digital Library
  Once you've chosen and read three stories from ...
  Assignment 3: Evaluating Children's Books
Section 5
  Now it's your turn to write! Begin by meeting and...
  We'll be using VoiceThread to create interviews f...
  Assignment 4: Getting to know VoiceThread
  Here's a sample interview VoiceThread to watch. (...
  Sample Interview VoiceThread
  The next step is to develop interview questions f...
  Assignment 5: Interview Questions
  Assignment 6: Create Interview VoiceThread
  Once your interview VoiceThread is complete, I wi...
Section 6
  Begin writing your own children's story! We'll t...
  Once you receive comments on your interview Voice...
  Sample Children's Story on VoiceThread
  The first step in creating your own children's s...
  Assignment 7: First Draft of Children's Story
  Once you've received feedback on your first draf...
  Assignment 8: Adding illustrations
Section 7
  This last step is the most important--and the most...
  Once you've completed your final revisions to y...
  Assignment 9: Final draft on VoiceThread
  Once you've submitted the final version of your...
Section 8
  Teacher notes: preparing for this unit
  Teacher Notes
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11