Teaching Writing: Children II

Lesson 3: Making Books and Publishing Student Work

Book Making Supplies

I'll go into the supplies needed for actual bound books in the next section, but for any type of book, you'll need a few basic things. Of course, there is the paper. I actually found that 8-1/2" x 14" legal size white "ditto" paper worked well for making most books. The longer paper gave students a bit more drawing area. But some students like to make tiny books, so you can use any size really, as long as the book is planned out ahead of time.

I also found that colored pencils worked best for bookmaking. Since students will be writing and drawing on the fronts and backs of the pages, you don't want to have them use markers that will bleed through. I also had students use black ball-point pens for the same reason.

Most students (and most adults!) have a hard time writing neatly without lines. To make it easier, instead of drawing lines on the pages, I taught students to place a sheet of lined paper under the page they were working on, and use the lines they could see through the page as guides. I kept a few dark lined index cards for those hard to see through pages.

Another indispensable item is white-out. Students are going to spend a lot of time writing and illustrating their books, and a mistake can be devastating - especially when they are near the end. So, I always kept white-out handy to fix up those little errors.

What should students work on first? I usually had mine do the writing first, as that gave them clearly delineated space for the pictures. Sometimes if the picture is done first, it takes up the whole page and then it is hard to fit in the text. But that is up to you and your students.

Of course, there are a few tricks you can use to make the process go more smoothly. You could have students write the text for each page on a separate piece of paper and then cut it out and paste it into the book. Or you might want them to use the computer to print the text and that can be pasted in. Same goes for the pictures. If you choose to do that - just be sure to use a good glue that won't bubble or cause "globby" pages. Rubber cement is a good choice.

For more simple books, students might want to use construction paper cut to size for the cover. This can be stapled together along with the pages for the finished book.

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