Writing gives students the opportunity to share their thoughts and voice with others through an authentic audience. This project, a collaboration between district literacy and tech integration coaches as well as classroom teachers and students, provided students with the opportunity to write, publish and share books with their local community.
Our favorite places
4th and 5th grade students from Billings Public Schools were asked to think about their favorite places in town, and what makes each of these places special to them. Using strategies learned from the Units of Study writing program, students wrote a persuasive writing piece, sharing what they love about the place they chose and working to convince their audience that they should visit the place.
Publishing
Once the pieces had been written, edited and revised many times, they were ready to publish. With the help of district literacy and technology coaches, the students organized their writing and used WriteReader to type their pieces and add images. Students used image search, image banks and the upload feature in the WriteReader program to add photos of their favorite places.
The books were put into Reading Rooms to share with families and other classes, and printed by a local print company to display at the public library. The students’ books were actually also “on display” in a local news.
Library display and community connections
The original goal was to publish and display these books at a book fair at the Billings Public Library for patrons to view and read.
However, district literacy coaches decided to take this a step further by reaching out to each of the businesses that students wrote about.
Communication between businesses and students
The coaches personally visited each business and hand delivered a copy of the student book. They included a letter explaining the project to the businesses and encouraging them to respond with a letter, email or other token of appreciation to the student author(s) who wrote the books. For safety reasons, any student identifiable information (first and last name, student photos, etc) were removed from the books and businesses were given the literacy coaches’ contact information – no information was shared about the students, their schools, etc.
This was not only an incredibly rewarding experience for the coaches, it was a fantastic way to make positive connections between the schools and business in our local community.
Students displayed some of the notes received from local businesses to share with their classmates.
You made our day!
One local restaurant manager said “We have been having such a hard day. Customer complaints, understaffing, and other issues. Then we read this book and it made us so happy to know that all of it matters and is appreciated! This absolutely made our day and we will hang this in our staff room for everyone to read!”
This reaction was the norm from each of the businesses, and many asked if they could send a note or token of thanks to the student. The literacy coaches gladly collected these items and delivered them to the students, along with a printed copy of their books. The excitement as students saw their printed books for the first time, read the notes from their favorite businesses, and received some fun swag from the businesses, was AMAZING!
Authentic audience
Through this project, students learned that writing matters and helps make connections between people and communities. They learned that they aren’t just writing for themselves, or their teachers, but that writing can be shared with authentic audiences and have a real impact on others. The purpose of their writing was to convince others to visit their favorite places, but they also had the opportunity to share what they love and provide encouragement to these places, as well!
