The sharing book.

How time flies… It seem yesterday when we started this subject but well we have to quip in mind that all the things we have learn we will put into practice by using the materials and websites we have created and we have visited during this term. For my last post I would like to talk about the last big group session we have.

First of all we created new characters, creatures that are related to us and have some of our characteristics, or maybe not, maybe it’s our antagonist but all of them have something special that have been created starting from our imagination and they have a little bit of magic on them. After creating this magic, malicious, benevolent, hero we have mixed it with all the characters created by our mates; then we made groups of 5 – 6 people and then we picked again other characters different to the ones that we have created, so we have new ones.

Later on we will have to create and develop a story with those characters to create a poster for our new movie and then sell it to someone who will be interested on bringing our story to the big screen. We will see the results this week…

 

libro viajero

As a result of this activity, I was thinking on different ways to translate this to our future classrooms

and which has first come to my mind is “the traveller book” I’m sure most of you know what is this but for the ones who don’t know it… Is a book in which the students create their own story we can begin it in white or we can give them the beginning of the story, after that one of our pupils is going to take the book to its house to continue the story with the help of his parents. The main aim is that the students create a new page for the common story but taking into account what was written first to give the story the sense it has to have.

This could be another way to make our students create their own story and being creative and motivate moreover the attendant of the book could read the new part of the story on Mondays and the rest of the class could draw a picture based on its mates part of the story and then select one of the pictures from all and paste it in the book to make it funnier.

Could you imagine other activities like this to create collaborative and cooperative stories or books? I would be pleased of reading your comments and thanks for your attention.

5 thoughts on “The sharing book.

  1. Hi Paula!

    I liked so much your post! Thank you for sharing it.

    Firstly, I would say that I loved the stories my partners created because they were coherent and we could have the opportunity to see what our partners have done with our own characters, which is very interesting.
    Secondly, I would like to talk about the “sharing book” you mention. I like the idea of creating a book in which all the students can participate. It is a really nice and cooperative work and it can be done while we are teaching different things because they have to do it at home.
    One of the problems I see here is that maybe, some parents, unfortunately, are going to do the stories for their children, but it always happens, so we have to be positive and think that parents are just guiders and helpers.
    Thirdly, I would like to share with you the experience I had in my last Practicum. In my classroom, there was a traveler book. Each student per week had to write about one happy or special day they enjoyed. Parents just had to select some pictures of that day and print them for the students. At the end, our students had a catchy essay full of pictures and texts that the rest of the class could read.

    Finally, based on my experience, this kind of activities are very motivating for children because they like to share their feelings and experiences with the rest of the class. What they don’t know is that they are working on different skills and also on literature, because they are producing texts. Step by step, the traveler book is more professional and if we give them some important clues and scaffolding, they can create really excellent works.

  2. Hi Paula!

    I liked so much your post! Thank you for sharing it.

    Firstly, I would like to say that I loved the stories my partners created because they were coherent and we could have the opportunity to see what our partners have done with our own characters, which is very interesting.
    Secondly, I would like to talk about the “sharing book” you mention. I like the idea of creating a book in which all the students can participate. It is a really nice and cooperative work and it can be done while we are teaching different things because they have to do it at home.
    One of the problems I see here is that maybe, some parents, unfortunately, are going to do the stories for their children, but it always happens, so we have to be positive and think that parents are just guiders and helpers.
    Thirdly, I would like to share with you the experience I had in my last Practicum. In my classroom, there was a traveler book. Each student per week had to write about one happy or special day they enjoyed. Parents just had to select some pictures of that day and print them for the students. At the end, our students had a catchy essay full of pictures and texts that the rest of the class could read.

    Finally, based on my experience, this kind of activities are very motivating for children because they like to share their feelings and experiences with the rest of the class. What they don’t know is that they are working on different skills and also on literature, because they are producing texts. Step by step, the traveler book is more professional and if we give them some important clues and scaffolding, they can create really excellent works.

  3. Hi Paula!
    In my opinion your post is really interesting, and I’ve decided to write you for several reasons.
    The first of all it’s that for me, the activity of the characters is one of the most creative and funny task that we have done during this term. It’s an activity that we could bring it to our future classroom without any problem; we won’t need any special adaptation for children like happen with many of the activity that we do in the uni. And I think that if we have enjoyed with this task the children will do much more than us and also they will develop their creativity.
    In the other hand, I would like to share an activity very similar to “the Traveler Book”.
    During my second Practicum, the teacher had the idea to do “the riddles book”, and it worked in the same way, each week had to teak the book a different child and s/he had to add any new riddle with a nice drawing an later they had to read it in class and the rest of the children had to try to guess it. They brought really funny riddles and drawings very nice.
    I think it’s another good idea to work the literacy with children.

  4. Hi Paula!
    I like a lot your post, thanks for sharing it with us :)
    I think your idea of the “traveller’s book” was great for children and it can be applied for all the ages changing the rules they have to follow or the contents they have to write about.
    I agree with Carolina comment in the fact that this activities are very motivating for children because they have to share their feelings (for the shy students also). If one student doesn’t want to talk about itself, he/she can talk through a character and express what he/she wanted to say.
    As you know, this activity can be done also with the help of parents especially in early years, because the students didn’t have a wide range of vocabulary to express what they want to do or maybe they don’t know exactly what is the aim of the book, for that reason, the parents’ help is very important in this activity.
    I think also that it is a way of involve all the “educative community” (I don’t know if this is the correct expression): parents, teachers, students, classroom auxiliaries,…, so all the people involve can see how many people are they and how many people are focused on the education of his/her children, so that can give parents the chance of “meet” all the people that are involved in that school.

  5. Hi Paula,
    First of all congratulations for your post. I think that it is really interesting all the things you have written.
    Related with the last big group day and the activity of the characters I have to say that it was great to see your own carácter involved in a story that you have not created. It could be a good idea make a story with our own carácter but it was good too in this way.
    Related what the activity of the “traveller book”, I want to share with you that I have a experience close to me. My girlfriend is a teacher of 6th of Primary and she told me two weeks ago that she has prepared and activity. This activity was called “Sexto around the world”. This activity consisted in write a story related with a place in which students had been before. For example, my girlfriend was the first writting a travel she did to Praga. She wrote her experience, stick photos and explain what was the most beautiful things for her and the most amazing monuments. When she finished she took the book to her class and one students had to take the book and write one story related with some travel she or he had done. At the end, she get a book with all the experiences of her students around the world, with pictures, with their feelings and emotions, etc…
    I think this is a good way to encourage them to write end be motivate in class. Also this activity it could be modify. Instead of write their adventures during a travel, they can use their characters to créate their own story and pass to their partners to be complete.
    Finally, as Carolina said, all of these kind of activities are great and very motivating for children because they can feel protagonist and they can créate their own stories. It is a good resource to apply in the future with our students.
    Good post Paula.

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