The Cartonera Project 2017: Every Student IS an Author {SOL 5.16.17}

Last Thursday, our school held our annual Cartonera Celebration, a celebration of every student being an author.

That's right....EVERY kindergarten through grade 5 student wrote, edited, illustrated, and published a cardboard book. (A cartonera is a book with a cardboard cover. You can find more information about them in this video.)

It was quite an accomplishment, to say the least!

Last Thursday was the day the entire school took a break from what we were doing and for one hour, we read and commented on each other's cartoneras. Students met up with their character ed buddy and walked around together, stopping often to read a cartonera together.

Even the teachers got in on the fun.

After reading a cartonera, the reader left a compliment on the Raves From Readers page.

The students could hardly wait to get back to their classroom to read their Raves From Readers comments. They were incredibly empowering and demonstrated the effect of writing for an authentic audience.

Then in the evening, we invited families to school to read the cartoneras and to make a family cartonera to take home to write their family story.

We also had Paloma Celis Carbajal, a bibliographer and cartonera expert from the University of Wisconsin - Madison visit us. She brought with a few of the cartoneras from the UW collection, the largest collection of cartoneras in the United States, for our kids to check out.

Here's what some of my students had to say about the Cartonera Project:

"When the books were published, I felt accomplished."
"It was fun to walk around with my buddy to read books without my teacher." :)
"It kind of proves that you don't need to be a pro to write a book."
"I enjoyed getting to fix up a story and make it better."
"It was amazing and I thought it was cool. Everyone should do this!"

       Isn't that AWESOME??!!?

I am incredibly proud to have been a part of this celebration of writing and sad that the event is over. I am already thinking of ways to grow the program and make it even better, including expanding the project to other schools to connect students and classrooms from around the country in the spirit of writing.

If you are interested in learning more about possibly bringing a Cartonera Project to your school or classroom and would like to learn more, please fill out this Google form. When I get the information together, I will be in touch.

The Importance of an Authentic Audience

If you've done any research about teaching writing, you've probably learned how important it is for students to write for an authentic audience whenever possible. When kids know they are writing for someone other than the teacher, their motivation and quality of writing drastically improves.

"(Our students) have to believe that what they have to say is important 

enough to bother writing. They have to experience writing for real audiences 

 they will know that writing can bring them power."

-- Anne Rodier,  National Writing Project

"A Cure for Writer's Block: Writing for Real Audiences"

In our writing workshop, we are working on informational writing. For my students' first published piece, I was their only reader.

The books a few of my students wrote were fresh and interesting, but then the quality of writing from these students usually is.  For the most part, however, a majority of the writing was as dry as a desert in July.

How could I blame them for not showing much excitement for this writing project?

I knew I had to mix things up for our next published piece.  Big time.

I figured a new audience was the way to go.

I spoke to our school librarian and she agreed that my students could display their finished books in our library for other students to read during library class. She said she would even give the books a Dewey decimal number to make them more authentic and would display them on top of the book stacks where published books usually sit.

Our art teacher jumped in to help too. She will have the kids paint and decorate a book cover on cardboard in art class over the next few weeks. We will add their writing inside, making it a real book called a cartonera.  (You can read more about cartoneras and our schoolwide writing celebration, The Cartonera Project, here .)

Finally, I announced to my class that I plan to keep their books (cartoneras) and take them with me to three conferences I am presenting at this summer about our school Cartonera Project. Their books, I told them, would be seen by hundreds of teachers from around the United States.

All of a sudden, eyebrows started perking up. Mouths began dropping open. A rustle went through the room.

With a new audience, came new motivation and interest in our writing project.  I'm pretty sure all of my students will produce their best work yet!

How do your students write for an authentic audience? I'd love if you would leave me a comment and share.