In yesterday’s blog post, Lydia talked about the All About Me book celebration we had with the student teachers in our literacy methods courses. I (Clare) want to add my comments/reflections on the activity. The “assignment” is unusual in that it is ungraded (pass/fail), there is lots of choice, and the finished product is shared with all of the other students. It is not just me, the professor, who reads the assignment – all of the students have an opportunity to learn from their fellow students’ work. The sharing is a wonderful way for them to learn about their fellow students and to learn about many ways to tell a story. Initially, the students are bit resistant to the assignment commenting (complaining!) about it not being graded so why should they do it or that they are not creative so they cannot do it or they cannot see how doing a book about their life will help them learn to be a literacy teacher. The process of writing their books and sharing them transforms their views – they come to understand the power of story, the demands of the writing process, and the importance of audience. Many commented this was the best class they have had in their university studies. One student noted: “I recognize the courage and vulnerability it takes to showcase our own work and know that without a Professor who harnesses this safe environment we wouldn’t have become such a comfortable cohort in our short weeks at OISE.”

All wanted to know when we were going to do “something” like this again. You will notice in these photos that the students are truly happy and engaged. Like Lydia, I was impressed with their books – their creativity was astounding, the care they took with writing their books was impressive, and their ingenuity humbled me. I learned so much from them and feel so lucky to be teaching such fine individuals.

For the literacy teachers and literacy teacher educators who follow this blog we thought we would share the assignment description with you.

All About Me Books

The creation of this book about you fulfills a number of purposes:

* it celebrates who you are

* it provides your colleagues with an opportunity to get to know you

* it celebrates the diversity of individuals in our class

* it allows your creativity to emerge and through exploration may prove new potential to you

* it provides a good resource for you to use with your students as an artifact, a way of introducing you to your students, a good lesson to use with them and ….

* it allows you to come to understand first-hand the complexity of the composing and publishing processes and it allows you to consider how various literacy formats/genres can be used with students

* it introduces you to children’s books in another way

* it is fun

Criteria

1. Meaning

The All About Me text must communicate in some way who you are – it could be descriptive, autobiographic, a metaphor, …. but it must say, “This is me!” It is important to identify your intended audience; therefore, the book must match your intended audience. If, for example, you are writing it for young children, the pictures are very important and the text must be simple and accessible to them. If on the other hand, you are writing it for an audience of adolescents, the tone, structure and theme would be very different. Use a structure/format appropriate for the age group you choose as models.

 

Structure

The All About Me book must be:

* illustrated in some way (use your imagination and ingenuity here).

Any format is fine – text based, artifacts, digital …..

* durable for use in the classroom

* well planned

* well written (adhering to the convention of grammar and spelling)

Possible formats and genres for your book…

 

Accompanying Story on Tape	Shape Books
Fairy tale, mystery, make believe	Poetry Book
Banners	Pop-up Books
Shape Book	Wheel Book (using paper fasteners)
Accordion Book	Picture Books
ABC book	Books with Bookmarks
Books with Pictures and Clipart	Book in a box
Books with Photographs	Puppet Books
Characters from a Movie or Novel	Chart Books
Dioramas	Flip Books
Graphic novel/story; Comic format	Television Box
Newspaper	Momento book
Series of memos	Menu
Series of photographs with captions	Counting book
I Book	Poster
Prezi	Powerpoint
Video	Other ….. (e.g. rap, song)