Writing for Equity

My grade 7/8 class will study books/authors who write childrens' stories about social justice issues. Then students will pick an issue that they feel passionate about and write and illustrate a book about it with guidance from their teacher. Then we will professionally publish the book so that they can read the book to other students in the school AND keep the book in the school library for students to be able to look at.

Update (March 21, 2012)

Students have completed their books and they have been published. They look great and the students are excited to share these with other students in the school. The students decided to write personal narratives about their own experiences with bullying - whether it was being bullied and how they dealt with it and insights they have for other students; or experiences they have had as bullies and what they learned from those. These were social justice stories that were very real to their school experience and that they had a lot to say about.

They wrote with the purpose that they would be sharing these stories with a younger audience. Some stories we realized after publishing were a little more mature and they wanted to just share with their peers.

Many of the stories had very "real" insights about how to deal with the complexities of bullying and showed that the answers are not always so easy to find, especially when you are in the situation. All had the common message that bullying is not okay and the importance and sometimes the difficulty in speaking up. Other stories outlined that sometimes students needed to speak up repeatedly to have change happen.

Students enjoyed being able to add pictures to add meaning to their stories. All in all, we were very pleased with the product and students are looking forward to sharing their stories with others in the school.

Update (May 22, 2012)

Students have read their books to other students and along with reading them have had discussion about what the book had meant for them and connections that the students had to the stories. Students have taken their books home now.

I think it was very empowering for students to be able to write stories about their own experiences, which had a huge impact on their lives and the solutions that they found as a way to help others. The stories also brought awareness to the many bullying issues we face within our schools from a students' perspective.