Under the guidance of a project coordinator (can be classroom teacher, parent, student teacher, teacher’s aide) children will work in teams of 4-6 students to write and illustrate their own books. The creative process of working in teams helps provide a natural environment to practice editing, teamwork, and the communication skills necessary for future success. All students involved get a sense of pride and accomplishment from submitting the team project.
Recognition of Winners
All authors will receive a participation certificate. The books will be on display either at the Symposium or at the Mesquite Celebration. First and Second place winners will be recognized at the scheduled event.
 Project Coordinator Help Section: Available LEA Resources
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Read Alouds Directions: o What is an interactive read aloud? Check out the website for a video to watch so you can do your part of the read aloud well. http://www.readingrockets.org/atoz/reading_aloud/ (there is also a video to watch)
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
LEA Directions: o What is the Language Experience Approach? How do you use it well? Check out these sites if you are a project coordinator.
 http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/21108_Introduction_from_Nessel.pdf
 http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/implementaliteracyprogram/howtoc reatealanguageexperience.htm
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RekF7Z_cHs
Introduce the Writing Competition to the Children
  • the interactive read aloud protocol (more about this in the Project Coordinator Help
Section). This approach was chosen because Bill Martin, who was a struggling reader, attributes his love of books to his 5 th
grade teacher who read aloud to the class daily.
  •
Martin Jr books. This is important, as they need to pick a pattern they want to copy while they are writing their book.
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Introduce the competition to the students as a concluding activity to a unit on authors/illustrators or as part of a unit on teaching the elements of story writing.
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Let the students pick a topic they are learning about or have learned about and a pattern they would like to follow.
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Use the Language Experience Approach (LEA) to scaffold student writing (more about this in the Project Coordinator Help Section). LEA was created to help middle school struggling readers. LEA has the student telling the story, the teacher taking dictation while the student is watching. Once it is written, it goes through the editing process.
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The group book needs to have gone through the writing process. Children need to learn that good writing takes time. Bill Martin worked on many of his books for up to 10 years before they became published.
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Make sure the artwork complements the text. Each student can print the text on their assigned page or this can be typed as long as the students are sitting in front of white board and the project coordinator is reading what is being typed (see youtube)
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Create the book around something you are studying or have studied.
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Do not use licensed characters, trademarked, or brand names (Mickey Mouse,
McDonald’s, etc.) These names are protected by copyright.
New Guidelines
  books written using a story pattern from a book written by Bill Martin, Jr.
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The book should be created using the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and the writing process.
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Illustration Guidelines:
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The illustration should be done on plain paper of any size up to 8 ½ x 11.
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The artwork can be created using construction paper, paint, ink, crayons, etc. Do not use
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New technology component pencil, as that is not dark enough to show up well. In addition, all the artwork throughout the book should be created in the same style and materials. Consider making use of contrast in the artwork to create surprise and add life to pictures. Put dark colors next to light colors, thin lines next to thick lines, or use sharply contrasting figures.
 The illustrations should be centered and cover about ¾ of the page in order to leave room for the print.
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As you are creating the book, take pictures of the process. When the book is done, take pictures of the front cover and inside pages (2 pages per picture). We hope you will do this before you cover or laminate so the picture is not glary.
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Text Guidelines
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Let the students write their ideas. Then help them change their writing to the correct format by using the editing phase of the writing process. This is helping them go through the writing process, where they learn that good writing takes time and many drafts.
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If the text is going to be typed, have younger students sit by you as you type the text so they can see the oral language/print match. However, hand written books are encouraged. Or, older students can type the print that will be found on their page. This is not something the coordinator does alone. Students must learn from this writing experience and at the end can read their book easily (see LEA in the Project Coordinator
Help Session).
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You need to create a real book. o The book should be bound in some manner, with pages front to back like a real book. That means the pages should be laminated together if you laminate your book. You can also use clear contact paper, plastic sleeve cover, or nothing at all. We are just trying to protect student’s creation but it is not part of the contest. However, you need to make sure the binding does not have a negative impact on the turning of the pages.
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You will need a hard cover.
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Authors can be written in 2 places - Cover and Title Page
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Authors names can be written 2 different ways
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Can be written collectively as “the students in Mrs. Blank’s 1 st
NEW
Submission requirements and DATE grade class” or
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Write the first names of all the student authors
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You will need a title page, and copyright page.
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Copyright will be ©BMJ 2016 o These ideas are all part of making your creation feel like a book. On the last page, there should be a picture of the class authors.
 Submission o Mail the completed book, (typing/printing and make sure the project “feels” like a real book) to the address below or give to one of the center coordinators, o Completed entry form should include a student explanation of why they chose the content of the book and why they chose the pattern they used, and o Email the pictures of making the book and the book (cover and each page of the book before it is bound). We need a picture of the cover, and picture of the pages within the book (2 pages per picture). These pictures will be used to
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create a PowerPoint presentation for the Author of Class Celebration. Your email will be acknowledged after we receive the book. o Submit to the Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction Office, Ed South, Texas A&M
University-Commerce, P. O. Box 3011, Commerce, Texas, 75429-3011 in care of Author of Class by March 15, 2016. These can also be turned into Susan
Williams at the Mesquite Campus, Debra Lee in Rockwall, Rhonda Clark in
Commerce, Heather Doyle in McKinney, Amy Corp in Corsicana, or to Frieda
Golden in Midlothian.
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School Name: ____________________________________________________________________
■P
School Address ___________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip ___________________________________________________________________
Teacher ________________________________________________________________________
Project Coordinator (if different than teacher):_______________________________________________
Project Coordinator E-mail: _________________________
Circle the category in which you are entering your book. (Check One) ■ Fiction ■ Nonfiction
Title of Entry ____________________________________________________________________
Total Number of Participants _________________Grade Level(s) of Participants ___________
(Must have 3 -7)
To enter the BMJ’s Author for Class Competition both the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and the writing process were used to create a class book. In addition, the students must have created the artwork. I have included a typed list of the authors’ names, so this can be used to create the participation certificate.
By signing below, I verify the above was done. You may need two signature pages for all the authors if you have your class create a book.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Signature of the Teacher Date
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_________________________________________________________________________________
Signature of the Project Coordinator (if different from the teacher) Date
________________________________________________________________________________
Date Signature of the Principal
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
_______________________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Author Date
Make sure the students have written an explanation on why the topic and the pattern of the book were chosen. They can write this as a group or individually about their viewpoint.
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