Last week I stated that I would be writing a story about my 4th grade student "A.G." who was nicknamed Peanut Butter last school year. Again, my goal is to write and publish a children's book in 8 weeks.
Week 2 Progress
I wrote a story that has to be processed through the U.S. Copyright website. Once that has been completed, I can share the text here. I will however share the beginning of my story. Here it goes...
My name is Andres and I'm in the 5th grade. I am a 'senior' in my elementary school. King Elementary has students from preschool to 5th grade. My teacher, Mrs. Elle said that because we're the 'seniors' all the other kids look up to us. I'm not that tall yet, so I still look up to some of the other students. Some of them are younger than me. My Mom says that's okay because I still have a lot of growing to do. Mrs. Elle also said we're the most mature. Sometimes we're mature. At other times, we still like to horse around. That's what 5th graders do on the playground, jump around as much as possible. When we go back inside the room, we have to sit while listening. My legs need exercise. I think we can be mature and still have fun. I never told anyone, but I like being looked up to. Most of the time, when I know other classes are watching us, I make sure they catch me being a star. At our school a star student is respectful, responsible and safe.
I have a nickname at school. My friends call me Peanut Butter. It all started last year when I was in 4th grade. My classmates wanted to change my name because of the things I said and did.
One day, my teacher opened her closet door to put some books away. I raised my hand and asked her, "Do you have any peanut butter in there?". She smiled and said, "No," then closed the door. At our house, my Mom puts things away in a closet. She also says that it never hurts to ask when you want something.
(To be continued...)
According to Jeff Goins, (the author/blogger I referred to last week about writing and the 5 draft method) people can and should self publish. I'm providing a link in case anyone else is interested in doing this. According to his article, I need a team. So I have an editor and someone who can help me with the design cover. I also need a publisher. I plan on using Amazon. I've been told by other writers that CreateSpace is a reliable and great print-on-demand publisher. They are also able to publish digital copies of books. I think it's ideal to have both digital and written copies available. At this point, I also need to consider how I will launch my book. People have to know that it's coming in order to anticipate it's arrival. Once it's published, they have to know it's ready so that they can purchase it. The book selling process begins long before the text is available!
*Side note* I've also had the thought to include something about peanut allergies. Since there is a notable amount of people who can't be near them, exploring why may be an interesting note to add to my book. I don't remember peanut allergies being such a problem when I was growing up. I'm curious to know more about what has changed in time.
Integration of Readings, Concepts and Theories from Class.
As I sat down to write, I had to rely on my long-term memory to guide me. The episodic memories that continuously came to mind made it easy to brainstorm ideas for this writing piece. Although my memories were somewhat incomplete, the main idea of what happened within our class comes through in the text that I wrote. Once my student was associated with 'peanut butter' by his peers, anytime there was a reference to what we could learn about peanut butter turned into a positive learning experience for all. A great deal of attention was given to this student. Several of his peers thought of him outside of school and often brought in varying peanut butter treats for him to enjoy. They were always given a hearty, "Thank you!" along with a smile. A trip to a peanut butter factory was requested as a possible field trip. Fortunately, there were no known peanut allergies in my classroom or school. In Chapter 2 of Learning and Cognition (Martinez), we read about behaviorism. One learning strategy listed in the text stated that associating learning with positive emotions was powerful. A simple interest that was shared by a student led to many positive feelings about learning throughout the school year.
Reading books about George Washington Carver became interesting to my 4th graders, because of the link to peanuts. This reminded me of Chapter 3 in which we read about learning in context. The content taken on by my class (peanut butter) gave us a context to further explore a topic of interest. We were also able to link all new information gathered about the topic to prior knowledge because this year long experience became a normal part of our 4th grade classroom script. Our special treat, more often than not was making peanut butter sandwiches. The language used to describe, discuss, and explore the possibilities with peanut butter came from one student sharing a thought about what might be in his teacher's closet.
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