It’s time for another update from our Books By Us facilitators, Michelle and Nansi.
Week 4 update from Michelle
We received the best kind of feedback today! Here’s what a Grade 6 Loch Primary School student had to say after our session.
‘Thank you for coming today. I usually don’t like writing, but I love Books By Us!’
Woohoo! And that is why Books by Us is such a great program. I asked Nansi her thoughts on BBU and she said – ‘What sets Books By Us apart from other writing activities is that the students know they are producing something real. A proper book that will be borrowed and read by library patrons all over Victoria. That sense of purpose and authenticity means that even reluctant writers quickly become enthusiastic and engaged. We hear them talking about their research, writing and editing tasks like professionals. ‘My book is going to have this in it’, or ‘I’m going to find out about that for my book’. It’s fantastic to watch them developing such pride in their work.
Three cheers for Books By Us!
Week 5 update from Nansi
We’re now halfway through the Books By Us program with Loch Primary School, and the students are slogging through one of the most challenging parts of writing a book: getting a complete first draft down! This week, everyone demonstrated how well they can focus on a difficult task when there’s the exciting end result of having their own book in the libraries to look forward to.
Our future authors learned how editors help make a book the best it can be and that even very famous authors need great editing! They also learned the difference between a structural edit (which looks at plot, characters and style) and proofreading (which means checking for small errors and typos). A few of the Loch PS students even managed to finish their first drafts, and were able to swap manuscripts with each other for structural editing!
Some of the books in development include a stirring war tale based on the true story of the German battleship Bismarck, the magical story of what happens if you skip school and end up in a dragon forest, and a guide to three different dog breeds – complete with adorable snippets about the three writers’ own pet pups!
Stay tuned for more updates as we head into the second half of Books By Us.
Read our other updates here.
Follow Nansi Kunze on Twitter.
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