The Classroom Book - a Novel Idea!

I was recently contacted by Alexandra at PictureItKids.com about sharing her ideas for a Classroom Book.  Being a publisher myself, I thought it sounded very interesting.  Her husband Mark submitted a guest post, so please continue reading to learn all about this neat idea!

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One Way to Champion every Student in your Class – Make Them Authors and Artists

As a Language Arts teacher, one of the biggest problems I faced was how to get kids excited
about learning. Sometimes, you can feel like you’re jumping through hoops to make a lesson
interesting and still wonder if you’re getting through to your class at all.

We know that making a human connection is one of the best ways to inspire students to be
motivated and engaged in class, but how do you reach out to every child in a personalized way
when you have more than 20 or 30 students in a classroom?

One solution I came up with is the Classroom Book, a hardcover book featuring the writing and
artwork of every student in the class. It’s a fun and educational way to champion everyone’s
work in the class. By turning your students into published authors and artist, you’re telling each
student you believe in them and in their potential. You can make a book with almost any lesson
plan that that involves writing.

There’s plenty of other benefits to student publishing. It’s project-based learning, which means
the kids get more involved and take more ownership of their work. It’s also an arts-integrated
approach that gets your whole class engaged – not just the linear learners who are comfortable
with words, but also those who like to express themselves through art and pictures. Most
importantly, the students get a physical book with their name inside, which is a big inspiration
to continue writing and reading!


Mark Swenson is a former Language Arts teacher that started Picture It! Kids, a
company that turns students into published authors and artists through
classroom projects. He started this adventure with his wife Alexandra and
three children, the company’s young “artists-in-residence”: ages 10, 8 and 5.