Creating 'Published' Student Writers

I love to teach writing. Being able to open up the minds of kids and introduce them to the ability they have to create anything they can dream about and put it down on paper is so rewarding to both the student and the teacher. We write about everything and I have clipboards hanging in the hallway to display students’ writings each week.

A few years ago a teacher friend introduced me to ‘Student Treasures’, a publishing company specifically for students’ writing. This is an amazing company, and though there are several publishers out there who do what ‘Student Treasures’ does, I am only familiar with the way ‘Student Treasures’ works.

During the summer I go to www.studenttreasures.com and sign up my class to participate in their publishing program. You can request publishing of one book per student, do several group books or do an anthology for your class. The amount of books your class does is totally up to the teacher. I’ve done theme books, yearbooks, fiction, non-fiction and young reader books through the years that I’ve utilized this project.

‘Student Treasures’ lets the teacher and students decide what they want to do with their own books. You choose the type of book or books you would like your students to use, with either a landscape or portrait format and lined or unlined pages. You get to choose your publishing date and ‘Student Treasures’ will send you everything you need to get your writers ready to create books.

In your kit you will receive the packets you have requested, where students can either handwrite or print off their stories. They also include pages to illustrate the stories or poetry that is written. The materials that are sent are the perfect way to incorporate the writing steps of rough draft, editing and final copy. Students get to design the title page, dedication page and book cover as well. It’s a great way to encourage students to work together on a group project or independently go through the steps. There are so many objectives that can be covered with this one project! The teacher is responsible for organizing the pages and making sure each component is completed.

An adult will need to sign a release form for every student who is writing. They will also get a chance to order a copy of the book for $19.95. Once the students’ books are completed, you mail them back to ‘Student Treasures’ with the student release forms.

When ‘Student Treasures’ prints the book, the teacher automatically gets a copy of each book submitted, even if none were ordered, for free to add to his or her classroom library. My students love that they have a book in my library filed under their last name as the author!

Once the books are printed, ‘Student Treasures’ sends the completed books, along with the free books back to the teacher for distribution to families. They have a great turn-around time frame and are very easy to work with.

How do you ‘publish’ your students’ writing?