The Book of Us project is a book that was created by 52 students from Team Run DMC. Each and every student wrote a non-fiction piece about something that mattered to us. Every piece was completely different from each other. From an informative piece to a personal experience they've had in their lives. These pieces created The Book of Us.
The process in creating this book began with a free write. Our teacher began with the class asking us to write sentences using one of these starters:
After finishing the free write we started critiquing last years book "We Chose Our Own Adventure." We discussed what we wanted to change in this years book and what we would like to keep.
After discussing about how our book would look like, the process of writing our pieces started. My teacher gave us two documents that would help guide us in our work and make it easier for us to come up with potential ideas on what we could write about. The first document was the 1 Topic = 18 Topics. In this document we chose one topic the we wanted to write about and extended that topic into 18 specific topic but that talked about the 1st topic we chose. This piece helped manifest our ideas into a piece that would be potentially be a worthy piece of writing. The second document was our "Real World Writing purposes field guide." This document outlined the several types of non-fiction writing that real world authors use you write their own piece.
The process in creating this book began with a free write. Our teacher began with the class asking us to write sentences using one of these starters:
- Once, I almost…
- One lesson I learned the hard way was…
- The best thing I ever did was...
After finishing the free write we started critiquing last years book "We Chose Our Own Adventure." We discussed what we wanted to change in this years book and what we would like to keep.
After discussing about how our book would look like, the process of writing our pieces started. My teacher gave us two documents that would help guide us in our work and make it easier for us to come up with potential ideas on what we could write about. The first document was the 1 Topic = 18 Topics. In this document we chose one topic the we wanted to write about and extended that topic into 18 specific topic but that talked about the 1st topic we chose. This piece helped manifest our ideas into a piece that would be potentially be a worthy piece of writing. The second document was our "Real World Writing purposes field guide." This document outlined the several types of non-fiction writing that real world authors use you write their own piece.
The next day, class was dedicated to just write free writes based on the "Real World Writing purposes field guide." We took 5 minutes for each for topics from the document 1 Topic = 18 topics worksheet. We wrote about out main topic just in a different perspective each time. Once we were done with each of the topics we had a good understanding which topic would be the best one to write about and which ones did not really make sense and were not good writing pieces.
When we were all done with the free writes we were able to choose which one of the 18 free writes we wanted to write about. From the one free write we chose, we were able to expand on that and create our Down Draft. After several critiques and revision, a final draft was completed. Looking at the differences, you can tell how much it changed.
When we were all done with the free writes we were able to choose which one of the 18 free writes we wanted to write about. From the one free write we chose, we were able to expand on that and create our Down Draft. After several critiques and revision, a final draft was completed. Looking at the differences, you can tell how much it changed.
Some free writes based on 1 Topic= 18 topics graphic organizer
Mentor text graphic organizer
"Golden Lines" portrait
Exhibition
Down Draft
Final Draft
Journey to the Final Draft
Starting this project i already knew what I wanted to write about, and that was my grandpa. I just did not know exactly how to put what I felt and what I had experienced in words. My piece was critiqued and edited by several of my peers and my two teacher before it got to a piece worth reading. I started by just writing ideas down, and getting my feelings and moments I have experienced with my grandfather. I then decided to start out my first draft. I had some ideas that I wanted to write about. My main idea was writing about a specific moment I had with my grandfather before he passed away. Yet after I thought about it, the reason why I wanted to write about him in the first place was to get his story out, but I didn't exactly know what his story was as you can tell in my first draft. I had to talk to my dad to figure out what exactly he was diagnosed with. After that conversation everything was so much easier. I was able to write my second draft, it was even better than the first. I know felt ready for my peers to critique it and edit it. Each time it was edited by someone else I changed it, and it happened about 10 times. Because of those changes my piece is not the same as when I started. I added the two things I wanted: My grandfathers story, and moments I had with him that I cherished.
This project helped in so many ways, and one of those ways is having a different perspective in what I am writing about. The document my teacher shared with us, the 1 Topic = 18 Topics was exactly what I needed to help expand my thoughts.
Something I would change about my piece would be being more descriptive. I am proud of my writing but I know that if I added more details it could be even better. The only way I could be more descriptive in my future writing pieces would be by reading more.
This project helped in so many ways, and one of those ways is having a different perspective in what I am writing about. The document my teacher shared with us, the 1 Topic = 18 Topics was exactly what I needed to help expand my thoughts.
Something I would change about my piece would be being more descriptive. I am proud of my writing but I know that if I added more details it could be even better. The only way I could be more descriptive in my future writing pieces would be by reading more.