Learning by making books

bookmake2: Learning by making books

While others were preparing for the holidays, Irvin conducted three December bookmaking workshops in Arvin/Lamont and Delano for teachers, instructional aides, students and parents in the After School Programs Network and Migrant Education programs.

Her “Bookmaking with Children” is itself a book Irvin uses in workshops that provides instruction with illustrations and templates for six book designs. Books can be make that look like a ladder, pocket or circle or, if you prefer, a shape, folded or interactive book.

“Don’t get the idea that teaching bookmaking is all about crafts,” Irvin said. “Book making is a comprehension activity designed to work across the curriculum. In the workshop you learn how important reading, writing and comprehension are to the process of making a book.”

Each of her book designs is intended to kindle a creative response.

“I bring published books with me to provide students with ideas,” Irvin said. “Books with titles such as “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” “Knots on a Counting Rope” and “The Wednesday Surprise” all present stories creatively. When reading is really a struggle, I find having students write about a personal experience or an exaggerated story of their own can be just as effective.”

In Irvin’s workshops, bookmaking is not a solitary task. For instance, making a circle book requires the layering of several different colored, rounded sheets of construction paper on top of each other. A slit is cut in each to permit folding in a circular fashion to reveal the next sheet underneath. Each sheet is divided into segments. Every student is assigned a segment and has to write a portion of the story to go in that segment. As the segments are read, the sheet is folded over to the next segment until the entire story is read following a circular route from top layer to bottom layer.

“I can really see a positive learning side to this workshop,” said Arvin Union School District Assistant Superintendent Jerelle Davis. “It’s great anytime you interest students in writing and reading. That’s a strength. The fact one workshop united parents and students in our After School and Migrant Education programs is powerful. It helped give parents another way to assist in the education of their children.”

Janis Jones, coordinator of the After School Programs Network, enlisted Irvin because the network, funded through a CALWorks grant, has a goal of making after school programming more than child care.

“So much of the instruction in schools today is concerned with improving standards,” Jones said. “After school activities should be fun and creative but they have to provide a learning link to enrich what students are taught during regular school hours. That’s why Teresa’s workshops are just as vital to those who provide supervision in the after school programs. Many of them are instructional aides or others who don’t have formal teaching backgrounds. Projects such as bookmaking provide a connection with students geared toward helping them succeed.”
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