QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #21

Making books

Despite the increasing role of technology in the language classroom, school just wouldn’t be school without books. For most students, that means books provided by the teacher or bought in a book shop. But students can gain a great deal from creating their own books. Below, some sites with a variety of ideas for students  - and not just younger ones - to create books of their own.

http://www.makingbooks.com/freeprojects.html

“Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, the author of Hands-On History: Middle Ages, Super Pop-up Reports for American History, and Multicultural Books to Make and Share, all from Scholastic Professional Books, is now publishing her material for teachers through her website, makingbooks.com. Since 1990, she has taught bookmaking workshops to over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.” This link takes you directly to a page with seven different types of book making projects. But don’t miss the fascinating descriptions of books from around the world, the unusual bibliography on the history of books, or the free monthly newsletter.

http://kwr.co-nect.net/covertocover.html

“What goes into making a book, and how has this process evolved over time? Students explore these questions as they learn the history of books and what goes into bookmaking. They become experts on one aspect of bookmaking and teach the class the specific task they have learned.”

http://www.makersgallery.com/joanirvine/howto.html

Ready to start now? This is a simple one-page instruction sheet for making a pop-up book. Joan Irvine, the creator, provides a link to her home page, which shows how a pop-up looks when it’s moving.