Create Foreign Language Stories
Student-Made Children's Books Improve Writing Skills
Novice level language learners will blossom into prolific writers with this fun, creative project.
Whether learning French, Spanish, German, or ESL, writing is an essential skill. But writing need not be a chore. When put into the context of a story, writing comes alive! Students will be able to mold new vocabulary and grammar into a creation that matches their interests and personality. This year-long project will turn beginning language learners into authors.
Introduction to Storytelling
In order to write in context, students need to hear a lot of stories. The teacher should read picture books and fairy tales, as well as act out original mini-stories in class. Storytelling needs to be an integral part of language learning throughout the year.
Project Set-Up
Within the first month of school, students will decide on a character for their story. Individual personalities shine through the choices: a mischievous chipmunk . . . a sweet little mouse . . . a skateboarding daredevil. The children's book that students produce will not be one coherent story. Rather, it will be a collection of writing samples in which students use their character as the subject. Every student will need a composition book for notes and rough drafts.
Writing Topics
Any vocabulary topic, verb, or grammatical concept that is in the curriculum can be turned into the subject of a piece of writing. Some examples include:
- Introductions of the main character
- Personal descriptions of the character, his family, and his friends
- A floor plan and written description of the character's house
- Descriptions of the character's pets, or a story about "A Visit to the Zoo"
- Descriptions and times of the character's daily activities
- A map of the buildings in the character's city, along with directions
The possible writing topics go on and on.
Writing Tasks
Writing can take many forms at the novice-level:
- Fill-in-the-blank
- Labeling
- Comic Strips
- Narrations
- Dialogs
- Story re-writes
- Poetry
Writing Process
Before writing in the target language, students need to learn the language orally and practice discreet point writing and grammar. Then they are ready to begin the creative writing process:
- Students write a rough draft of the assignment in their composition books.
- Peers edit the rough drafts.
- Students turn the composition book in to the teacher.
- The teacher marks the areas students need to correct.
- Students create a clean, typed, and illustrated final draft.
- Teacher saves the final copy in a file.
Illustrations
Pictures are vitally important to a children's book so that new language is reinforced without translation. This is a natural way to acquire language. Students may choose a method of illustration that works best for them: hand drawn pictures or paintings, clip art, photos, or magazine clippings.
Final Projects
At the end of the year, the students make a cover for their masterpiece and bind it together as a book. They can create a book on tape by making a recording of it. Students also enjoy sharing their books with their classmates and with younger students.
Read a story. Write a story. Have fun improving foreign language writing skills.
