Fifth Graders Pitch Picture Book Ideas

My fifth graders have been engaged in a digital citizenship/picture book month mash up. They learned about Picture Book Month by evaluating the website and gathering information, using the document below.

Leading up to this unit, the students have read and discussed books that demonstrate the power of story in picture books. Today, they started thinking about the picture book they would write - the story they wanted to tell. I used this stack of picture books as examples of mentor texts. These are books I have read with them in the past. 

I talked about drawing upon where you live, family history, or an emotion as an idea for a story.

I talked about drawing upon a passion, an experience, or an event as an idea for a story. 

I talked about drawing upon an historic event or fact, humor, or a common childhood misunderstanding for a story.

Here's where the digital citizenship came into play. The students needed to pitch their idea on a Padlet. The students shared what they know about posting their work on the web and demonstrated a clear understanding of what their posts and comments should look like and sound like. I reminded them that this is yet another opportunity to practice and learn. And yes, I did something I hadn't done in a while. I opened up the comments option and invited the students to read each other's ideas and then comment. They handled it all pretty well. 

Their picture book pitches range from personal stories to complete fantasies. It's cool to see how they responded to this opportunity.

We'll be moving onto using some digital storytelling to get these stories off the ground. The plan is to ultimately share them with their buddies. I am excited for the next few weeks!

Have a look at some of their ideas and the comments: