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Learning Experience/Unit

MiniZine Writing Project by St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES


Subject

English Language Arts (2005), English Language Arts (NYS P-12 Common Core)

Grade Levels

Intermediate, 7th Grade


Assessment

The attached rubric was used to evaluate the completion of the various tasks and the quality of the students' writing.

Learning Context/ Introduction

This multi-genre culminating project allows students to explore a topic of interest and publish a completed work.

Duration

All in all, the project takes seven to eight weeks. I would allow three class days for each of the writing pieces and a minimum of three class days for finish work, including moving work around in the template and finishing the covers. We started this project in the late winter, completed one or two pieces and then took a break to read a book, completed a few more pieces, read another book, did some more of the writing pieces in class, and then spent a week in the computer lab finishing up.

Essential Questions

  • How does form influence message?
  • How does writing about a topic enable the writer to explore the topic more fully?

    • Instructional/Environment Modifications

    The template should be made available for students to download. Computer lab accessibility during class and student study hall time is essential.

    Procedure

    1. Through the course of the year, students are introduced to various purposes for writing, including narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive.
    2. One class period: students brainstorm a list of topics and then for homework choose one topic they think they can "live with" for the better part of a ten-week quarter.
    3. Students spend one to two days on each of the kinds of writing included in the template, and then move completed work into the template. The attached template could be modified to include any genre of writing. The project could be simplified by reducing the number and different kinds of required pieces.
    4. Final work is printed, photocopied back-to-back, and folded in half to create the final MiniZine.
  • MiniZine Template
  • Topic Brainstorming

    • Reflections and Feedback

    • Students are very proud of their finished products.
    • Older students might be assigned topics related to other work in English class. The project could easily be turned into an author, genre or time period study, but my goal with seventh graders is really to just have kids writing a lot. I wanted to work on the quality of the writing and writing for specific purposes, not research.

    Student Work

    Completed MiniZines

  • MiniZine Sample One
  • MiniZine Sample Two
  • MiniZine Sample Three

    • Related Resource

    • Bott, Christie. "Zines --- The Ultimate Creative Writing Project." English Journal, November 2002.
    • Cohen, Barbara. "The Zine Project: Writing with a Personal Perspective." Language Arts, November 2004.


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