Writing and Illustrating
Children’s Diversity Books
The project is effective because it allows middle school students to consider what
it means to be diverse, brainstorm, discuss different forms of diversity, and then
write and illustrate a book to teach elementary students these lessons.
Curriculum/State Standards
Wisconsin:
• Create or produce writing to
communicate with different audiences for
a variety of purposes
• Plan, revise, edit and publish clear and
effective writing
• Participate effectively in discussion
• Read and discuss literary texts in order
to understand human experience.
Overview
Middle school students “research”
diversity by reading examples of children’s
books with themes of diversity. They
take notes on the books and then use
the information to write and illustrate a
children’s book of their own, based on a
theme of diversity appreciation. We then
go to the elementary school to read and
give the books to students there.
Objectives
The student will understand and discuss
diversity and examples of diversity.
The student will effectively write a
story, focusing on a beginning/middle/
end, conflict and conflict resolution, a
climactic event, and a theme of diversity
appreciation.
The student will read his own book
fluently to/with a group of elementary
students.
Materials
examples of children’s books that have
themes of diversity; ee always start with
The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss, supplies for
writing, blank hardcover books (found at
www.barebooks.com), markers/colored
pencils, other art supplies
Readiness Activity
liv
es
.
®
g
sc
gin
hoo
l supplies. chan
GRADE LEVEL
We read The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss
and talk about what diversity means. We
brainstormed a list of different forms of
diversity.
Strategies/Activities
• After reading The Sneetches and
making lists of diversity, we work
as a whole class to fill out a guided
reading/notetaking worksheet on the
book. Topics on the worksheet include:
diversity being addressed, describe one
of the illustrations, vocabulary (if any)
that would be difficult for a beginning
reader, the setting of the story, conflict in
the story and how it’s resolved, the main
lesson (theme), and a personal opinion
of the book (what young readers would
like about it).
• After working as a class, students read
at least 3 other books on their own and
complete the worksheets.
• Students work in a graphic organizer
to plan out the guidelines of their
stories. Items on the organizer include:
introduction of story, middle with conflict
about diversity, climactic event to change
characters minds about appreciating
the diversity, the resolution, setting,
characters names (and what they are many students use something other than
humans), the diversity being addressed,
1st or 3rd person point of view.
• Students write/type a draft of their
stories.
• We go through the revision/editing
process.
• When final copies of stories is ok’d,
students get a hardcover book and begin
planning out pages and illustrations. I
require 12-24 pages of text/illustrations,
THIS WINNING PROJECT IDEA SUBMITTED BY:
Scott Raaflaub
Superior Middle School
Superior, WI
6-8
3-5
WEEKS
$450
TOTAL BUDGET
Writing and Illustrating
Children’s Diversity Books
....continued....
depending on how they feel
about illustrating. Tracing and
clip art could be used, depending
on teacher preference. Students
usually have 2-4 lines per page.
• Students do a title/dedication/
letter about the author page.
Culminating Activity
This year, for the first time, we
had third grade classes visit the
middle school at the beginning of
the project. For the culminating
activity we get together with
the classes and read stories
with them. Some years we also
write poetry (acrostic poem with
DIVERSITY works well) or play
math or other games.
Evaluation Method
I use a rubric to evaluate the
effectiveness of their writing for
the audience we have in mind.
We usually write for 3rd graders,
but other grades would work
also.