The Book of Us 2015In November, 2015, 56 10th-graders in Chula Vista, California, were given a challenge: to write a piece about whatever mattered most to them in the world.
Each writer started with an idea, stretched it out to many more possibilities, narrowed it again, and then worked on shaping and developing it over the course of many drafts and critiques. Some people wrote two or three completely different pieces on their way to finding what they needed to say. Some people kept working on the same piece from the very first day, refining it until it met their standards. These pieces span subjects ranging from soccer to relationships to the films of Quentin Tarantino, and from laughter and friendship to violence and trauma. This is our book - it’s the Book of Us, after all - but it can be your book too. |
What students said about The Book of Us 2015:
Each student’s journey began with a single topic, often not more than a single word. This became 18 potential pieces, then narrowed to six “quick writes”, and finally a single draft. At this point, some students threw out their drafts completely and started fresh while others expanded and refined their initial idea into a finished piece.
What I did was check all my quick writes to see if any had enough to keep writing or if I should start anew. In the end, I just combined them. I wrote about past experiences of my life and how I learned from them, about my anxiety, and about how I came to be who I am today. -Ilse (read more on her digital portfolio) |
Something that I am really proud of about this piece is that it went from one big chunk of little stories to one story with many paragraphs. Another thing that I was proud of was that I found something that I was interested in writing about, because most of the time I have to write about something that I'm not really passionate about.
-Elizabeth (read more on her digital portfolio) |
When I was writing my piece I started off very passionate and headstrong about how horrible technology was, but I realized I was being very ignorant. I was ignoring both sides: the good and the bad. After reading countless mentor text I realized my one article cannot change the world, but I can help people remember. My final draft is a little more subtle than my first draft, because of all my critique sessions.
-Caitlyn (read more on her digital portfolio) |
When I started this project I wanted to write about music because that is something that I am very passionate about: I really can't go a day without listening to it. I tried different ways to start my piece but it just wasn't working. I then thought of something else that I'm passionate about: being a big brother. I now know that the first thing that pops into your head to write about probably isn't going to be what you ultimately will want to write about.
-Azriel (read more on his digital portfolio) |
I first started off wanting to write about What Makes a Good Movie. I started that, then realized something was missing. After writing two more drafts I realized that there are too many aspects of what makes a good movie for me to include in one piece. I decided to analyze a scene from one of my favorite movies instead. My new draft was now more specific and intriguing. I would say that this is one of my best pieces yet and therefore I would not change anything (At least not at the moment).
-Kaia (you can read more on her Digital Portfolio) |
There is a big difference between my first draft and my last: in my last there is a lot more about how my mom felt, and I am more descriptive about memories my mom had when she was pregnant. Something I did in this project that I plan to do on others is that I interviewed my mom, and that helped my piece a lot. In the future, I would like to interview someone related to what I am writing about.
-Verenice (you can read more on her Digital Portfolio) |
Dr. P's Prototype
I'm writing my own piece for this project. You can see all the documents I've made during my process in this folder.
Project Documents
You can find all the documents I've handed out as part of this project in this folder.