Zines for Kids: Multigenre Texts About Media Icons

Materials and Technology

Student Interactives

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• Magazines

• Computers with Internet access and printing capability

• LCD projector

• Overhead projector

• File folders (one for each student)

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

Bio Cube

Bio Cube is a useful summarizing tool that helps students identify and list key elements about a person for a biography or autobiography.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

Story Map

The Story Map interactive is designed to assist students in prewriting and postreading activities by focusing on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Organizing & Summarizing

Cube Creator

The interactive Cube Creator helps students identify and summarize key elements. It can be used as a prewriting or postreading activity.

 

Grades   3 – 10  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Multigenre Mapper

This interactive invites students to create original multigenre, multimodal works--one drawing and three written texts--making the tool flexible for multiple writing activities.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing Poetry

Acrostic Poems

This online tool enables students to learn about and write acrostic poems. Elements of the writing process are also included.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Letter Generator

The Letter Generator is a useful tool for students to learn the parts of a business or friendly letter and then compose and print letters for both styles of correspondence.

 

Grades   K – 8  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Book Cover Creator

The Book Cover Creator is designed to allow users to type and illustrate front book covers, front and back covers, and full dust jackets. Students can use the tool to create new covers for books that they read as well as to create covers for books they write individually or as a class.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Comic Creator

The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on).

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Printing Press

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.

 

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PRINTOUTS

• Facts–Questions–Interpretations (FQI) planning sheet

• Rubric for Digital/Visual Literacy

• Rubric and Anecdotal Chart for Multigenre Writing

• My Own Zine Evaluation handout

• Comic Strip Planning Sheet
  

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WEBSITES

• ReadWriteThink.org Lesson Plans That Teach Genres of Writing

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PREPARATION

1.	Provide a wide variety of popular magazines for students to examine. Instruct students to pay particular attention to the formats of these publications and the use of text and pictures.
2.	Ask students to bring in reading materials about their favorite popular culture topics and figures. Explain that they should use these materials to collect information for use in their own zines.
3.	Make overhead transparencies of the Facts–Questions–Interpretations handout and the Comic Strip Planning Sheet, and make copies of both handouts for each student.
4.	Make a copy for each student of the handout My Own Zine Evaluation.
5.	Familiarize yourself with the ReadWriteThink.org online tools used in this lesson (see Student Interactives). Bookmark these tools on students’ computers, and make sure that they function properly. Be prepared to provide support and assistance to students as they use these tools to create their projects. Either before or during the lesson, introduce each tool using an LCD projector, and model use of the tool by working with the class to create a shared piece of writing.
6.	Create your own sample zine for students to examine in Session 1 when you introduce the project. Provide several copies of this sample zine.
7.	Make sure students are familiar with each of the different genres they will be using in the project. If you need to introduce or review any of the genres, you may wish to use the suggestions in ReadWriteThink.org Lesson Plans That Teach Genres of Writing.
8.	Introduce the concept of multigenre texts. You may wish to adapt suggestions and resources from the lesson “Reading and Analyzing Multigenre Texts”.

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