With thanks to English Teacher, Mr Chris Hodder 

A group of College Year 8 English extension students travelled across to the Preschool on two consecutive mornings this week, to share stories they had written themselves. Earlier in the year, the students had studied the crafting and design of children’s picture books as part of their literature unit. They focussed on aspects of characterisation, typical narrative arc, text features and sentence construction, as well as physical layout and design elements. 

At the conclusion of the unit, each student authored and illustrated their own picture book and produced it digitally using graphic design software. These have been professionally printed and to validate their work, the students read their publications to a very discerning audience of 3 and 4 year olds at our Preschool! 

Given the option to write about anything they wanted, as long it was child friendly, helped unlock our students’ creativity. The personalised stories were vast in genre, including ‘What’s in Granny’s Basement’ by Jack McKenzie, ‘A Slippery Trip up Mount Fuji’ by Will Richardson and a few about monsters under the bed. These were thoroughly enjoyed by the preschoolers, with many requests for the students to read them repeatedly. 

Each student’s work was assessed in two ways for separate marks. Firstly, on the crafting, development and language use in their story, and secondly on the effectiveness in design and layout of their print publication. The Year 8 students enjoyed being able to share their stories with an authentic audience, and we know the preschoolers loved the opportunity to sit and listen to a morning filled with stories!

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