What motivates students to do their best writing? Getting published and having areal audience are great incentives. So, how can you help your students publish their writing? How do you get your students involved and then prepared to take charge of the publishing process? What are the secrets of successful student publications and how can you and your students achieve successful results?

Chris Weber answers these questions and more in his collection of essays by
inspired and inspiring writing teachers around the world who have helped
students publish. In the process of conferring with these teachers and conducting his own student writing projects, Weber has amassed an impressive collection of student samples that show you what is possible. In Publishing with Students, you’ll learn how to:

• produce traditional forms of student publications, including newspapers,
magazines, and books

• create websites to display student writing and art on the Internet

• implement e-mail publication projects, both local and global

• make a difference in the world through publishing

• discover why and how other teachers publish, and how you can, too.

Filled with activities to encourage and disseminate students’ writing, wise and practical advice from experienced and talented teachers, and engaging case studies, Publishing with Students is, in the words of one of our best authorities on writing, Donald Graves, “an important book to use.”

Table of Contents

1. “Writing to Publish Is for Every Student,” Peter Elbow
2. “Student-Run Magazines: How to Empower Your Students,” Romi Sussman, Matthew Cohen & Angie Cheek
3. “School Newspapers and Newsmagazines: Tips for Getting the News Out,” Katia Fedorova, Joe Brooks, Emily Coutant, Mark Levin, Denise M. Reagan & Harold "Butch" Beedle
4. “Keys to Successful Bookmaking,” Chris Weber, Sou Fou Saeturn, Louise Parms, Celeste Barker, Sam Swope & John Kissingford
5. “Making a Difference Through Publishing,”Lisa Jobson, Chris Weber, Gita Webb, Jennifer Block & Sasa Car
6. “Displaying Students’ Work on the Internet,,”Richard Barrow
7. “E-mail Publication Projects,” Anna Citrino, Leslie Wolverton & Peter Frost
8. “The Inquiry Approach and Publishing,” Mark Wagler
9. “Publishing Models," Dick Swartout, Linda Denstaedt, Tom Wisniewski, Jim Randels GaBrilla Ballard & Adrinda Kelly
10. “Publishing Is for Teachers, Too,”Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy & Eric Kimmel
Afterword: Above the Clouds and in My Blood
Appendixes:
A. “Giving Voice to Your Students’ Dreams,”Arun Narayan Toké
B. Publications That Publish Student Writing, Poetry, and Art
C. Display Your Students’ Writing and Art on the Web
D. Educational Organizations as Resources
E. Award Programs and Writing Competitions
F. The Authors
G. I Also Wish to Thank
H. “Students Keep Me Teaching,”Elizabeth Bridges Hammond

What the Experts are Saying

“[This is] an eye-opening “virtual tour" of what’s going on now in classrooms around the country and around the world. It covers all the bases of classroom publishing…and is filled with wise practical advice and engaging case studies.”
—Christopher Edgar, Publications Director, Teachers & Writers Collaborative

“Something important happens to students who publish and get response to their creations from people who are away from their classrooms.…For teachers who want to expand their students’ worlds through writing Publishing with Students is an important book to use.”
—Donald H. Graves, best-selling author and revolutionary writing teacher

“Publishing with Students begins where most books about writing end. It answers the question: how do student writers find an audience? If writing is communication, the process is incomplete unless writing is shared. How? With whom?… [This book] answers an even more basic question: why we write.”
—Eric Kimmel, Professor Emeritus of Education at Portland State University

“We are always talking about providing students with authentic, meaningful opportunities to publish their writing, but too often we don't know how, or when, or where to do it. [This is] the book I've needed and never found…Chris Weber has written a book we can trust and for which we—and our students—will be grateful.”
—Jim Burke, author of The English Teacher’s Companion

[Publishing with Students] is very well produced and will become a terrific resource for teachers who know that student writing is worth reading and talking about. [Chris Weber’s] passions for working with student writers comes through loud and clear.”
—Jim Stahl, Publisher, Merlyn’s Pen: Fiction, Essays, and Poems by America’s Teens

As a teacher of creative writing and a literary magazine advisor for nearly three decades, I found Chris Weber’s recent work, Publishing with Students, an important contribution to the field. Chris Weber has devoted his teaching career to the advocacy of student publications. His enthusiasm and expertise shines through his lucid prose style. He has compiled an updated compendium of best practices throughout the nation and the world that will challenge and inspire both new and seasoned teachers. I could not put this book down. I learned about exemplary publishing models such as the Communication Arts Center and the Oregon Students Writing and Art Foundation as well as practical tips in bookmaking, Chapbooks.com, and international student publication projects.

Publishing with Students offers a user-friendly guidebook, devoted to process and best practices for the 21st century. Its international perspective, its practical outlook in terms of global and internet communication projects, and its creative approaches to all aspects of publication make this work a valuable resource for teachers.
—Nancy Gorrell, published creative writing teacher and literary magazine advisor, Morristown High School, Morriston, N.J.

Excellent Resource for Developing Eager Writers
From cover to cover, this is the best guidebook for publishing that I've read for teachers and others who are interested in inspiring young writers (K-12)—our future authors, poets, journalists, research scientists, educators, and anyone who appreciates the art of communicating skillfully. It gives our students a real purpose for writing. Every essay was filled with exciting and practical ideas that I wanted to apply immediately within my own classroom. They are written in a structure that is user-friendly, showing you steps to take in producing student publications, interviewing people, and much more, while giving extraordinary examples from students around the world. In fact, I have already used much of the information with my students in their writing, such as the scientific inquiry journal publication 'Great Blue', written about by teacher, Mark Wagler and by using as models the stunning artwork, touching stories and poems written by students in the 'Treasures' publication series by Chris Weber. Please read and enjoy this unique and beautifully written book. I'm certain you will come away eager to apply what has been presented here. Your students will want to write, revise, and put their heart into their writing after you read Publishing with Students.
Aurelia H. Wight, Elementary School Teacher, Portland, Oregon

“What a great book for those of us struggling with the challenge of assisting learners in publishing their work!…Whether you’re interested in newspaper, magazine, or online publishing, you’ll find the experiences here helpful…”
—Sara Day Hatton, Editor of The Active Learner: A Foxfire Journal for Teachers

Start the Presses
Is the student newspaper lacking in luster? Are you trying get students’ work published? Do you want to start a website and get students involved? Then get some pointers from Publishing with Students: A Comprehensive Guide by ESL teacher Chris Weber. With 20 years of publication experience in and out of the classroom, Weber shows you how you can have award-winning publications and spark confidence and creativity in your students.
NEA Today

[Publishing with Students] A great book for teachers and librarians! Longtime writing teacher Chris Weber discusses the value of providing your students with opportunities to share their work with a wider audience. He offers practical suggestions and models for how to publish a student-run magazine or newspaper, how to make hand-bound books, and how to publish student writing on the Internet. The book includes essays and case studies by other teachers, as well as an appendix full of resources.
Stonesoup.com

Publishing With Students: A Comprehensive Guide by Chris Weber (ESL teacher and Founder of the Oregon Students Writing & Art Foundation) is a first-rate introduction and instruction text showing parents and teachers how to best help young people on their way to becoming the next generation of published authors. Individual chapters address the pros and cons of displaying students’ work on the Internet, school newspapers and magazines, e-mail publication projects, crucial steps to successful bookmaking, and much more. Appendixes full of resources round out this informative, practical, “user friendly”, and highly recommended question-answering guide.
Midwest Book Review

Expand your students’ worlds by expanding their audiences. Covering everything from newspaper to magazine to online publishing, Publishing with Students is a handbook for educators willing to take their students’ work to a new level. Contributors include art directors, veteran teachers and editors, a Newbery Honor author, former assistant film directors, and students—all dedicated to assisting young writers in their own publishing pursuits. The book offers tips and lessons for starting school newspapers, building Web sites, conducting Internet projects, and more. The author also provides a list of organizations that offer writing contests and publication opportunities for authors ages 5 to 18.
Monica L. Odle
r•w•t magazine

The Write Stuff
With the recent increase of interest in student writing, librarians may be interested in a new book, Publishing with Students by Chris Weber (Heinemann, 2002). This comprehensive guide offers suggestions for finding an audience for student writing, a list of competitions and awards, and ways to use student-run magazines, the Internet, and school newspapers to publish students’ work.
Association for Library Service to Children Newsletter

The empowered student actively seeks to learn and to grow. Chris Weber gives ample proof of this in Publishing with Students: A Comprehensive Guide. Essays by more than thirty teachers all reach the same conclusion: “Publishing of student writing motivates students to work hard to improve their writing because they have a real audience.”

Weber interlaces the essays with his own commentary. It is sometimes difficult to identify the transition from contributor to editor but the message is always the
same. “Getting your students actively involved in the publication process guarantees success,” Weber says. A hundred pages later, Dick Swartout marvels at the same thing: “Building a community of staff and student writers . . . defined teaching and learning in a new way.”

Weber moves through a series of assumptions and offers supporting evidence from a wide range of teachers. The first assumption is that publication involves students with their own learning. Second, writing, rewriting, editing, layout, printing, distribution, evaluation all become more valuable the more involved the students are. The final assumption is that teachers can publish as well. In fact, Weber says, “those of you who do [publish] will change yourselves and your students forever.”

Publishing with Students begins as a book about how to publish your students’ writing but draws the teacher in, redefining the teacher’s role. We should be encouraging our students to share their work in every way possible. We should be helping our students take ownership of their work. We should be offering them examples of good writing. We should be writing with them, letting them see us struggle to reach the same goals we have for them. As Ada and Campoy say, “If we are concerned with having our students conceive of themselves as writers, it will be important that they can see the process evolve in front of their eyes, that they see their teachers also as authors.”

Some of the essays focus on the writing. Harold Beedle uses publishing as a culmination for a project on rain forests. He is most interested in research and revision. Publication gives a clear purpose and understanding to all of the details necessary for a finished product.

Other essayists find the book itself most important. Louise Parms takes her students “outside the box” when they design their books because “the physicality of a book—its look and design, the way it feels in our hands as we turn or unfold or spread the pages to reveal the mysteries held within—can be as much a part of the process of publishing student work as the effort that goes into the written content between the covers.”

There are specific rules of writing and publishing, the how-to of creating a book. Denise Reagan describes the effect of different typefaces and spacing and headlines. Sam Swope wants the writing his students publish to be inspired and interesting, “and that meant extra drafts, extra editing, extra cajoling, extra nagging” to get the work done well.

The most exciting aspect of this book is the what-then. Once publication has taken place, each of the essay writers reports on the excitement and pleasure and self confidence of the student authors. Their work has importance, and they have importance.

Two final thoughts about Publishing with Students. The book is full of practical advice about the process and empowering students. But it is also a powerful statement about the value of student publishing beyond the classroom. Sometimes the audience is other students and parents, but Chris Weber is very much aware of the rest of the world. He treks in Asia each year to reenergize himself. His collection of essays also reaches out to a larger world, as student writing is used to forge connections between students-in Belize and Zimbabwe and Brooklyn and Canada and Oregon and everywhere there is a teacher helping students publish. Publishing takes students out of their own community and makes them part of the whole world.
—John B. Ferguson, New Hampshire’s Writers’ Project (Book Reviews)

• Online bookstores that carry Publishing with Students: www.stonesoup.com, www.amazon.com, and www.heinemann.com

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