Zines and Ways to Make Writing Fun

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I think I have a new love.  I absolutely LOVE zines.  A zine is a tiny booklet that provides information.  It is a handmade booklet that can be created to describe, persuade, or inform about any topic.

Using Zines in the Classroom

Finding writing center activities that appeal to upper elementary, middle school, and high school students can be challenging.  The goals are to have students practice writing and want to do it.  This is where zines come in to help.  Since zines look like tiny booklets, students do not feel as though they are writing an essay.  Plus, zines enable students to get creative.  They can add artwork,illustrations, plus graphs and charts to their texts.

A few days ago, I stayed up into the wee hours in the morning making math zines.  I needed to review geometry with a student.  Then the idea came to me, create zines!  (Come back to my blog and I will show you the inside of the zines.)

The zines also inspired me to create my latest task cards.  This is an image from inside of the page of my task cards.  Access them here.

The writing task cards contain helpful tips and templates for creating zines too.

The upper elementary students that I worked with one period really made me smile.  I introduced them to the idea of making zines and they LOVED it.  The students did not want to move on to the next activity.  We explored how we could create zines as an alternative to flashcards in order to review concepts in all subjects.

This is an example of my primary writing paper.  It is wonderful for primary students, but it something different is needed for older students.  

Check back soon.  I will share more images.