Holly Winter Huppert, a middle school teacher and contributing writer to About.com Denver, has helped her class at Morgridge Academy publish a book of short stories. She describes the process of involving her students in "Everything is a Song: Our Stories."

Right now, my students are working on marketing the book and preparing for our book release party on Feb. 12, 2015. If you are in Denver, please join us.


We’ll celebrate our book with book sales, door prizes, a short talk and the authors will perform two songs.

What: Book release party for "Everything is a Song: Our Stories"
Date: Feb. 12, 2015
Time: 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Where: Molly Blank Building at National Jewish Health
Snack: Chocolate cake
Order: If you can’t make the celebration but would like to support my students, please order the book here.

How did the book start?

At the start of this school year, reluctance ruled my middle school literacy class. When writing, students dabbled in ambiguity, steering away from originality or opinions or anything real. Nobody liked to read. Nobody cared to write more than one long paragraph with run-on sentences and ill-fitting clauses. If a spelling or grammar mistake were pointed out, the student would sulk in frustration, refusing to make any changes while swearing off all future writing projects.

How would I reach them?

Students wanted to write an ongoing diary of their moods, what they ate and who they would hang out with after school.

How was I to help them relate to the heady literature that middle school curriculum mandates? They knew Shakespeare was a magical tortoise on the Disney Channel, poetry must rhyme and the only controversial topic they could think of was wearing socks with sandals.

How would I teach them?

Although these students had had years of strong teaching, their abilities ranged from early elementary to middle school. I teach at Morgridge Academy, a school for children who have chronic illnesses located in National Jewish Health medical center. Many of my kids have missed months of school every year as they battled medical-related illnesses. As their teacher, I must fill in the missing pieces of their “Swiss cheese” education and get them to grade level.
How would I get them to grade level?
 
I’d learned a lot in my 25 years of teaching; motivating students to learn is essential, especially in this age range. I needed a hook, something to drive their interest and pique their curiosity. It was the third week of school that I suggested a project: “Would you like to write and publish a book?”

The class grew quiet. “About what?” an eighth-grade boy asked.

“About your lives.”

I had their interest. They thought that  their journal entries which showed them to be cooler, stronger and more interesting than everyone else would make a fantastic read. I warned them that creating a book would be the most difficult thing they’d ever done.

They asked if we could have a party when the book was published. "Sure."

“Could we have chocolate cake at the party?” an eighth-grade girl asked. "Yes."

In the beginning, students typed their favorite journal entries into a Google Document. They felt that typing their work was a final draft. Done. After a month of typing their entries, we started peer editing. They would have a friend read their work. At this stage, most editors read the work then claimed they liked it and that the write was done.

How could I get them to go deeper?

As we continued our literature studies, students discovered that  everything they read was somebody’s writing assignment. “Someone wrote this?” They paid attention to word choice, use of dialogue and creative imagery. Long books shocked them. “That’s a lot of work for one author!”

We discussed the book, “Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss?” by the New York artist James Victore. They found his opinions startling and his art posters confusing.

“Do people get mad at him for his ideas?” one girl asked.

Truth as an individualized belief was a new concept. What is truth? How do we value opinions that don’t match our own beliefs? Lists of controversial topics filled their notebooks, along with their opinions on racism, same-sex marriage, morality, Christopher Columbus, the death penalty and gun-control laws.

The magnetic pull of original thoughts tugged at them; writing became a way to record the interpretation of their truths, their lives. Can I write about cutting? Can I write about bullying? Can I write about confusion?

Kids showed courage on paper. They wrote about passions, wishes, and problems. James Victore became their inspiration; they wanted to be as truthful on the page as he was.

The editing process intensified; after the second peer-edit, I made suggestions. Longer. More personal stories. Clarify. Cut. Change. Vying to be understood, students spent their time writing and rewriting--as many as fifteen different versions of one story. Our classroom volunteer spent hours copy-editing their stories with them.

Though they didn’t love to read, they wanted to be read.

This is when my job moved from teacher to editor. I chose what I thought was the strongest of eight writes; this is the write that would get into the book. The rewriting process continued. Students read each other’s work again and again. “I don’t care about this part. This story makes me sad, but I don’t understand the end.”

I sat and watched as kids reached for the satisfaction that their story mattered. If their story mattered, then they mattered.

Since I had self-published my memoir the year before, I was familiar with the process. We used Amazon’s print-on-demand publisher, CreateSpace. The principal of our school agreed to advance us the money we needed to hire a cover designer, copy editor and book designer.

We started a publishing company and named it “Small Academy Press.”

I taught lessons in cover design, interior book design and marketing. One group of students spent weeks designing the cover, while others made lists of what they wanted the interior to look like. Students voted on every decision; if there was strong opposition, they worked on changing their ideas until most students agreed.

It took weeks to come up with the title. When we were down to two favorite titles, the kids crowdsourced to see what others thought. “Everything is a Song: Our Stories” became our title.

Students took over the decision-making process, ordering the stories, finishing edits and corresponding with the book builders. One student wrote the forward, another the acknowledgments. After five months of hard work, we held the proof in our hands.

“We’re done!” they chanted.

I shook my head. “We’re halfway done. The second half is just as difficult. Do you want to continue?”

They were given opportunities to give up, change their minds or opt out. Every student voted to continue the process.

In a project such as this, success was measured at every step. The ability to see a first draft as a springboard to a clear story? Yes. Compassion and sensitivity during the peer-editing process and ability to see strengths and weaknesses? Yes. Intrinsic motivation to express truths on paper? Yes. Committed to doing their best work? Yes.

They care about getting it right. I have reached them.

As a bonus for their hard work, I contacted James Victore and asked if he would write an original quote for the beginning of the book. He did, and my students were overjoyed to have his words in their book project.

Holly Winter Huppert is a writer, teacher and photographer living in Denver. Her memoir "Unlikely Memories and Two Amnesias" is available through her website. Follow her on Twitter @mshollywinter.