Publishing a Literary Magazine Inspires Language Arts Students

Language Arts is not the favorite subject of many elementary and middle school students. To motivate your Language Arts students to become more interested in writing, have them publish a Literary and Art Magazine. They will be excited and proud to see their work in print and this can lead to an overall improvement in their learning. This project would also work for homeschoolers.

To get started, announce that the class will be involved in creating and publishing a Literary and Art Magazine. Tell them that each student can submit one story and/or one poem, and a piece of original artwork such as a pencil or ink drawing. Participating in the project is voluntary, and if they don't choose to submit anything, they will not be penalized. If they do choose to submit a quality piece, they will receive extra credit. This does not put undue pressure on students. Some of them may not want to participate at first, but once they see what their classmates are doing, it often encourages the more reluctant writers to give it a try.

Set a reasonable deadline for submissions. One month is a good time frame. That will give the students enough time to finish their projects, but it won't drag on so long that they lose interest and become bored. They will also be anxious to see the finished product.

This is a good project to initiate toward the end of the school year, when students are getting restless and interest in school is lagging. It also gives them an opportunity to show off the skills they have learned over the school year.

If the students want to participate but don't know what to write, which is a common problem, give them a list of writing prompts. Autobiographies or family stories are good topics for students who are having a hard time writing fiction.

Give the students as much autonomy around the project as they can handle. For middle school students, you may want to choose a team of volunteers to assemble the magazine, create a cover and table of contents, and help with photocopying and stapling. For younger elementary students, it is simpler for the teacher to just collect their work and assemble the magazine.

The cover can be made of simple colored copy paper. It is best not to choose a dark color, since the writing will be difficult to read. You can embellish the cover with a piece of student artwork, but this leads to the question of whose work to choose. You may have the class vote, or place the names of all of the students who submitted artwork into a container and pull out one at random.

Make one copy of the Literary Magazine for each student to take home. If it is completed at the end of the year, they may want to sign each other's magazines as they would a yearbook. This is a very rewarding project, and students are pleased and proud to share their accomplishments with their classmates and families.

References:
Personal experience