Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 07/00) - Pluto 2000, Icemon Blasts Off, Again!, Eve 2000, Jupiter Blasters 5000, Nike 2000 and 3M's Space Adventures.

No, these are not the names of popular children's toys or games, they are just some of the books you'll find in Gayla Meredith's Grade 3 classroom at Range Lake North school.

What makes the books so special is the fact that Meredith's students wrote, illustrated and published these titles. Learning was never this fun when I was in school.

Meredith explains that this is called integrated studies. The backbone of the books are the facts; facts about space in this case. It gives students the opportunity to develop their writing and research skills.

"They researched on the Internet, at the library in books, in magazines and then they had to, in the stories, build in the facts," says the enthusiastic teacher.

The students began by working on a class book to take them through the necessary steps: plan a story using a story web, edit the story to ensure it makes sense, plan illustrations so they match the words, build a mini-book, and finally, before publication, proof it to make sure everything is included.

Then it was time to split into groups of four and create a set of books.

"They build confidence in a group setting," Meredith says, adding that in groups her students learn how to bring their ideas together, how to acknowledge and respect their own ideas as well as the ideas of others. They learn how to co-operate and negotiate. In fact, they are collaborating.

Ask the students if working together was difficult and they will all admit that it was...sometimes.

"But we talked to each other and just sort of sorted it out and stuff," says Samantha Durocher.

As for Adina Nasholm, her approach was that if they goofed off and didn't get the work done, they wouldn't get to participate in the "fun activities," (the book launch that took place before Christmas).

And with all the hard work, labouring over the research, the writing and the illustrating, came a deep sense of accomplishment when the children arrived at a consensus on their favourite part about being author/illustrators.

"The way we had ideas and put them together, the way our books sounded," elaborates Nasholm.

"It was so exciting to make," throws in her classmate Durocher.

Next on the agenda is individually authored and illustrated books. With the confidence they've acquired, they can now move on to the experience of the lone writer. Once those books are completed, they will record the text and present them to their friends.

In effect, they will be reading their own books in front of the class, not just the books of famous far-away authors.

"The exciting part is to watch them take ownership, to see them enjoy what they're doing and have fun and learn in spite of themselves. That's the best part, seeing them happy and proud of their accomplishments,"says their proud teacher.