Sequence of the story was also discussed and illustrated on the chalk board. Students were referred to the Writer's Express section on the contents of a good paragraph. Students divide their stories into individual pages, identifying and leaving space on some pages for illustrations to be added later. Each written page of my students' stories was usually one paragraph long. Stories varied from 8 to 21 pages long.
Students write a clean copy of their final story.
Some students used a word processor at home or school and some hand-wrote their stories. Students draw illustrations on separate sheets of paper and glue them onto written pages of the book. After the base color has dried overnight, students trace or draw illustrations in pencil, then fill in with acrylic paint. Inside covers were also decorated, using copies of designs. I assembled the books in class using the school's spiral binding machine as students completed their work.