Publishing Our Stories

Overview

Lesson 15 of 16 in Empowered English: Tuarere Tahi. Students select, improve and publish a short personal or imaginative story for a class anthology, then practise sharing it respectfully with an audience. Adapt writing expectations for individual learners from Year 0 to Year 3.

Learning intentions

• WALT choose a piece of writing that shows our learning and growth.
• WALT improve our writing so that our ideas are clear to a reader.
• WALT publish our story using words, pictures and careful presentation.
• WALT share our work and respond positively to others.

Success criteria

• I can choose a story and explain why I chose it.
• I can check that my story has a clear beginning, middle and ending, where appropriate.
• I can add details, labels, punctuation or illustrations to help my reader.
• I can share my work clearly and celebrate another writer’s effort.

Curriculum links

• English: creating meaning through writing, drawing, oral language and multimodal texts.
• English: selecting, organising and developing ideas for a purpose and audience.
• English: using language features, print conventions and text structures appropriate to the learner.
• Te Mātaiaho: belonging and contribution, communication, and managing self through collaborative learning.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 minutes – Reconnect with our learning Welcome students to the publishing lesson. Open with the hook and learning intention slides and show a simple “draft to published book” visual. Ask: “How can we help a reader enjoy and understand our story?” Briefly explain that the class will create an anthology to show their growth.

2. 5–12 minutes – Model publishing choices Display a short teacher-created story in draft and finished form using the draft-and-published-example slides. Think aloud as you improve one idea: adding a detail, fixing a word, adding a full stop, using a capital letter, or choosing an illustration. Emphasise that publishing is not about making every piece identical; it is about making each writer’s meaning clear.

3. 12–18 minutes – Choose and plan Give each student two or three suitable pieces from the unit, or help them recall a story they have written. Students choose one for the anthology and tell a partner: “I chose this because…” Use the story publishing page for students to draw or write their title, author name, intended audience and one improvement they will make. Year 0–1 students may dictate ideas to an adult or use drawings and oral rehearsal.

4. 18–38 minutes – Revise and publish Students create their final anthology page or pages. They may rewrite, copy a teacher-scribed version, type with support, draw a sequence, or combine words and pictures. Circulate for brief conferences using the prompts on the revision prompts slide: “What do you want your reader to notice?”, “What happens next?”, and “Can you make this part clearer?” Support students to check an appropriate feature: oral retelling and picture sequence for younger learners; spaces, capitals, full stops, spelling of known words and added detail for older or more independent writers.

5. 38–45 minutes – Peer publishing check Pair students with a supportive partner. Partners use the story publishing page to give one warm comment and one helpful suggestion, orally or by drawing a symbol. Model respectful language: “I liked…”, “I noticed…”, and “You could add…” Students make a final change if it improves meaning.

6. 45–55 minutes – Author sharing Invite students to share in small groups of three or four. Each author reads, retells or presents their story, showing illustrations where relevant. Listeners practise attentive bodies and offer one specific appreciation. Use the author-sharing and audience prompts slides to remind students to speak clearly, listen carefully and respond kindly. Students who are not ready to read aloud may share with a partner, point to pictures, or have an adult read their text.

7. 55–60 minutes – Gather the anthology Collect pages in a class order, such as alphabetical order, story type or publication date. Revisit the learning intentions with the reflection slide. Ask students to complete the oral sentence: “My story shows I have grown as a writer because…” Celebrate the class as a community of authors and explain that the next lesson will launch or revisit the completed anthology.

Resources

• the publishing lesson deck
• the story publishing page
• Students’ drafts and writing from previous lessons
• Pencils, crayons, coloured pencils and erasers
• Writing paper or pre-prepared anthology pages
• Stapler, folders or binding materials
• Optional device or keyboard access
• Teacher conferencing notes
• A completed teacher model of a draft and published story

Assessment

• Observe whether students select a purposeful piece, explain a choice and make at least one revision.
• Confer with students during publishing to assess idea development, clarity, use of pictures or words, and age-appropriate print conventions.
• Listen during sharing for oral language, active listening and respectful responses. Keep one published sample with earlier work to show progress in the final lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide oral rehearsal, picture sequencing, sentence frames, shared writing, tracing or adult scribing for Year 0–1 learners and students developing fine-motor or writing skills.
• Offer word banks, personal dictionaries, enlarged paper, pencil grips, speech-to-text or a quiet publishing space for students needing additional support.
• Allow students to publish through drawing, labels, dictated language, handwriting, typing or a combination of modes.
• Extend confident writers by adding a stronger opening, precise vocabulary, dialogue, a clear ending or a short author’s note explaining their writing choices.
• Support multilingual learners to use home-language ideas, bilingual discussion, labelled illustrations and rehearsed oral sentences before publishing.