by Kaela Williams, Bonner Springs Public Schools
Fourteen Clark Middle School students have accomplished something some adults only wish they could do in their lifetime – writing a novel.
Matt Little, a language arts teacher at Clark Middle School, presented his classes with the challenge and 41 seventh-and eighth-grade students joined in.
They started by setting personal word-count goals for their novels – some had goals as high as 25,000 words. For a month the classes worked on their narratives, and after 30 days, 14 students had completed full novels. One student went the extra mile, writing two.
Little said the accomplishment is nothing short of astounding.
“Any time you set a goal of that magnitude in front of you, then accomplish such a goal, the feeling of doing something this challenging is intrinsically satisfying,” Little said. “I told students that many adults have ‘write a novel’ on their bucket list, and most of us never get around to it. Writing a novel is something they will always be able to claim ‘I did that.’”
Some students continued to work on their novels, and altogether the group of 41 averaged 6,700 words per student.
Little said the students will take away many lessons from this project, but even more so – they have gained perspective.
“As we reflected, I told our authors that many of them wrote more words in one month than most middle school students write in three years,” he said. “Students worked through obstacles, writers block, wars with their inner editor and deadline stress as part of this project. After knocking out a 50-page narrative of 20-plus thousand words, a three- to five-page term paper will never seem quite so daunting again.”
Kaela Williams is the communications coordinator for the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Public Schools
