A writing project at Muriel Clayton is teaching some Grade 5 students more than just proper punctuation. 

Nick Stabler's class has been working together to write a novel about a Syrian refugee, Ammar, who flees to Canada after a terrorist attack.

Stabler said at the outset of the project, he originally suggested a few topics for the students, and the situation with Syria resonated with them.

"We thought that the story of Syria was kind of in the news at that time and a lot of the refugees were coming to Canada when we started off this project, so we thought that might be a timely topic to learn a little bit more about."

The work of writing the novel is divided among the students, with groups responsible for certain chapters and each student writing a portion of the chapter.

Although the novel is a language project, it is teaching the class much more.

"We learned lots of punctuation errors and how to fix them, like quotation marks, and how to add details to a story. You can describe how the place looks in your mind," said student Ramasa Shahzad. "We also learned about teamwork."

"We learned that not everybody has as many rights. Some people don't even get to go to school, and here we have a great life," said student Heinrich Botha.

Stabler explained that the project has brought writing and story telling to life for the class, and also touches on Canadian identity, a focus of their social studies classes. Besides writing the novel, the class is also designing a cover and will be taught how to bind the book into hardcover, which instills some design skills. The subject of the novel is teaching the students about current events and promoting empathy, and the group aspect is teaching collaboration and teamwork.

The students are on the final stage of writing now, and will soon do a big group edit.

 

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