Customer Reviews

If Kids Could Ask the President One Question...: Over 100 Children's Essays Written for the Scholastic News Journalism Awards Contest

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This book was published in 1984, when I was in 4th grade. The pictures are dated, but not only are these letters written by students from a wide range of ages, it's also presented in their hand writing! My 2nd and 3rd grade students have been working on an American symbols unit. This includes a read aloud of The Fragile Flag (another out of print book that rocks -also published in 1984), where a child marches hundreds of miles to read a letter to the president. When we finish that read aloud, I hope to introduce If Kids Could Ask... as part of a written response. It's really difficult to find examples of published student writing, and that more than anything else that I've seen has motivated my students to write. Another great book of student-written essays is Kids Write Through It. I would love to know of any others. That book motivated some of my reluctant readers and writers, and I'm expecting something similar when I begin using If Kids Could Ask. Incidentally, I would have shared this book with my students sooner if a coworker hadn't run off immediately to use the book with his third grade students. He's having great results with it in his classroom and I expect the same in mine. If you have a chance, pick this book up.