It’s not easy being in 7th grade, but a new e-book compiled and published by John Adriance of Spencerport and his son, Patrick, helps to acquaint readers with the hopes and concerns of 11- and 12-year-olds who are coping with all the changes that impending adolescence brings.
There are A Lot of Things I Could Tell You About Myself, But I’ll Keep it Short – Expectations, Self-Perceptions, Aspirations and Concerns on the Eve of 7th Grade, was published as an e-book this past December through Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes and Noble. The book is edited by Adriance and his son, Patrick, a 1994 graduate of Spencerport High School. The book is also illustrated by Patrick.
John Adriance taught 7th grade social studies at Albion Central Schools from 1979 to 2006, and the book is a selection of 165 entries chosen from over 2,700 paragraphs Adriance collected during his nearly 30 years of teaching.
The paragraphs were written during the first week of school, and Adriance says he asked students to write about themselves so he could get to know them better as they began a new school year.
“I asked them to tell me what they liked and disliked … the name that they wanted to be called. The paragraph provided me with a sample of their writing,” he says. “I wanted the students to know I was interested in them and cared.”
The paragraphs reflect what students valued as they transitioned from elementary grades to middle school and high school during a critical time in their development from children to adults. Adriance notes that it’s a time when kids become more socially active with their peers; their friendships may change as well as their families; and they may start to have boyfriends and girlfriends.
“Teachers and parents are sometimes bewildered by their 7th graders and their changes in attitude,” Adriance says. The book provides a helpful resource for students, parents and teachers of this age group, he explains, providing insight into the world of a 7th grader.
He says he enjoyed the age group because students are still open minded.
“It’s a nice age group to teach,” Adriance says. “The e-book is unique in that it is in the student’s own words. As the paragraphs were always written during the first week of school, it is free from the bias that would eventually develop because of the student-teacher relationship.”
Adriance collaborated with Patrick on the book. Both shared editing duties and Patrick illustrated the book with 16 captivating cartoon style pictures designed to compliment the thoughts that are conveyed, and to create a humorous vision in the reader’s mind.
“I really enjoyed the whole process,” Patrick says. “I was blown away that my dad had saved all of these student passages from his entire career. To me, it just shows his dedication and love of teaching.”
Patrick says Adriance gave him hundreds of passages to sort through.
“My goal was to find the funniest, most clever, or most thoughtful quotes that I could. As I read the passages, I would note the ones that jumped out at me as something that would make a great cartoon. Then I would sit down and draw, either on my tablet or on paper. The students shared a lot of humorous quotes, so it wasn’t too hard to find great material to use for my drawings.”
The identities of the students are kept private, Adriance and Patrick say. Patrick says working on the book brought him and his dad closer together.
“Since I live in North Carolina, we would send ideas, drawings and drafts back and forth through email a lot. It’s great that even though we live in different states, we could collaborate as if I was right there with him.”
The two also learned a lot about publishing e-books, Patrick says.
“Formatting e-books is tricky business now that people use so many different devices to access them,” he explains. “Having a book with illustrations just adds to the challenge. We ended up using a service called Draft2Digital that made the technical part of the process a lot easier. Even though it has challenges, I learned that self-publishing is exciting and rewarding and definitely something that I want to do again.”
Adriance says that over the nearly 30-year span of paragraphs, many of the same issues kept coming up, but other things did change – more students were affected by divorce for, example. Another change – the early paragraphs are all written in neat cursive penmanship. “During the 1990’s that started to end,” John says.
The Amazon link to the book is http://a.co/gZu6ZVH
