AP English students create Tapestry book

In English teacher Keren Robertson’s AP Language and Composition classes, students are required to write “Tapestry” pieces that tell a story about the individual writer. The Tapestry assignment is a collection of creative writing stories that gives students the freedom to write whatever they want.

“The Tapestry projects are a way for people to express themselves,” senior Katherine Portelli said.

After reading her classes Tapestry pieces last year, Robertson suggested that each student submit one of their pieces to be published in a book.

“[The book] validates and showcases the amazing writing and the hard work the students have been doing all year long,” Robertson said.

A lot of time was put into making the book, and it is finally complete.

Katherine, along with a few other students from Robertson’s class, worked to collect submissions from students, edit papers and format the pieces properly.

Once this work was done, Robertson took the pieces and uploaded them to a free publishing site, Lulu.com.

Although Robertson said the publication process took “longer than [they] all thought,” she is happy to see the final publication finished.

According to Robertson, the book not only showcases students’ work but also gives them the feeling of being real writers.

“The Tapestry book goes along with the larger philosophy of the Tapestry project which is to encourage [students] to become writers,” Robertson said. “People write for a larger audience, so this is a good opportunity.”

To add the finishing flair on the book, the cover is adorned with pictures of every student from last year’s English class.

“The book is definitely meant to be shared with friends, family and other students,” senior Isabelle “Izzie” Fisher said. “It’ll be lots of fun to look back at in 10 years and remember high school English and see how all of our minds used to work.”

Robertson and English teacher Michael Moul hope to continue the Tapestry book idea with this year’s Language and Composition AP classes.

Any student can purchase the book for about $16 on Lulu.com by searching “71 Essays: Los Altos High School Tapestry Projects.” The book will eventually be available on Amazon.com.