Wednesday, December 27, 2017

How to Create Digital Books

Publishing digital books is a great way for students to share their work with a wider audience.  In my role as LwICT Teacher Leader, I am fortunate to work with many teachers and students on a variety of LwICT projects.

This term, Mrs. Dreilich worked with students in her Grade 7/8 ICT class to support them in creating digital books.  Mrs. Dreilich shared sample digital books created by my class to provide inspiration, then she guided her students through planning, drafting and revising their own writing.  Many students chose to write children's books and several of them used a question and answer format.

(samples no longer available)

Ms. Cowling's grade 7 class collaboratively published their first digital book, which is a collection of poems.  Each student contributed a "bio poem" for the collection. I especially liked the plan the Grade 7s created for sharing their digital book:



So how can my students publish books?
I've helped students publish books in a few different ways.   Here is one process that might work for you and your students:

Writing
Provide the same structure that you normally would when students are doing a writing project.   Students will need to plan, draft, revise and edit as part of the writing process.  Often, traditional pencil and paper are the best tools for these first steps.  Sometimes, students may draft and edit using a word processor or online document.   Whatever the case, writing mini-lessons and student conferencing will be important to help your writers develop quality written work.  I have found it also helps to identify a target audience and a plan for sharing early in the process.

Illustrating
Often, students create their illustrations on paper.   The illustrations can then be digitized by using colour scanning (most school copiers will do this efficiently) or by photographing each illustration.   Another option is to have students plan the images they need and then take their own photographs or source royalty-free images online (I like Pixabay).

Publishing
The next step is to put together the writing and the illustrations.  One tool I have used is a digital scrapbooking tool called Mixbook. I typically  upload images to Mixbook with/for students and then have students put together their illustrations and text on each page.   Students may wish to type directly on each page in Mixbook or they may have their typing saved so they can copy and paste their text into the book.  

Sharing
Mixbook creates a beautiful digital book and you can "flip through" the pages of your book on their website. Mixbook allows you to share a display link or embed your book in a website or blog.  My class often shares their work through this blog or by sharing the link on social media (such as Twitter).   The book links can also easily be emailed to families, partner classrooms and other stakeholders.

Variations
  • Students complete their writing and illustrations on paper and then photograph/scan the finished pages to include in the book.  
  • Students type their story and print out the text they want on each page with blank space for illustrations, then draw illustrations.  When the pages are complete, then photograph/scan the finished pages to include in the book.  
  • Book Creator is a great app if you want to create digital books on an iPad.  The files export as a PDF or video file.   Book Creator offers the option of adding a recording to each page, so students can easily create an audio book! 

Friday, December 22, 2017

Digital Books: Christmas Mysteries by Ms. Fraser's Class

I have been helping students publish digital books over the last few years.  After students go through  planning, drafting, revising and editing, students digitize their book.  Why?   I am passionate about students doing work that matters and work that has a purpose beyond the classroom.  Whether it is taking action to solve a problem through project-based learning or creating something amazing to share with others, I think that students benefit from learning beyond the classroom.  Extending the writing process to include digital publishing allows students to share their work with a wider audience.  Rather than just the teacher and (maybe) peers seeing student work, digital books can easily be accessed online by families, community members, partner classrooms and others.  It is highly motivating and engaging for students to write for a real audience outside the classroom.   

In my role as LwICT Teacher Leader, I was excited to work with a class to publish their Christmas Mysteries this holiday season!  This week, I visited Ms. Fraser's grade 4/5/6 class.   They had their mysteries written and were diligently working to finish illustrations when I arrived in their classroom.   I was able to support students in digitizing their finished books during my classroom visit.  I was so impressed by the interesting stories and beautiful illustrations!  The grade 4/5/6 class agreed that I could share their work here on my blog, so please take a look at some of their books below and feel free to leave a comment to pass on to them. 

The Case of the Missing Skidoo by Matthew

Where are Blitzen and Donner by Josie

The Mystery of Santa’s Eaten Cookies by Damion


Lost Little Santa Paws Finds a Friend by Kylee

The Mystery of Frosty’s Hat by Sean


Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Kids Who Code: Get Started with Coding in the Classroom

For the last few years, I have supported my early years students in planning a special Code-a-thon event for Computer Science Education Week.  This year, my week looks a little different.  Since I'm currently acting as the LwICT Teacher Leader for Park West School Division, I get to work with dozens of classes on coding and computer science this December!   I kicked off the week with a coding workshop for teachers and I'm scheduled to work on coding with many classes this week.  For those interested in getting started with coding in the classroom, I would suggest trying one or more of the following:

Unplugged Coding
I typically introduce students to unplugged coding first.  For middle years and high school students, I have modified this Grid Paper Programming Lesson from code.org.  For younger learners, I prefer to start working on the 100 grid of a learning carpet or a smaller 4X4 grid taped on the floor.   I use arrows printed on cardstock and demonstrate how we can "program" a stuffed toy to move around the grid using left, right, up and down arrows.  Students can then work with a partner using a paper copy of the grid and a smaller manipulative to practice "programming" the manipulative to move around the grid.  

unplugged coding for early years


Hour of Code(TM)
Signing up for Hour of Code is great way to get started with coding in the classroom.  There are TONS of great tutorials available from code.org with different options for different grade levels.  You might want to try one of the tutorials yourself and then share it with your students or just jump right in and learn alongside them.  

Code-a-thon
Using a project-based learning model, I've guided my class in planning and hosting three Code-a-thon events.  Each year involved different tools, partners and activities, but each event was a great success!  Check out my Kids Who Code Code-a-thon guide below for tips on planning your own event.