photo from bookcreator.com
The Brainstorming & Planning Process...
When thinking about a technology tool that would fit in my curriculum in my 4th grade classroom to explore, I wanted something new-to-me and exciting that would increase student motivation and interest. When one of my colleagues, Paige, talked about the technology tool "Book Creator," I was immediately intrigued. I wanted to explore this tool because I envisioned many ways I could use this in my 4th grade classroom. I love how you can create a virtual library and all the students could collaborate and read each other's books. This aligns well with research that supports student learning, confidence and success through collaboration and writers workshop. An affordance of this tool is that it allows for students and teachers to easily collaborate and give feedback and celebrate each other's work.
Collaboration is an essential part of learning in the classroom. Students and teachers can collaborate on Book Creator, giving opportunities for student and teacher feedback in the writing process. According to Bartonet al. (2022), “there is now significant evidence to show that self-regulation and strategy development, along with structured teaching and effective feedback (or metatalk), are crucial for effective writing,” (pg. 2). This research supports the idea that collaborating on Book Creator allows for student success and self regulation. Students can receive feedback from classmates as well as teachers that can allow them to get diverse perspectives and enhance their overall development in writing and writers workshop. Teachers can also create libraries for their class, which allows educators to create mentor texts for student reference. These mentor texts will model different aspects of Book Creator as well as show students a possibility of their final product. This is housed in the class library so students can refer to this as they are working through their project. Beschorner and Hall state, “When children share their writing with others they learn that their writing has a purpose and an audience,” (p. 3). This ties into student motivation and creating a project that students are proud of and can share with others.
We also considered TPACK when planning and executing this lesson. We had a technology learning goal as well as a content learning goal. They intersected in our lesson and exploration with Book Creator. The TPACK framework supports technological learning in addition to content learning in a way that allows for exploration and increased learner confidence in both fields of knowledge. We also made the pedagogical decision to discuss the affordances and constraints before our peers played with the tool so we could give them some heads up as to tools that would/ wouldn't work for them. We also asked them to consider some affordances and constraints they noticed while playing. Then, we gave our peers 5 minutes to explore the tool before we introduced the lesson, so they could begin to familiarize themselves with the tool without the context of an assignment or activity. in a low-risk environment.
Another affordance of Book Creator is students are able to create books in efforts to enhance their writing skills and increase writing confidence and independence. This tool allows for student creativity, student independence, student collaboration, student autonomy and requires students to use strategies and choice to create a final project that showcases not only their content knowledge of writing, but allows them to be creative in a multi-contextual environment. Multi-contextual environments of learning are valuable because “effective teachers use a variety of instructional approaches to celebrate the diversity of children, including what they already know and can do,” (Beschorner & Hall, 2021, p. 4). When we think about how people learn, we think about the different ways in which information is transferred when learned. I think about student I have taught who would've loved to use this format and I love the idea of having a virtual library of student creations.
The Teaching Process...
Teaching this lesson was rewarding because we introduced our peers to a new technological tool and they had an opportunity to learn and grow within this tool. It was enjoyable to watch our peers work on their books and use their creative knowledge and skills to write a story with the parameters we gave them on the index cards. I am glad we gave them the setting and problem cards, it gave them a starting place but gave enough creative freedom for them to write their own story, how they wanted to. I also saw them gain confidence as they continued using the tool and wanted to share their stories with each other and the whole group. I enjoyed teaching with my partner as well. I feel we were able to delegate tasks to each other and we worked hard to create a plan that was student centered and allow for exploration and discovery.
If I taught this lesson in my own professional context, it would've spanned over a course of weeks and/or months. We would've had this as the final piece of our writers workshop. I can see my students loving this and being able to take their writing finals to the next level using this tool.
Lasting Thoughts...
I really enjoyed crafting a lesson that gave my peers space to learn and use a new technology tool. I hope that they are able to use this tool in their context and allow more learning to be achieved. Learning from other teachers and educators has been one of the most valuable and enriching experiences in my career thus far. I look forward to continuing to learn and grow from the knowledge and expertise my colleagues and peers have gained through their careers. I also really enjoyed learning more about this tool through this experience. I can think of many ways I can use this in my classroom. I love the idea of my students writing their realistic fiction or informational books using this platform and helping them grow in confidence as learners and writers.
This is a collage of 7 different images that were taken during the Book Creator Lesson as well as 2 screenshots of Book Creator's website and our google slideshow.
Check out some research on how Book Creator can help writers grow:
-Barton, G., Kervin, L., Khosraonejad, M., Myhill, D., Ryan, M. (2022). Reflexive writing dialogues: Elementary students’ perceptions and performances as writers during classroom experiences. Assessing Writing, 51. https://doi-org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/10.1016/j.asw.2021.100592
-Beschorner, B., & Hall, A. (2021). Building Inclusivity and Empathy Through Writers’ Workshop. Reading Teacher, 74(5), 631–634. https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=8a94bd99-be94-4378-882d-f4e022b9f486%40redis
Check out this video on Getting Started with Book Creator (for teachers)
Check out this video on Using Book Creator (for students)
Comentarios