This spring, published authors are sprouting up all over the
Kennedy-Longfellow School. From poetry to scientific research, students
in the K-5th grade classrooms have been writing and publishing their
works using two unique ebook applications. Once adopted in a couple
classrooms, the ebook craze has continued to spread: a mentor-inspired
storybook in kindergarten, poetry collections in second grade, biome
research projects in third grade, and class bio poems in fourth grade,
just to name a few.
During April, Ms. Cocuzzo and Ms. Hanna’s first grade classrooms
wrote a wide variety of poetry inspired by authors such as Douglas
Florian. Once poems were edited, students typed final drafts into the
computer and created corresponding artwork capturing their poem’s
essence. Using the application PhotoBooth, they practiced reading their
poems aloud, checking their own reading fluency before recording final
versions on the iPad. The poems, artwork and audio files were then
compiled into an application called iBooks Author and exported onto the
iPad as a fully interactive ebook. One first grader commented that the
collection “is good because you get to listen to everybody’s poems and
the pictures are so nice. I like people’s poems because they thought a
lot about their ideas.”
Mr.
Rocco’s third grade classroom took a scientific approach by publishing
individual research reports on biomes of the world. Index cards were
filled with rough notes, which students then drafted into five paragraph
research papers. Students conducted image research using online
databases and typed finalized reports into iPads. They then organized
their reports in an iPad application called Creative Book Builder and
published them to the iPad’s virtual library. What made this process so
unique was what Mr. Rocco explained as the students’ “inherent tech
savviness”. He describes how the students were “able to work with the
tool as if it were an extension of themselves. I gave them minimal
instruction on how the app worked, and they were off and running!”
Most recently, the fifth graders in Ms. English’s class published
their realistic fiction short stories. Using the iPad app ArtStudio,
students created customized illustrations that reflected their story’s
themes and brought them into Creative Book Builder to publish. “Having
the stories collected as a virtual library is a great way to share
student work with their peers and family,” Ms. English explains. “On
Academic night, parents flipped through the work, having the chance to
read and browse through not just their child’s, but other student work
as well.” The students also took clear pride in their independence. From
start to finish, they were each in control of the entire production
process, oftentimes jumping in to assist each other with technical
questions.
We hear a lot about ebooks and digital publishing these days in the
news. It’s exciting to think that we have in-house publishing
capabilities right here at Kennedy-Longfellow. In Ms. English’s class,
there was a domino effect of student faces lighting up each time an
ebook was exported and the teacher exclaimed: “Congratulations, you’re a
published author!”