Slideshows, Been there, Done that, Now what??

One of the requests I hear often is for ideas for tools students can use that are new and different.  When asked to create something to show what they've learned or investigated, students often choose-- A Slideshow.  Why? Because it's quick and easy....and, they've probably been doing them since 3rd grade! So, now it's time to move on to something new!  Here are a few ideas for your students to try-- to move past the slideshow.

Book Creator 

Book Creator is exactly what it sounds like, a way for students to create multimedia books in order to share their learning or creations.  The students can either share a narrative story of their own, or find a creative way to share what they've learned about a topic they investigated.  I found it relatively easy to use, and students will have no problem intuitively adding text, pictures, colors, and even their own recordings. 

Here are some resources that will help you and your students

• How to Create Book Creator in Chrome (Made in Book Creator!)
• Book Creator Support 
• Book Creator YouTube Support Playlist

PowToon

I often refer to PowToon as a"slideshow on steroids".  It is a great way for the students to unleash their creativity while informing their audience of what they want to share.  Students can easily create animated slideshows with a variety of characters and backgrounds.  

PowToon has a free and a paid version, with the paid version offering more "bells and whistles" but the free version being more than enough for students to have fun and get their message delivered. 

Here are some resources to help you get started with PowToon

• Some PowToon Examples
• PowToon Tutorials
• PowToon video overview

Adobe Spark 

Possibly one of the most exciting new tools that I've seen recently is Adobe Spark.  Spark has three major components, Post, Page and Video.

Adobe has made the incredible move  (beginning April, 2018) of making all of it's premium services free for  students and educators, (and making the service COPPA compliant even for students under 13 ), using Adobe Spark is a no-brainer.  It's the trifecta of being a quality product that is intuitive AND free!

There are a million ways students can use this tool. Everything from digital storytelling, to creating a meme that summarizes or persuades, or even a dynamic webpage.  I have just begun to use Spark, and it's already one of my favorite tools.

Even though the program is relatively intuitive, here is are a brief video that shows how to make a page, video, and post. It's fun!

Podcasting 

Podcasts have been very popular for a while now, and even having students listen to some commercially produced ones can be a useful way to have them understand different concepts.

In addition to that, students can create their own podcasts. They can "interview: characters in books or historical figures, reenact scenes, or record narrative stories or poems.  

There are many tools you can use to have the students podcast.  Probably the most simple is Garage Band, if you have Apple computers. Otherwise, some of the apps that seem to work best for Chromebooks are Twisted Wave, and Beautiful Audio Editor. 

Digital Storytelling

In its simplest form, digital storytelling is using a combination of pictures, sounds, and words (written and spoken) to tell a story. Most people think of digital storytelling as a way for student to tell their own narrative story in a in a video form.  And in reality, that's probably the most powerful form of digital storytelling. However, digital storytelling can also be used to tell explain, or to share an opinion about any topic a student is learning in school, and the projects can be incredibly powerful.

Digital Storytelling can be used to tell a personal story, to cause action, or to inform others about a topic.  If you'd like to know more about digital storytelling, I went into more detail in my  previous Digital Storytelling post.

Other Options

There are many other ideas for students to use to show their learning, so if you're looking for other options for creating, take a look at these posts:

• The Student as Content Creator
• Best Tech Creation Tools
• 82 Hottest Ed-Tech Tools of 2017

One caveat for any of the tools you might be interested in using- it is important to check the terms of service/COPPA compliance before using a new tool.  Once you've found one that you like, it's a good idea to double check with your tech department of your school! (The ones listed on this post, are all approved for K-8 students)

Digital Storytelling--- Tell a Story, Show your Learning!

 In its simplest form, digital storytelling is using a combination of pictures, sounds, and words (written and spoken) to tell a story. Most people think of digital storytelling as a way for student to tell their own narrative story in a in a video form.  And in reality, that's probably the most powerful form of digital storytelling. However, digital storytelling can also be used to tell explain, or to share an opinion about any topic a student is learning in school, and the projects can be incredibly powerful.

What's so special about digital storytelling?

When a student creates a digital story, whether it be their own story or a content based story, it forces him/her to think about the topic in on various levels.  They need to visualize the topic and find the perfect pictures, they have to write the script that will accompany the pictures and present the words in a way that perfectly emphasizes what they think is important, and they need to find music or sounds that will highlight the story in the correct way.  

How could they use this in the classroom

Digital storytelling could be used in practically any content area. For example a teacher might decide to use it:

• As a personal narrative writing assignment
• In a science class to explain a concept
• In a math class to explain describe a real math scenario
• In a social studies/culture class to imagine living in another time or culture
• In any content area to persuade the audience. 

So, what do they do? 

Write the narration

Before the student even begins working on a digital story, they need to write the narration that goes with it.  If this is a narrative story, often they have written this ahead of time. But, if it's a content based story, they would use their research to create the narration that will go with the story.

Storyboard 

After the student has created the narration, they need to plan out a storyboard. The storyboard helps the student to think about the music and pictures that help to tell the story.  You can make a storyboard that suits your need or it is very easy to find templates online.

Images

One of the most important aspects of the digital story is what the viewer is seeing. Students can either use a camera to take pictures that tell the story, use personal pictures, or find fair use pictures online.  

It is very important to talk to the students about fair use and copyright when they begin to look for pictures. Here are a few resources to help the students to find fair use pictures:

• Iolani Libaries- Images, Pictures, Photos, Music for Fair Use: Finding Fair Use Images
• Creative Commons
• Pics 4 Learning

Putting it All Together

Students can use any number of tools to glue the components together. At our school, each student has the WeVideo app on their Chromebook (which allows for sharing and collaboration) but really any video editing tool  can work.  

The power of a digital story is that it combines the visual and auditory components of a story to really pack a punch. A story that is impressive in written form can become downright breathtaking given the right mix of sights, sounds, and expression.

Give it a try, and see the power of digital storytelling!

I just read the BEST book.....let me tell you about it!

The research is clear, students need to read, and they need to read a variety of genres.  And, the research is also clear that we (adults and children) are not reading enough.  And of course, it is  clear that middle school students value the opinions of their peers almost more than anything else.

Keeping all of this in mind, we can find some ways in which technology can promote the love of reading and help students to find books that they, too, will really love.  Here are some ideas that require different amounts of time commitment from students and teachers.

Smaller Time Commitment- One Minute Book Reviews

Sometimes less is more.  In one minute book reviews, the students can use a tool like Flipgrid  to quickly share what they thought about the book.To get ready for the book review, you'll want to provide some kind of template, or sentence starters  that the students could use. They can prepare thoughts about: 

• A quick overview of the book (no spoilers)?
• An idea of who the main characters are?
• What genre of literature it is
• Why they liked the book? 
• "If you liked....you might like this book"
• How the book made them feel

The students could also show the cover of their book, draw a picture of the book, or show some illustrations of the book (if they book has illustrations).

Here are some examples of book reviews that other teachers have tried on flipgrid. 

• Koalas Book Talk (Elementary students share their favorite books from the library)
• National Reading Month Book Talks- 6th grade book talks 
• Summer Reading Book Talks - Middle School 

Medium Time Commitment - Book Blogs 

Just as students can speak about their books, they can also write about them.  Book blogs are similar to book talks on Flipgrid, and you would use the same type of question prompts.  

Probably the most comprehensive resource I've found to help prepare students for book blogging is by Julie Esanu, Amy Blaine, and Greg Chapuis who created an entire lesson plan, including rubrics and templates to help you prepare the students for creating book reviews. 

Here are some examples of  book review blogs that students have made. 

Bryan Book Blog- Written by 4th and 5th graders at Bryan elementary school 

Mr. Boylen's 7th Grade Book Blogs

Longer Time Commitment- Book Trailer 

Another fun way for students to entice others to read a book they enjoyed is by creating a book
trailer.  A book trailer works exactly the same way as a movie trailer, in that its goal is to encourage the viewer to be more interested in learning more about the book, while at the same time not giving away too much information. 

Book trailers do take a little more time, because they  require the students to storyboard and plan their trailer, search for fair use pictures, and then create the actual trailer by combining words, music, and pictures.  That said, if done right, the results can be very powerful! 

Here are some resources that you can use when creating book trailers. 

Book Trailers for Readers- This is a great place to start, with lots of tips and resources!

Book Trailer Planning Document

Book Trailer Planning Document

In the past years, students here at Holmes have created book trailers, here are some examples from former Hornets!

An authentic audience and purpose

The beauty of all three of these options is that they can serve a real purpose and have a real audience.  Students often come down to the LMC saying that they don't know what to read,. The blogs, videos, and trailers all can be used to help others choose books that they might like. 

There are various ways that we can use these resources and get them to the audience they deserve. 

• Link them to the end of the "What's the Buzz" (our weekly update that gets sent to the students)
• Tweet the links to the blogs or videos, or trailers so that others can see them
• Embed links to the blogs, videos, or trailers into Alexandria (Library Management Software)
• Create QR codes (especially) for the Flipgrids or trailers.  These QR codes can be left at the end caps of sections in the school library, or even sent to the public library for them to use in the Young Adult section
• Connect with other classrooms using #comments4kids and Kidblog connections. 

Clearly, there are plenty of options for the students to say "I just read the best book, let me tell you about it"!