iBook, uBook Create a Book!
As Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” When teachers at Speegleville Elementary decided to write a grant for a collaborative book creation app, this thought was at the forefront of the planning. Teaching students how to conduct research and how to write a story utilizing that research is sometimes a tedious task. But, pair them up with students from other classes or campuses and give them the goal to create a book together and “tedious” not only becomes “real”, it becomes fun!
Through a Midway Education Foundation Grant Express grant, all K-4 students at Speegleville Elementary received the full version of the Book Creator app for their iPads. Each grade level then devised a collaborative book writing project with either another class on campus or with a class from Spring Valley Elementary. Students covered a variety of skills including:
- Emailing partners
- Researching using books and the Internet
- Writing and revising
- Citing sources properly
- Publishing to their iBook shelf
The types of books created were varied and cross curricular (project list below).
- Kindergarten – Our Rock Book
- First Grade – choice of My Favorite Sport or My Favorite Things
- Second Grade – Historic Americans
- Third Grade – My Favorite Animal
- Fourth Grade – The Major Battles of the Texas Revolution
Projects can be saved as books, PDFs or even movies. It was an all-out learning experience! View some of the projects below.