Book Creator is a great online source for educators and students to create different forms of text, draw, and collaborate together. From comics to novels, the possibilities on Book Creator are endless. With all these possibilities it may seem hard to find a place to start. Follow this lesson plan that touches upon community building and literacy.
Grade Level:
This lesson can be fit and altered to fit any grade level. The example in this post is from a third grade class.
Student Instructions:
Hello Class! Today we will be using Book Creator to create a class book! In this book, you will find a page with each of our names. We each have the chance to add our own touch to this book! We will be adding our pictures to our page, writing a sentence that tells us what you bring to the classroom, and then add some things you appreciate about your peers! If you are struggling with what to write, the first page of the book features some sentence frames! So to begin,
1.) Find your your page
2.) Add your picture to your page
3.) Write a sentence saying what you bring to the classroom
4.) Choose two peers and tell us what you appreciate about them!
We will read the book together tomorrow!
Teacher Notes:
- Depending on the grade level, production amount can differ. If there are students that may not produce text, Book Creator has an option of adding video and audio recordings.
- Book Creator is not always easy to access for every student, you may need to scribe for students.
Text Example:
Photo:
Marissa,
I love this idea. This is a great way to get students thinking about how they can positively impact their community as well as show how they appreciate each other, something we need more of today. This book reminds me of something I did in middle school, where each person created their own page (representing them) for the yearbook. We didn’t really comment on each others’ pages though.
One concern: with all of the students being able to access all of the pages, I could see issues where some students mess with other students’ posts so they would probably have to be monitored closely.
Marissa,
It’s great that you have a paid account and can demonstrate the power of student collaboration using Book Creator. It’s interesting to see how you manage to give students access for creating, yet preserve their anonymity. I’m guessing it’s easy for “grandma” to be steered to the correct page to see her grandchild’s work.
Your book captures the enthusiasm and creativity of your students. And it serves as an example of what teachers can do when they allow students to share their work with an audience beyond the classroom.
This is really cute and I feel like it could even be used for older students to create a getting-to-know-you activity or something like we did at the beginning of the semester in this class. I also love the way it allows students to compliment one another.
Marissa,
This is such a fun way to use Book Creator to build classroom community! I love how each student can make their page unique to themselves. I feel like this could be used in any grade level or even for a time capsule.
I love that you include a part where students get to say what they appreciate about one another. Only schooling can make it very hard to create a community, but this is a fun and easy way for kids to learn about each other and also interact with one another on commonalities. It is also great that you provide them with sentence ideas in case they are stuck.
Ahhh so cute! I can see this being implemented in almost any classroom at any age group. This is such a cool idea for students to interact with one another, especially during a time where they’re lacking social interaction.