Bilblonasium: an Online Reading Community for Kids

 If you are looking for an exciting tool that will engage your students in reading and connecting with others who love reading, look no further than Biblionasium. Biblionasium is an online community designed especially for kids to share favorite books, keep reading logs, find reading suggestions, and connect with other like-minded readers. The design is similar to Shelfari, only student accounts are managed by teachers and do not require student email addresses. Biblionasium offers a paperless alternative to traditional reading logs in a safe, private, online space. Teachers can easily track and organize student data and even create groups and reading challenges for students.  Biblionasium offers the social media experience for today's connected students in a safe, fun, yet educational environment with a format that is sure to engage even the most reluctant reader.

21st Century Ways to Teach a Book

Today I was presented with a challenge; a Language Arts teacher wanted to know how to teach her next in-class novel without the usual routine of study guides, comprehension questions, and vocabulary worksheets.  Your memories of English Language Arts classes probably include those types of activities.  While those activities all have their place and can still be worthwhile, technology has made it possible for students to create connections with their reading in deeper ways.  Below is the start of a list of ideas for truly engaging students in a book discussion using 21st century tools and higher level thinking.

1.  Create a classroom space on Edmodo.  Have students discuss the story in large or small groups.  Connect with another classroom elsewhere reading the same book.

2.  Contact the author to see if he or she will Skype.  Many authors will Skype with students for free.

3.   Use the Fake Tweet Builder to tweet a character or write a book review.  Try the lesson created by The Daring Librarian.

4.  Create character conversations using ifaketext.  See the example that I created between Katniss and Peeta.

5.  Find one image that represents the book or a specific part of the book.  Share this in Edmodo.  Have other students guess and comment on what it represents and why it was chosen.  Use Thinglink to have kids link their images to videos and other information.

6.  Use BrainyFlix to illustrate vocabulary words.  Share final product in Edmodo.

7. Create a voki speaking from the perspective of one of the characters to share his/her feelings during any part of the story.  Blabberize would also work well for this purpose.

8.  Have a QR Code scavenger hunt to begin the book and help students understand background information.  Display QR Codes around the room, and use a QR code scanner to have a scavenger hunt.

9.  Use Padlet to connect with the story at the beginning of class.  Post a sticky note with a question related to the reading/connection to students' lives.  Students respond and comment on others.  This would also be great as an exit ticket.

10. Use tools such as the trading cards, motivator, and magazine cover at Big Huge Labs.

11.  Create a comic that illustrates a part of the story at Make Beliefs Comix.

12.  Rewrite the ending of the story.  Use  PowToon or GoAnimate 4 Schools to create it as an animated video.

13.  Use the app Songify to turn text that students write about the story into a song.

14.  Create a screencast of students discussing and illustrating vocabulary words using apps such as Educreations or Show Me.

15.  Have students create a Google Earth virtual tour to highlight parts of the setting.

16.  Use mindmaps and online organizers such as Popplet and Mindmeister to make connections and map out parts of the story.  These tools also allow images, weblinks, and video to be added.

17.  Post a request for a partner class on Skype in the Classroom.  Find another classroom to take part in a virtual conversation.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is only a start!  There are many other ideas we could add to this list.

What are your ideas for teaching literature in 21st century ways?  What are you doing in your classrooms to help students form real connections with the text and think about their reading in deeper ways using 21st century tools?

March 7: World Read Aloud Day

Wednesday, March 7 has been declared World Read Aloud Day.  Lit World, the sponsoring organization, works to end illiteracy through advocacy and education.  As stated on Lit World's website, "World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people."  Their website suggests several ideas and tools for participating in World Read Aloud Day with your students, including this link to suggested activities and teaching tools.  In addition, Lit World has offered to connect classrooms to several notable authors for the opportunity to participate in Skype video chats.  Pre-registration is required.

How will you share the love of reading on March 7?  I am eagerly waiting to hear with which author my fifth grade Integrated Technology students will be connected.  Visit Lit World's website to find out more about planned events and to share your pictures and activities.

Reinventing the Book Report (or tools to use for digital storytelling)

There are so many great digital storytelling tools available, most of which are free!  Check out my inservice presentation below to sample a few great ones.  The presentation below was made using the website SlideRocket, a great free online alternative to PowerPoint.

 

A new way to tell stories: Zooburst pop-up books

Today I demonstrated a cool website called Zooburst to some 8th grade students. Zooburst is a free site that gives users the ability to make 3D pop-up books.  I recently purchased an upgraded school account that gives teachers the ability to create classes and add students.  With the upgraded account, students also have access to drawing tools and a sound library.  View the student example below to see how it works.

Nooks are Here!

Did you know that our library now has 12 Barnes and Noble Nook ereaders?  We now have six Nook Color readers and six black-and-white readers.  The Lit Masters book club will be using seven Nooks this year, and five will be in regular circulation.  Here's a picture of last spring's Lit Masters group with their Nooks.

While all of the Nooks are wi-fi enabled, the wi-fi is not available at school.  Both types of Nooks have a touch screen that gives readers the ability to highlight, add notes, and look up words.  I am working on downloading books to each of the Nooks.  Let me know if you have suggestions for titles to add.  One book can be downloaded to six Nooks.  The Nooks may be nice for differentiating reading with a group of kids since multiple copies of a book can be downloaded to the Nooks quickly and inexpensively.

Bring Vocabulary Lessons to Life

In the last few weeks I discovered a cool new Web 2.0 tool that could really enhance teaching vocabulary.  Wordia was developed to "bring words to life" through video representations of various words.  How does it work?  Website visitors can search a word and then watch uploaded videos representing the word.  In addition, users with an account can also upload their own videos.

Wordia also has a separate school section where a school can have its own space to house videos.  I just requested a school account and am waiting on approval.  Creating Wordia videos would be a great project to reinforce a vocabulary lesson in any subject area.  Consider how you could incorporate this in your subject area.