Creating an interactive book using iBook Author, Makey Makey and Scratch. In January, I wrote a post about a unit I was planning that would explore the Future of Fiction with my Year 7s. We have just come to the end of this great unit, and the work they have produced is amazing. Creating a story to record on iMotion This post outlines what we did and what the learners achieved. It also links to the learning site that I built to deliver this unit, which was successful in teaching not only story elements, storyboarding, drafting and creating, but also problem solving and critical thinking. Our aim was to try to re-tell a story using a technological tool, to see if we think technology can help tell a story. Ultimately, we were trying to decide where we think the future of fiction might be going. We began by learning about the elements of stories and then used the classic book Where the Wild Things Are to learn about the story m...
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Creating and sharing books using iPads Literacy today is more than reading and writing. Reading today is more than print. Writing today is more than ink. To engage my second language learners, I developed a blended learning unit on picture books that utilised both traditional and new literacies, and both analogue and digital tools. The whole unit was delivered via Edmodo and Google Sites . Edmodo.com I booked out a selection of picture books from the library, including classics such as ‘ The Giving Tree ’ and ‘ Green Eggs and Ham ’. We began with traditional literacy in the form of analytical skills, such as examining sentence structure, and identifying language patterns such as rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and onomatopoeia. We explored characterisation , and developed visual literacy by analysing how the images enhanced and helped the text. We also looked at the cover, the style of illustration, the page turners, the main ...
English Language Arts teachers are constantly fighting the battle to instil habits of reading and writing into learners who have so many other options of how to spend their leisure time. Exacerbated by the influx and availability of technology incessantly at the fingertips of many of today’s learners, it is becoming even harder to lure them towards print. When much of today’s youth inhabit an interactive multimedia-rich environment, its no wonder the printed page appears somewhat cold, lifeless and unappealing in comparison. Weil (1997) suggests that learners are “natives in a place that most adults are immigrants” and to foster a culture of reading and writing for these “digital natives” (Prensky, 2006), we need to move our thinking about reading, writing, literacy and books beyond the traditions of the printed page to engage and motivate our learners to read in a way that looks recognisable to them. Educators need to explore the future of fiction. This paper explores the educationa...