Boys, reading and iPads

I read this article 'Boys take to reading-when it's on an iPad' and I was inclined to agree with the author. In my own experiences teaching recently at Clevedon school in a Year 5/6 class, my previous teaching experiences with iPads, the demonstrations I have shown and the observations I have made in classes this is what I have seen. Boys like reading on iPads, of course you have to choose the books that are likely to interest them but there are some very useful features on the Kindle app that I particularly like and bring reading to life.



Using the example of 'Stormbreaker' $5.34 (US) a great book to entice boys to read (girls like it too). The main character 'Alex Rider' is a like a 'junior' James Bond. When students came across a word that they didn't understand I asked them to highlight it in a particular colour, the dictionary definition would come up as well. They then have to enter that meaning (in their own words) into their vocab log (a Google Spreadsheet). They would then use the word in a sentence. I limited this to 10 words a chapter. When the students met with me they would share which words they had difficulty with.

Another great feature of Kindle is the search for a word in the whole book. All the students would search for the word by tapping on the Search icon (magnifying glass), the incidence of the word might show up on more than one page so we would look at the different snippets to see if we could work it out. If not then they would tap on the snippet to go to the page and then read the paragraph before and the paragraph after and try to work out the word from that context. If they still couldn't work it out, then we would look at the dictionary meaning.












Some dictionary meanings would have more than one meaning so we would have to look at all the meanings and work out which one worked in the context of the story.





A very useful visual feature is found when you tap on a word in the text, the dictionary meaning appears down the bottom of the page but there is a link to Google and Wikipedia as well. Tap on Google and links will appear, in the example below we tapped on Waterloo (for Waterloo Station), there was no link for Waterloo Station so we added the word Station in the search field...now we have images,  links and maps all about Waterloo Station. This is a great way of bringing a book to life where students can see where and what these things look like. Tapping on Wikipedia provides more information and images.

Using these features bring a book alive and help with understanding vocab. If you can't work out what a word means by the dictionary meaning then have a look at Google. If the text talks about an object or a place that you know nothing about then tap on Google or Wikipedia to find out more. An extra activity with the map above was for students to take a screen capture (press the 'Home and Power' buttons together once) and insert that into an app that allows you to draw over the top like

• Showme
• Educreations
• Notability

and draw lines to the places the Character visited on this map. This would be a wonderful activity if the book was set in your own country or town.

Apples iBooks that comes with the iPad does a similar thing. You can highlight words, tap on a word to get a dictionary meaning, and tap on Search Web to go to Google. The difference between this app and Kindle is that iBooks 'Search the Web' feature takes you out of the iBook app where Kindle keeps the Google search within the app and you tap the blue Done button when you want to return back to the story.

So do try this with your students, especially using the integrated 'Google' and 'Wikipedia' to find images, maps and more information about the word. You will see their vocab knowledge grow and they will become more independent about finding meanings for themselves.

Create a multimedia book with Book Creator

Book Creator for iPad ($6.49 for iPad)
Insert photos, graphics, movies, record voice, music,  and text
Share as ePub file to iBooks, email, Dropbox
Share as a PDF to email and iTunes

Art Maker ($1.29 for iPad)
Create pictures with Play School characters and graphics

Felt Board ($4.19 for iPad)
Create pictures with 'felt' characters and graphics




Book Creator is my most favourite book creating app for all ages. It is simple enough for a young child to make a basic book and has many great advanced features for older students to make interactive books such as

• hyperlink words and pictures to websites or other pages in the book
• combine books together
• add movies
• resize and move pictures and text
• wide variety of fonts and sizes and other formatting tools
• record your voice or add music to your story

Apart from using it to upload photos and writing text to go with those photos, consider using other apps with Book Creator.
Felt Board is another favourite of mine which can be used by all ages. It is pricey at $4.19 but it does have a large amount of backgrounds and objects that could be used to create scenes or picture stories.

Felt board stories from Jacqui Sharp

ArtMaker is another felt type app. It is based on Play School characters. It has limited backgrounds and objects but you can make animations with it.

Big Ted in Space from Jacqui Sharp

Use these apps to create story scenes and then add to Book Creator and finish off with text and voice recordings.
The book can be shared to iBooks or you can share it to Dropbox as an ePub and install on other iPads or iPod Touches in iBooks.

Other apps that can be used with Book Creator are
Puppet Pals: Make animations and export as a movie to insert into Book Creator

Puppet Pals HD Free for iPad
Has in-app purchases for more characters and backgrounds
Puppet Pals HD Director's Pass $4.19 for iPad
Full version with all characters and backgrounds

Puppet Pals Pocket Free for iPhone/iPod Touch
Has in-app purchases for more characters and backgrounds
Puppet Pals Pocket Director's Pass $2.59 for iPhone/iPod Touch

 Feltz Lite: Free for iPhone/iPod Touch; Free for iPad
Create pictures with 'felt' images

Blogging, writing from the perspective of the Character

Devices are wonderful, interactive communication tools for students to use for blogging ideas and thoughts due to their portability and instant connection to the internet. An engaging task would be to set up a blog based around a novel your students are studying, give each of your students a character to write as and start with one of the conflicts or actions in the story. As the different characters, students can comment and write new blog posts putting forward their points of view and new ideas and insights.
Students can subscribe to the blog so that they can be alerted when there has been an update. Using devices enables them to be connected quickly and easily.

Writing like this will promote dialogue, discussion and a deeper understanding of the themes and ideas in a novel.

The devices are the vehicles for delivery, reading, writing and commenting.

Blogger: (iPhone and iPod Touch)
Share: publishes to the Internet, viewed in Browser

WordPress: (iPhone/iPod Touch; iPad)
Share: publishes to the Internet, viewed in Browser




This is an example of a 'Writing as Characters' blog I have started. Feel free to comment as a character on the blog and if you would like to participate as a guest blogger request an invite from info@jsharp.co.nz

Demo Lesson with Inspiration (Reading)

Yesterday I demonstrated an iPad opportunity with a group of children at Hingaia Peninsula School. They had read the book 'Squid Monster ' by Jill Eggleton
One of the key features of the story was all the emotions the characters were feeling in the book.
The follow up activity was to find other synonyms for the emotions which we did by using the following apps
iPad Apps

• Inspiration Maps (Free or half price at the moment NZ $9.99) for iPads only
• Dictionary (Free for iPod Touch and Free for iPad)

Laptop Apps (wireless mirroring to a laptop connected to a projector)

• Reflection (Mac only NZ$14.99 single user or $49.99 for 5 licenses) this was the one I used but PC users could use the one below
• Airserver (Mac & PC $14.99 for 5 licenses)

We talked about the different emotions that the characters felt in the story and looked at the highlighted words in the book. Using the mirroring  software I was able to introduce the 'Inspiration' app

• Find the Inspiration app on the Writing page or Press the Home button once and once again to get to the Search Window, start typing Inspiration tap on the app to open it

1. Tap on the Templates window
2. Tap on New Diagram
3. Type the name of the first character we are looking at

 

Find the Dictionary app by going to the Page it is on or by pressing the Home button to get to the Search Screen as seen below. Start typing Dictionary and then tap on the app when it appears

Type in the word to be found in this example it is 'anxious'.

At this point there was a lot of discussion about the word 'anxious' and what it meant in the context of the story. The students looked carefully at the Synonyms and talked about which of the words there would be correct to use in the context of the story.

Once they had chosen a word I showed them how to get back quickly to Inspiration to add the new synonym.

Double tap the Home button and tap on Inspiration.

Add the word to the new symbol.

Then click on the arrow to get a new symbol.

Add more symbols, remembering to tap on the first symbol (Tomas) to start the new word synonym find.

All of the students caught onto the moving between apps very quickly. 

When I saw one particular student had become very proficient quickly then I showed her how she could organise her information by colour and shape. She is now the 'Inspiration Expert' in the class. She will be able to share her knowledge by teaching other students.

 In 15 minutes these students were able to

• find apps using a search function
• flip between two apps
• find Dictionary meanings and synonyms in the time it took them to type the word
• add information to an Inspiration mindmap and organise it
• how to save their diagram
• discuss the words and the meanings they were finding and through that discourse make informed choices

Other ideas that came from the teachers observing were that the students could use the note feature for further activities.

They were using an iPad each, and their book Squid Monster. They could have used a paper Thesaurus or Dictionary, but the speed it took them to the information they needed I think they would rather use the iPad.
To begin with this has been about the apps, but students and teachers alike need to know how the apps work before they can make good use of them. Already teachers are thinking about how they can use Inspiration in their reading in a variety of ways.

 At this stage Inspiration is not compatible with the desktop version. These diagrams are saved as pictures and can be emailed or sent to Dropbox.

Management of Apps

Students and teachers can waste a lot of time looking for Apps. They need to be categorised and organised into folders.

Set up 'curriculum' pages.

Maths

These could be set up into strand, stages and/or Number Knowledge and Number Strategies.

Students should be directed to the folders that are related to the teaching and learning intention of that day.

Writing
Literacy needs to split up into at least Reading and Writing. Depending on how many apps you have you  may split it even further to have a Spelling and Grammar page. In this example I like to have a separate folder that offers many different ways to publish.

Reading
In this example the books have been divided up into Junior and Senior Books. You may want to consider reading ages as folder names.
I have separated the 'interactive' books such as Mushroom Age or The Mystery of the Crystal Porter as they have less reading and more interactive tasks in them.

Music

I have divided up the music apps into the different categories of

• Wind
• Percussion
• Strings
• Singing
• Piano

Art

There are so many wonderful art apps available. I have separated the drawing ones from the apps that do special effects.







The other curriculum apps like Social Sciences and Science can be divided up between pages as well.