If you have never used Book Creator I suggest you start! It is a freemium. Which I hate. Money is tight and I already spend too much every year on my students. However, I will fork over the money for this one tool. My students love using it and are begging to keep using it for different things. And, at this point, anything that excites them is wanted.
Every week we take time to practice creative writing using Jason Reynold's Write. Right. Rite. program with the Library of Congress. This week's challenge required students to tell the story of a tiny neighborhood. I literally tossed and turned on how I could engage students in class this week. And then it hit me - I should try Book Creator for this challenge. I am so glad I thought of this because student output and feedback was AMAZING.
I had never used Book Creator remotely with students before. So, we learned how to use this tool together. This is a practice that supports ISTE Standards for Educators 4 - Collaborator: Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues. I think that as teachers we often feel we must be an expert in a tool before sharing with students; however, best practice says the opposite! I learned many new tips & tricks in Book Creator from my students this week and we would get so excited - together - when something new was shared with everyone! (For example - MAGIC PEN colors - we love glitter! 😍)
I modeled for students how to do the following (the rest of what they needed to know they had to explore to learn!):
join a library with code
create new book
choose template
add media: images, gifs, video, text
using autodraw for creating images within the book
changing backgrounds
using template pages to create a title page, story, and closing page for book
publishing book online
sharing book with classmates using the published link
A great thing about using Book Creator is that there are so many resources for teachers to use as inspiration. The libraries and DISCOVER tab is filled with templates, ideas, and how-tos for all age levels and content areas. Book Creator is definitely a tool that students can use in all subject areas.
Some things I haven't tried but plan to do this week using Book Creator:
COLLABORATE function for students to work together to create a book/project
Inserting video or audio to justify thinking
Combining books to make one class book with everyone's work included to then publish and share
Here are a few examples of some published pieces my students completed this week for our writing challenge. They were so engaged. I loved watching them create their stories and I look forward to using Book Creator more this week for our literacy instruction as we continue with "Finding Mighty." I am considering having them use this tool to create a Character Page and analyze character traits. I will post next week how this goes with students.