Considering Mentor Texts 3: The Power of Picture Books

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(Note: this blog post and a few more this week is part of a series around mentor texts and digital composition. The blog posts are all being collected over at Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop)

 

I’ve long been a fan of picture books for older students for many reasons. They are perfect for teaching a specific writing skill. They are short enough to share and use in a single class period. Many students, even older ones, have fond connections with picture books and enjoy new discoveries in the classroom (which they might otherwise not find in the library on their own in middle school). And there is just such a great wealth of fantastic books for older readers coming out each year, it is a huge gap in literature if you ignore the possibilities.

I also have found that picture books, in particular, have the potential for becoming ideal mentor texts for digital writing projects with students. Certainly, authors and illustrators with picture books are not afraid to push against expectations and offer up creative ways to tell a story. Think about how many picture books (such as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs) break down that third wall and invite the reader into the narrative, or wreak havoc on our expectations of text — just like composing with digital tools can do. And the close partnership between image and text in picture books is something that most traditional novels can’t pull off, or at least, not in the same way.

Let me give you an example of how one particular picture book series set the groundwork for my students to create their own digital picture books, and one of the pieces of advice about the use of technology that I try to present to teachers is: Don’t fall into the trap of “this was built for this, and that’s all it can be used for.”

A number of years ago, I decided that I wanted my students to create science-based digital picture books.

We had limited technology at our disposal, but we did have some computers with MS Powerpoint software loaded on them. It may have been designed for presentations for businesses, and it certainly has been overused, but I saw Powerpoint in a different light. The slides could be pages, and animation, audio and other digital elements might provide some compositional tools for constructing a picture book with digital elements. Who cares what Microsoft built it for? We would use the technology for our purposes.

Now, back then, there were very few mentor texts out there for digital picture books. This is years before the iPad and other devices that have revolutionized the book publishing industry. This was the pre-App Age.

But there was one series of picture books that I knew had some potential. The Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen with its many layers of information and its many iterations made perfect sense. If you know anything about the series, consider the many layers of narrative and informational text and images that are folded into a typical Magic School Bus book. You have the characters chatting in speech bubbles; you often have notebook pages with scientific information and discoveries; and you have complex illustrations loaded with informational ideas. We’re not even considering the television show, the video games and other multimedia offshoots of the series, but those all demonstrate just how effectively the books were put together. Multimedia versions were no doubt relatively easy to pull off.

We use the Magic School Bus series as a piece of literature (most of my sixth graders get a kick out of re-reading a series that they remember from childhood) and that leads them into creating their own science-based picture books, as a digital project. Some students even emulate the Magic School Bus concepts, using similar ideas as a launching pad for their own ideas. In this case, the books were to be about Cellular Mitosis, which they were studying in science class. My science teacher colleague and I were hoping that the picture book project would help with the difficult science vocabulary, and give them an opportunity to compose with digital tools.

As I have mentioned in other posts in this series, I strongly urge teachers to create their own mentor texts, too, and bring those into the classroom as a means to reflect on the experience and allow students to question the compositional choices. So, I created my own science digital picture book just ahead of my students. It was a fictional story about a piece of yeast who infects a banana, and the topic was compost. The yeast flew around the screen, landing on different items, and I had some sound effects, and audio narration.

Here is my digital book (note: we converted some books from Powerpoint to Video, too):

 

Here are two digital books created by students:




Some interesting elements emerged as students were creating their books, too:
* Some students realized they could create a sort of “lift the Flap” book by “hiding” images underneath other images, and readers could click the mouse to uncover some fact or information or even “easter eggs” (hidden features of the book);
* Books could be set up for reader interaction. We included weblinks embedded right into the books, including online activities and quizzes associated with the content of the books. Readers read the books, but then become part of the experience;
* Some years, we were able to print out the books (copies of which are now in our school library) and students were disappointed by what they saw. They had created their book to be alive on the screen, not the page, and so the “flattened books” lacked much of what made them special to students.

The Magic School Bus provided us with a means to envision a book of many different layers and possibilities, and as is often the case, the students took it from there.

Peace (in the book),
Kevin

 

PS: Also blogging about Mentor Texts and Digital Composition this week are:

Bill Bass, Technology Integration Specialist in Missouri and author of the upcoming ISTE book on Film Festivals tentatively titled, “Authentic Learning Through a Digital Lens” will be blogging on his blog MR. BASS ONLINE.

Katie DiCesare, a primary teacher in Dublin who runs an incredible writing workshop will be blogging at her blog, CREATIVE LITERACY.

Troy Hicks, author of THE DIGITAL WRITING WORKSHOP and BECAUSE DIGITAL WRITING MATTERS. He will be blogging at his site, DIGITAL WRITING, DIGITAL TEACHING.

Tony Keefer, an amazing 4th grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio will be blogging at at ATYCHIPHOBIA.

Franki Sibberson, a librarian of many skills and knowledge, and also from Ohio, over at A YEAR OF READING

Considering Mentor Texts 2: The Evolution of an Idea

(NOTE: This piece will be part of an Ed Tech Blog Carnival at The Whiteboard Blog)
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(Note: this blog post and a few more this week is part of a series around mentor texts and digital composition. The blog posts are all being collected over at Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop)

Yesterday, I wrote about how I believe that teachers need to be the ones creating and sharing out mentor texts as we make a shift into digital composition. Today, I want to focus on a project that began with a traditional text (sort of) that allowed my students to take advantage of the digital architecture of the web, and my ideas for how to take that project one step further.

8 Choose Your Own Adventure book covers

It all began with some students reading and enjoying the Make Your Own Adventure stories. I remember these books from when I was a kid, but they were making another comeback a few years ago. If you are not sure what these books are, they are stories in which the reader makes decisions about where the story is going. In the books, the reader moves to different pages, flipping around the novel and never going in sequential order. I had a small group of students who were fascinated by these books, and one asked me how did authors do that? How did they write a book with so many choices?

That got me thinking.

And as I thought more about it as a possible writing project, I began to see the Web as one possible place to create Make Your Own Adventure stories. In particular, those books reminded me of something we take for granted when we are online: the power of the hyperlink. In fact, it is the hyperlink that underlies just about everything that makes the Web a different kind of writing space. Your ability to connect one thing to another opens up a lot of doors.

Using the books as a mentor text, I guided my students to create their own Make Your Own Adventure stories (using yet another mentor text, Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick for story inspiration). We worked on mapping out the stories first, visually showing the choices that a reader might make. Then, we used a wiki site to publish the stories, embedding the choices as hyperlinks that lead to either dead ends or further elements of the story.

Want to learn more about how to introduce this idea to your classroom:

Yes

No

The project was very successful and I have been thinking: how do I take it to the next level? What I had in mind was a video I once saw in which the viewer made choices based on clicks made inside the video itself. I know, sounds strange, right? A recent post by Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers reminded me again of this idea. (The trick has to do with annotating the video and, again, the mapping out of the story as your compose it)

I have also been watching the videos put out by these three goofy guys: Chad, Matt and Rob. They make their videos “interactive adventures” that are fun to watch, and each one has choices for the views. See for yourself:

And, they put out a video showing how they go about making the videos:

So, I figured: Let’s give it a try. Here is what I came up with yesterday: The Mysterious Sweet Fruit.

It’s not as difficult as it seems, and it is a lot of fun, and just think of the critical thinking skills that would go into students creating such a composition. Choices around video production, story adventure writing and use of technology, plus the prospects of an authentic audience, would all come into play. Of course, this assumes you have YouTube access, and a school/classroom account.

Peace (in the choice),
Kevin

PS: Also blogging about Mentor Texts and Digital Composition this week are:

Bill Bass, Technology Integration Specialist in Missouri and author of the upcoming ISTE book on Film Festivals tentatively titled, “Authentic Learning Through a Digital Lens” will be blogging on his blog MR. BASS ONLINE.

Katie DiCesare, a primary teacher in Dublin who runs an incredible writing workshop will be blogging at her blog, CREATIVE LITERACY.

Troy Hicks, author of THE DIGITAL WRITING WORKSHOP and BECAUSE DIGITAL WRITING MATTERS. He will be blogging at his site, DIGITAL WRITING, DIGITAL TEACHING.

Tony Keefer, an amazing 4th grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio will be blogging at at ATYCHIPHOBIA.

Franki Sibberson, a librarian of many skills and knowledge, and also from Ohio, over at A YEAR OF READING

 

Considering Mentor Texts: Teachers as Explorers and Creators

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(Note: this blog post and a few more this week is part of a series around mentor texts and digital composition. The blog posts are all being collected over at Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop)

A few years ago, I was part of an initial gathering to talk about and begin planning content for the National Writing Project‘s Digital Is website. The conversation often turned on the name of the site. In fact, I often had trouble getting my head around it. NWP Co-Director Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, however, patiently and continually explained that the concept of the resource site would be to acknowledge that we are now “in the moment” of a world infused with digital technology, and the time had come to determine where such a movement would be taking learning.

“Digital just is,” she would say, acknowledging that technology had already become a fabric of our world.

I think I get it now. And I know that Digital Is is one of those sites that continues to explore the various angles of intersection between the “why we use technology” (as opposed to the how to do it) and “why it matters for learning.” One of the valuable elements of a site such as Digital Is is that it provides a framework for discussion, and provides some mentor texts for teachers to consider, which is crucial. A few years later, we may still be “in the moment” and that means that, with some exceptions, there is still a decided lack of digital examples of  composition with technology that we can turn to as educators and provide as samples for our students.

For me, this conundrum often means that I am creating my own mentor texts just ahead of my students, and then sharing those reflections of my process with my class as a way to make visible the success and failures of my work. I’ve been making stopmotion movies, webcomic collections, digital picture books, digital stories, hyperlinked poetry, and even science-based video games over the years.

Teachers don’t need to be complete experts — heck, no one is quite the expert yet when it comes to composition with technology, which is the whole point of us being “in the moment” — but we do need to be intrepid explorers alongside our students. For some educators, this is scary business. You need to expose yourself as less than an expert. You need to be ready for failure on your exploration, and make quick turns in expectations. You may need to cede direction to your students, who may have more experience in an area than you (for me, this was with video game design). You need to see the “end goal” in mind (backwards design) and tiptoe forward along the path towards those goals. You need to document your journey, and reflect afterwards, and collect data and examples. In general, I have found that students respond well to the understanding that their teacher is trying something new and they appreciate the honesty of a teacher exploring new terrain.

What we need to be doing is constructing our own mentor text collections, even as we keep an eye out for what others are doing. This means, too, that we teachers need to be sharing our worlds of exploration with our colleagues, and with the world. Don’t keep your work hidden inside of your classroom. Use the tools of the modern publishing age to share out your expertise, and together, we can begin building a database of mentor texts in the digital age. And push the limits of what technology can do.

I realized this early on, when I began to teach my class how to create stopmotion movies, starting from the storyboarding, right through scriptwriting, and into production. At the time, there was very little out there. The Wallace & Gromit movies were not yet as popular as they are today and yet, I was determined to help my students become filmmakers. But I needed something to show them, something that they could build upon in their own way.

So, I started at home, working with my own young boys on our own little movie, which turned into a three-part series (they loved it that much). This short film is what I later shared with my students, talking through the process that we went through: what kind of props; what kind of story; what problems we ran into; how did we collaborate; etc. The result was a piece of work that we could dissect together, and then, when my student were working on their own movies, they could use that experience. And I, as the teacher, had first-hand experiences with stopmotion movies.

Here is what my sons and I produced:

 

Here is an example of student stopmotion movies:

Just last month, we launched into a video game design unit with a science theme. I could not find a game that represented what I wanted them to see, and not just emulate, but build upon. I struggled until I realized: I guess I better do it myself. So I did, creating a video game on the theme of Women Scientists in History, which then allowed me to deconstruct my entire design process for my students. They then designed and created their own geology-based video games. (Note: I purposely landed on a theme that I knew would not influence the content of their own games — this brings up the balance between providing a mentor text that provides a path forward, and one that is easily emulated by our young learners.)

Here is my video game (Women in Science):

Here is a student video game (Volcano Valley):

The experts are us, and our students. We need tor recognize this fact more often, and exploit the journey as much as the task, as we seek to build knowledge and experience to push learning and creativity in new directions.

Peace (in the exploration),
Kevin

PS: Also blogging about Mentor Texts and Digital Composition this week are:

Bill Bass, Technology Integration Specialist in Missouri and author of the upcoming ISTE book on Film Festivals tentatively titled, “Authentic Learning Through a Digital Lens” will be blogging on his blog MR. BASS ONLINE.

Katie DiCesare, a primary teacher in Dublin who runs an incredible writing workshop will be blogging at her blog, CREATIVE LITERACY.

Troy Hicks, author of THE DIGITAL WRITING WORKSHOP and BECAUSE DIGITAL WRITING MATTERS. He will be blogging at his site, DIGITAL WRITING, DIGITAL TEACHING.

Tony Keefer, an amazing 4th grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio will be blogging at at ATYCHIPHOBIA.

Franki Sibberson, a librarian of many skills and knowledge, and also from Ohio, over at A YEAR OF READING

 

The Classroom as a Research Study: Digital Composition

It’s been about two years in the planning, but this month, two professors (and associates through the Western Massachusetts Writing Project) will be launching a research study in my classroom around the ways in which my students use technology and digital media in school and out of school. The study is entitled “In the Midst of Change: Young People Composing in a Digital World.”

The two visiting professors — Anne Herrington and Donna LeCourt — intend to observe the work that we do around composing with digital tools (in conjunction with a new unit I am doing around digital citizenship and the use of Glogster), and then they will be interviewing a few students about the compositional choices they make when they create something with technology. I admire both Anne and Donna for their work around composition and rhetoric. Anne and I were co-editors (along with Charlie Moran) of the book collection, Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change and Assessment in the 21st Century.

One focus of the conversations that we have had in the last year or so is what my students do with technology and composition outside of school. We are curious to know and document the kinds of writing with technology that goes on outside of the school walls. Anne, Donna and I (and another professor who is no longer part of the initiative) have long talked about ways to document the choices that young people make around composing with these new tools, and what influence the world outside of school has on the writing in school, and vice versa.

So, I am excited to see the project almost underway. I am also a little nervous. It’s strange to have visitors looking in at what is going on, although that nervousness is countered by the fact that I know the researchers quite well. Still ….

Peace (in the study),
Kevin

 

It’s Nice to Get Noticed: Game Design

Yesterday, I shared out my new Video Game Design resource, and it generated a lot of interest across various networks, including Twitter (which I hope translates into possibilities for more students to use video game design in the classroom). The site also got a few mentions here and there on other websites and blogs, which is always an honor. It’s not always easy to stand out in the cacophony of the web world.

First, Richard Byrne at Free Tech for Teachers gave me a warm shout-out. I always appreciate the sharing of resources that Richard does at his site and encourage you to visit Free Tech for Teachers on a regular basis.

View Free Tech for Teachers Blog

Second, the Gamestar Mechanic teachers’ blog also focused on my website. The blog is a place where gaming projects are coming into focus, so to have mine in the mix is a nice honor.

View Gamestar Mechanic Teacher Blog

Finally, I am working with a few new colleagues (mostly from Canada, it seems) to create a wiki resource space around gaming in the classroom. Julie Johnson is spearheading the effort, and it is just beginning, but we hope to have a collaborative site that can be of use to other teachers considering gaming as a possible learning activity. It’s exciting to be part of collaborative adventures!

View Game in  Ed Wiki Site

Thanks to everyone who did drop by the game design site, and gave feedback through my various networks. I appreciate it!

Peace (in the connections),
Kevin

 

Site Launch: Video Game Design for the Classroom

Video Game Design Screenshot
For the past few weeks, I have been sharing out pieces of a resource around video game design as my sixth grade students have created science-based video games. I often brought along my video camera for the ride, interviewing my fellow teachers and some of my students, and capturing some of the events as they unfolded with the project. I thought I might produce a video. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to keep much of the segments separate, and a website resource really seemed to be the way to go.

So, here it is.

I’ve created this website called Video Game Design as a way to document our learning adventure around game design, science and writing in hopes that you might also consider the possibilities of video games in your classroom. It was quite an interesting project, which continues to unfold even now (some of my students will be revising their games for the National STEM Video Game Challenge). I’ve tried to show how the project touches on a lot of curricular areas, and connects with the Common Core initiative. And I have attempted to show how engaged my students were in their creation of a video game project.

Most of all, I want to emphasize that my young gamers moved from the “players” of other people’s games to the “creators” of their own projects, with a real audience (we used Gamestar Mechanic, which I highly recommend for this kind of project) and a real purpose. While there are areas I see in reflection that could have been done better, there is no doubt in my mind that this project transformed learning practice for a few weeks. It’s been a bit difficult to get back to the regular curriculum, to be honest.

I hope the site is useful for you. Feel free to pass it around and if you see things that need to be addressed or have some general comments, I would love for you to give some feedback here.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

 

Student Podcasts: Reviewing Video Games

Norris Gamers Icon
As part of our work around video game design, my sixth grade students were also assigned to play and review a video game. The game could be on any platform (and there was a wide range — from iPods to Wii to Xbox Live to web-based games) and the criteria for the review would be along lines of design, challenge, media and other elements that we have been discussing. What they didn’t know was that they were learning persuasive writing techniques, and use of rhetorical stance. They just thought they were able to play and write about video games.

This assignment was inspired by an online friend, Julie, who shared with me her own graphic organizer around game reviews. I adapted her organizer for my own needs, but I was grateful to have a starting point. If you need a starting point, here is the link to my own graphic organizer.

I wanted to give my students some voice, too, and so we used our iPod Touches and Cinch to record podcast versions of their video game reviews. I was impressed with how they came out, and have now pulled them together into a single folder of game review podcasts. Feel free to share with your own students, and let me know if you do a similar assignment. For me, this was yet another writing component to our video game design project.

Oh, and something interesting emerged, too, as the owner of a website called Gametrender kindly offered to provide publishing space on his website to feature our young writers. (He later told me he is a former teacher and sees the opportunity to nurture future journalists. You can read his post about it here.) I told my students this was an opportunity to publish to the world (the site gets a lot of traffic) in a meaningful way, with authentic readers. They were pretty excited about it, and I sent forward about  a dozen reviews to be published there in the coming days and weeks.

Take a listen:

Peace (in the review),
Kevin

 

WMWP: Pop Culture, Technology and the Common Core

Our focus at the Western Massachusetts Writing Project has been on ways to make the new Massachusetts State Standards (influenced by the Common Core) a workable reality for teachers in the areas of literacy. Our upcoming technology event will do that from a slightly different angle: looking at how our popular culture, technology and learning can come together in the classroom. This event was inspired in large part by Dr. Ernest Morrell’s presentation at last year’s National Writing Project Urban Sites Conference, in which he encouraged teachers to turn the lens on the culture that influences and shapes student interaction, writing and engagement.

We’re hoping to do that with a keynote presentation from a group of high school video producers called Video Vanguard, and then provide some opportunities for attendees to “learn and play” with technology around topics of gaming and social networking and more. We’ll also be providing time for reflection and connection with other educators. Our aim is to show how to validate the worlds of our young people while exploring the ways these cultural ideas can connect to the curriculum that we teach. In fact, the Common Core opens up a lot of doors to using technology, media and more for research, writing and publishing.

If you live in Western Massachusetts, please consider signing up for our event, which is taking place on Saturday February 4. (You can now register and pay online for WMWP events.)

WMWP Technology Event Feb2012

This event is also in conjunction with the national Digital Learning Day, which seeks to highlight the ways that technology and digital media can transform education and engage students. We’re also putting together a survey for Massachusetts teachers around their use of technology and digital media in the classrom for Digital Learning Day, in hopes of creating a database of educators who are on the leading edge of this movement.

Peace (in the culture),
Kevin

 

Book Review: Building the English Classroom

I won’t even try to be unbiased here. Bruce Penniman, the author of Building the English Classroom: Foundations, Support, Success, is not only a colleague (and past director) in the Western Massachusetts Writing Project but he is also a former college instructor of mine, a writing partner for a National Writing Project resource, and a friend. But those connections won’t stop me from saying that Bruce’s book (which I notice is currently sold out on Amazon, which says something about the book’s appeal) about constructing a rich, diverse and challenging English classroom is a wonderful resource worth reading.

Early on in the book, Bruce, a former Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, among other accolades, explains the rationale for the book:

“Teaching English is challenging in part because it is many subjects in one — traditionally, writing, literature, public speaking, and grammar, but now all of those plus media literacy, computer technology, social justice, and much more … The job of organizing those demands can be overwhelming, especially to a teacher still developing a repertoire of management strategies.” (p. x1)

In engaging prose peppered with personal anecdotes from the classroom, Bruce distills his 40 years in the classroom into practice advice around curriculum development and assessment in the era of standardized testing while keeping his focus on for main themes that all of us teachers would do well to heed as a sort of professional motto:

  • Collaborate
  • Plan
  • Reflect
  • Believe

Building the English Classroom is structured around how to plan, teach and assess a wide range of writing and reading activities, using the Backwards Design model, and he puts a strong push later on in the book around opening the door to multicultural voices and authentic writing for students. Along with the traditional essay, Bruce has always been ready to provide a range of writing assignments that can demonstrate student knowledge beyond the five-paragraph model. While Bruce’s experience is in the high school (and now at the university level), the book can be of use to middle school teachers, too.

Of great value in here for anyone, however, are the many charts and graphs and samples that Bruce provides to the reader.

When I was a first year teacher, I took a graduate course through the Western Massachusetts Writing Project with Bruce as one of the co-instructors, and to this day, I keep his concept of “stakes writing” handy in my mind, and in my desk. Bruce thoughtfully lays out the ways that some writing is personal for the student (low stakes), some of the teacher and the classroom community (mid stakes), and some for the world itself (high stakes). In each of those tiers, there are a variety of expectations of the writer. This kind of thinking opened a lot of possibilities for me, which I continue to use to this day.

Peace (in the classroom),
Kevin

PS — You can sample some of the book at the NCTE book website.