Let

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Lets make an e-book!

• Sharon McGuinness
• Teacher Librarian, Thirroul PS
• Jane Pretty
• Teacher Librarian, Waniora PS

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TLs and their students

• Teacher Librarians (TLs) in primary schools teach
  every student, each week.....range of literacies
  (information, digital, visual etc)
• This allows a TL to monitor a students
  development and interests over a number of years.
  
• TLs often collaborate with the class teacher,
  aligning what is taught during Library sessions
  with the classroom
• TLs often incorporate ICT into their teaching,
  offering students valuable and regular
  opportunities to acquire skills
• Approx 45 mixed ability Stage 2 (grades 3 4)
  students participated in the e-book project,
  including reluctant readers and writers

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Text Types and Creative Writing The Why of the
Project

• Teachers often teach specific text types at
  specific times within the school year.
• Less time for students to immerse themselves
  regularly in creative writing for its own sake.
• Using an author gave credibility to the project.
  Sandy Fussell, who led 3 workshops is a real
  writer!
• Collaborating on a project allowed students at
  both schools to participate in workshop
• Being passionate about a subject is contagious
• Allowing students to choose their writing topic
  is empowering

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Connected Classrooms, Technology and Web 2.0

• Both schools have access to video conferencing
  and we were keen to utilise this by sharing
  author Sandy Fussell via 3 workshops conducted
  via VC. (Connected Classrooms)
• One project goal enabled students to publish
  their writing via a website, allowing others to
  view their work. This motivated students to
  produce their best work.
• Another was to enable students to talk about
  their writing and reflect on it at the end of the
  project, so a blog was established.
• Yet another objective was to provide students
  with ICT skills in the production of their
  writing as an e-book which allowed for easy
  publishing on a site. A combination of MS
  PowerPoint and MS Movie Maker was used.

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TLs and Authors

• Waniora PS is fortunate to have as one of its
  parents, local author Sandy Fussell who is
  passionate about writing and sharing this with
  students.
• Grant funding was secured for the project from
  National Literacy Numeracy Week which financed
  three workshops led by Sandy and her time in
  which to read the e-books and provide feedback to
  the students.

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The What and How

• Workshop One Waniora PS
• Where do ideas come from? Hemingway said You
  write about what you know, what you love and what
  you hate.
• Students had to develop the best excuse for
  forgetting their homework in one sentence.
• Character development. Authors often use pictures
  as a starting point. Students selected a
  character picture and interviewed their
  character. Then listed physical characteristics,
  positive and negative attributes of character.

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Sample Characters
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The What and the How

• Emphasis was on showing , not telling. Using
  description to show the reader the character. Eg
  As he walked, his head poked forward so that he
  looked like a great bird of prey.
• Students understood how this technique gives a
  character more body. Discussion that not all
  characters may have positive traits!

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The What and theHow

• Workshop 2 Thirroul PS Settings
• Students selected a picture setting and were told
  to close their eyes and imagine they were there.
  Used senses to help describe their setting and
  writing a paragraph about what they felt,
  smelled, heard, saw etc
• Using who, where and when to build a plot.
  Students selected an object and imagined they
  were in their setting with their character. Wrote
  about what was happening. Who else was present?
  How and why?

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Endings

• Resolving issues. Different endings funny, sad,
  cliffhanger.
• Three people are climbing up a mountain. They
  havent told anyone where they are going. One man
  falls and breaks his leg and stuck on the
  mountain, he becomes dangerously ill.
• Students had to write an ending.

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Sample Settings
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Sample Settings
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Sample Settings
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Writing Begins

• After the 2nd workshop, students began to write
  their stories during their library sessions.
• Could select character and setting pictures
  provided by Sandy to kick start or use their own
  ideas.
• Focus was on showing not telling and using
  dialogue for a purpose. Students inclined to
  overuse dialogue!
• Students often visited the library during lunch
  to continue their writing and editing.
• Committed to producing their best
• Students at Waniora worked in pairs, those at
  Thirroul worked individually

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Making the ebook

• Using MS PowerPoint, students wrote their stories
  on slides, inserting pictures as needed.
• Saved each slide as a jpeg file and uploaded into
  MS MovieMaker, adding a page turn transition to
  give the impression of a book.
• Sandy wrote posts on the blog and students
  commented
• Every student at each school completed the
  project.

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Wrap Up Workshop

• The final workshop at Waniora was led by Sandy
  giving her feedback on stories she had read so
  far.
• Focussed on a positive aspect in each story
• At the end of the project, students were invited
  to comment on their experience via the blog.

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Teacher and TL Reflections

• While teachers felt the VC was impersonal at
  times, the students enjoyed the novelty of
  participating and sharing ideas with another
  school
• One hour sessions were often not long enough.
• The project allowed students to improve their
  writing. All students completed the task, some
  repeated the process at home.
• The project was very engaging for the students
• ICT skills increased through manipulation of 2
  pieces of software

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Teacher and TL Reflections

• All felt the project was successful as it
  achieved its objectives.
• Rather than an isolated task, the strategies
  Sandy introduced can be reinforced within the
  classroom
• Students were keen to create additional e-books
  and enjoyed follow up writing with a web 2 tool
  Storybird (TPS)

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Student Comments

• Those ebooks took a long time to write but when
  we watched them they were so so cool Mali, TPS
• Sandy Fussell was a big help. It was fun doing
  it with Waniora public school. I loved it so much
  that Ive done one at home.IT WAS LOTS OF FUN!
  Sandon, TPS
• I learnt alot of things about doing ebooks. Ive
  learnt how to be a better writer with all the
  punctuation.I think i could be a writer when i
  grow up. Noah, TPS
• I had a great time making the e-book with my
  best friend Cassidy. My book was Tega the Ninja
  Cat. It is an exciting adventure action packed
  story, so read it and join in the Kapow
  action. Shane, WPS

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Examples

• Blog Link
• WPS and TPS Student E-Books
• E-Book Instructional video
• Web 2.0 e-book tools
• Mixbook
• Meegenius (books to read and personalise)
• Storybird
• Tarheel Reader