When I saw this book in a local book store, I immediately thought it would provide an excellent model text for my primary students to use to help them create an interactive multimedia story.
The book lends itself to creativity and imagination through the use of fun literary tools (the book uses interjections throughout the pages to engage the reader to participate) and a unique "hook": asking the reader to actively take part in the story! . When you add iPad technology, students have an incredibly engaging tool to help them tell their story and a storytelling portal (Educreations.com) that allows their multimedia creation to be read by the world!
For the iPad app, I chose Educreations. The app is incredibly easy to use and publishing to the web was possible in just a few short clicks (once the free school account was quickly setup on http://www.educreations.com/). For me, this is an important step and one where technology can provide motivation for many students that may not be possible with simply writing a story on paper and sharing it with the teacher and peers. Research has shown that the wider audience of the web has positively influenced student performance in regards to creating quality work and completing their written work and this finding is supported in the book Handbook of Research in New Literacies, by Julie Coiro, as well as other research.
This app is similar to the ShowMe app. Both are free at this time so explore both and choose the one you feel fits the lesson best for your kids.
I have included a step-by-step process for the lesson below.
- Register for an Educreations account to that publishing from the iPad is quick and easy. You can register for the account HERE. I chose to create one generic school account since I am using this lesson with primary students.
- Read the book, Press Here by Herve Tullet. After reading, work your teacher magic to help identify strategies the author used engage the reader. Use of interjections, talking directly to the reader, giving the reader instructions. I also plan on using the Visible Thinking routine "See, Think, Wonder". My goal with this routine is to help the students see past the dots used in the story and imagine other objects they could use for the story they will create. The routine will have to be tweaked a bit to fit with the book but not too much.
- Next, it is tie to demonstrate the app and show the sample video (see bottom of post). It truly is a very simple app. I think the hardest part for primary students will be understanding when the app is recording your voice and actions (illustrating) and when it just "shows" or displays the drawn picture.
- I will use a simple graphic organizer/storyboard to help the students plan their story. This tool will be important in helping the students efficiently create their story on the iPad. I have embedded the organizer below. It allows for the student to create 5 scenes. This could be adjusted for students age and ability. Students will draw the picture they intend to draw on their iPad on the left and write their script (as best they can) on the right.
- Once the organizers are completed and I have checked them, the students can begin creating their stories. I will have to work in small groups as each grade has 6 iPads.
- Once all stories are complete, we will have a share day. Again, the stories are all published under our account on Educreations.com so access will be simple and easy. I can also embed the stories on the classroom teacher's website or just send the link to the teacher and parents.
A student sample is in 1st grade. She did a great job asking the reader to interact with the weather!
The storyboard graphic organizer is below. You can use the tools on the screen to downloaded if you wish.
