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Procedure
The
following are suggestions for how e-book projects could be done
with your students. The model outlined below uses individual and
groups to work through the phases of a project. Older students may
work through the process independently and younger students may
work through the project as a large group.
The
Writing Process
More information on the writing process can be found at the
SaskEd website. Elementary level specific information is here.
Middle years information is available here.
- Pre-writing
- Students
are divided into small groups (3-4) and they spend some initial
time brainstorming ideas for possible story topics.
- The
e-book making project can be used with any area of study and
it makes a great conclusion/review activity.
- For
younger grade levels, the teacher may wish to brainstorm story
ideas with the entire class.
- Drafting/Posting
Writing
- If
working in small groups, individual students may be assigned
a particular section of the rough draft to edit and proofread.
If working as a large group, smaller break-out groups could
be assigned a particular portion of the rough draft to edit
and proofread. This allows for some individual or smaller
group evaluation to take place as the students work through
revising their work.
- This
is a great time to introduce writing strategies like elaboration,
word choice, sentence combining, figurative language, and
use of a thesaurus to bring more life to the written text.
- Students
come together again to make certain that the story still makes
sense and that the fluency and the continuity has been maintained.
-
Final Draft
- Once
the final draft has been completed, individual students or
small groups can be responsible for typing their section of
the story into the PowerPoint file (or other presentation
software).
Illustrations
- Students
are responsible for the creation of original illustrations.
- Variations
may include computer generated graphics, hand-drawn illustrations
on small (5"x7") thick card cards that can be scanned
and imported, or 3-D Plastercine sculptures that are digitally
photographed and imported.
An
Example of a Book Making Project:
- Third
graders spent approximately four weeks examining a variety of
folktales from around the world. They were taught how to identify
and record culturally relevant information from the text and illustrations
of folktales. Once they were familiar with a variety of folktales,
we discussed Cinderella variants and identified some common elements
(evil sister(s), a desired "prince" character, good
winning over evil, etc).
- The
cultural information and beliefs that had been pulled from several
Navaho folktales were "plugged into" the Cinderella
variant model.
- The
class brainstormed possible outcomes for the "bad" characters.
We thought about what we should name characters (to make names
culturally correct), and considered the possibility of changing
the characters' names where appropriate, and so forth.
- Once
the brainstorming session was complete, we moved on to our first
draft. This was done on chart paper in the reading corner.
- Smaller
groups of students were assigned a section of the rough draft
to edit and improve. Various writing strategies were taught at
this time to help them focus on revision techniques.
- Once
the revisions were complete, each group read their section aloud
to ensure that the continuity of our story remained in tact.
- We
went through our writing and identified where we would place page
breaks and incorporate illustrations. Students were then assigned
some text and they were responsible for creating a corresponding
illustration.
- The
illustrations were done with markers on a thick 5"x7"
white cardboard. (The thicker the better to prevent curling which
makes scanning difficult).
- The
illustrations were scanned and imported into PowerPoint.
- To
complete the e-book, the corresponding text was typed in under
the illustration.
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