As he sat on the stage and demonstrated how elegantly the iPad could flip through pages electronic text, I knew I was witnessing a revolutionary moment. Steve Jobs' mobile tablet was about to change the reading experience for students. My first endeavor was to integrate electronic text and media apps with Harvey Daniels' Literature Circle model. This portion of my website contains this work.
Literature Circles inherently promote student ownership of learning. In this learning model, students take responsibility for choosing their own books, directing discussion groups, assigning roles for student inquiry, and constructing meaningful interpretations of text as thoughtful community learners. A process will engage students in countless opportunities for critical thinking and collaboration.
Conducting Literature Circle with mobile devices such as the iPad, not only provides immediate access to a diverse selection of books, but also to reference materials, research tools, interactive maps, and a slew of creation and dynamic notebook apps. Within this single device, students can quickly check the meaning of a word, run a quick background check on a historic event, or articulate their understanding of text with a range of multimedia apps. Teachers can now easily differentiate the processes students can use to demonstrate understanding.
There are numerous ways teachers can organize and facilitate Literature Circles. The primary source for the content for this site is Harvey Daniel's book Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student Centered Classroom. My intention is to link Daniel's research to a literature circle model that uses e-books and apps. I am outlining how each of his readers role relate to specific apps, demonstrating how to differentiate the process of production, and discuss the possibilities for a digital Reader's Response Journal.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me here.
Conducting Literature Circle with mobile devices such as the iPad, not only provides immediate access to a diverse selection of books, but also to reference materials, research tools, interactive maps, and a slew of creation and dynamic notebook apps. Within this single device, students can quickly check the meaning of a word, run a quick background check on a historic event, or articulate their understanding of text with a range of multimedia apps. Teachers can now easily differentiate the processes students can use to demonstrate understanding.
There are numerous ways teachers can organize and facilitate Literature Circles. The primary source for the content for this site is Harvey Daniel's book Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student Centered Classroom. My intention is to link Daniel's research to a literature circle model that uses e-books and apps. I am outlining how each of his readers role relate to specific apps, demonstrating how to differentiate the process of production, and discuss the possibilities for a digital Reader's Response Journal.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me here.
The Books
There a several apps useful for downloading electronic books. The following apps are some of the primary virtual bookstores.
iBooks Accessibility
Within the iPads Accessibility Settings, it is possible to create a reading environment which allows students to tap text and have it read to them. Under settings, first choose "General" and then Accessibility. Slide the "Speak Selection" button to "On" and then choose the correct speaking rate or even dialect. Another great feature is to have the words highlighted as they are read. The video shows a student having a web article read to her.
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Amazon has a "kindle"
bookstore app that contains newspapers, books, magazines, and textbooks.
Features include creating notes, bookmarking, highlighting and keyword
searching. There is a built in dictionary with link to Google and Wikipedia.
Books are purchased online and are not possible from within the app. Up to six iPads can share one amazon account. It is possible to sync these notes with WiFi. |
Here is another great video demo by Rita Mortenson explaining how dotEPUB works