EBooks are accessible with any
internet capable device, so you could display in your classroom using the
projector, have students access individually with laptops or using the
Nooks. With many of these eBooks,
students can mark, highlight, and add notes to the text without having to use
up your copies. Best of all reading on a
digital device can greatly increase student engagement!
ClassScape Benchmarks have already
moved to online assessment, and soon EOG’s will too. To fully prepare our students for being
assessed this way, we need to have them practice reading this way frequently in
our classrooms as well!
Tips for
getting started with eBooks:
1- Before you put a student in front of a device, locate the
reading material you want them to use, and try it out yourself on the device
that you plan to have them use. See
below for a list of eBook sources.
2- Start by reading an eBook whole-class with your projector.
Modeling of what you expect students to do is important!
3- Make sure you plan ahead,
and test everything out before you hand it over to students – I’m repeating
this because it is probably the most
important thing to do to make sure this goes smoothly. It never fails when you are trying out new
technology, you run into glitches – don’t let that get you down, the benefits
are worth any struggle.
4- Start with a relatively
short text, and print out a hard copy to fall back on in case you have tech
issues.
5- Check out these websites with more information about using
eBooks in the classroom.
Technology
and Reading eBooks in Education http://www.drscavanaugh.org/ebooks/
Using
Digital Books http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/04/using-digital-books-classroom
Sources for FREE Online Books!
There are
tons of sources out there, but these are good starting points that I have explored some.
Kids 4 Classics http://kids4classics.com
Access to multiple classic books in eReader and PDF format.
eBook Libraries http://www.drscavanaugh.org/ebooks/libraries/ebook_libraries.htm
Lists of multiple sites to locate ebooks.
Wired for Books http://www.wiredforbooks.org/
Poems, stories, plays, essays, lectures, and interviews for
children and adults.
Book Pop http://www.bookpop.com/index2.html
Picture books with read aloud.
Bartleby http://www.bartleby.com/index.html
The Harvard Classics are among many free texts offered online
at this award-winning site. There are also many classic reference works
available here.
Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Access many eBooks!
Can be opened as a web page file, Kindle, PDF. This collection includes books that are out
of copyright.
Using the Nook to
Read a Downloaded PDF Book
“Golden Advice” – Before trying to use this with your students use it
yourself a couple days to get the hang of how it works.
Opening the book .
. .
1.
Press the Ç button to
open the menu.
2.
Choose “Library”, then “My Stuff,” “Files, ” then “Downloads.”
3.
Tap on the book title to open. (The first time a window will come up asking
what you want to open it with. Tap in the box beside “do this every time” and
then select using “Reader.”)
Once the
book is open . . .
·
Swipe to turn the page.
·
Double tap or pinch out to zoom in
·
Single tap the page to bring up the menu. This allows you to go to a certain page,
bookmark, or note, look up something in the book, and adjust the screen brightness.
·
Touch and hold on a word to bring up the notes
menu. This allows you to highlight the
word, add a note, look up the word, or find all of the other places it is
used. Any notes and highlights become
searchable for locating later. To clear these, tap the “Clear All” button.
Usage Ideas
. . .
·
Vocabulary
Instruction: When presenting students with the list of vocabulary terms
they will study, instead of making them look the words up in a dictionary, have
them use the search feature. This will
bring up all the times the word is used in the text, so students can study the
usage of the words and use context clues to come up with the word meaning. You
might have them record a couple of the sentences the word is in, write their
own definition, and then use the Look Up feature to see the dictionary
definition. This will engage students in making meaning of the words rather
than just receiving the info from you. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how
specific word choices shape meaning or tone.)
·
Mark in
Text: You can ask students to highlight certain things (vocabulary,
evidence for an answer, parts of speech, punctuation usage, etc). You can also ask them to stop and make notes
on their thinking at certain points in the text (like our old Interactive
Readers). The notes and highlights are saved in the book until you clear it –
this will allow students to see what other students are thinking to learn from
each other. If you don’t want students
to see what others mark, have them clear the marks before putting the Nooks up
at the end of class. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make
logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or
speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.)
