Ebooks: Good for Everything from Toddler Literacy to Satisfying Common Core Standards!

Getting to Know You

After getting acquainted with some of my classmate's blogs this week, it looks like I may be one (if not the only) high school teacher in this class (give me a shout out if you're on "Team Secondary!")  So, I've broken up this blog into two parts: exploring ebooks for my toddler son, Henry, and sharing what has worked for me using ebooks for my juniors and seniors. 

Exploring Toddler-Friendly Ebooks for my Son

I am new to Ipad, but I fiddled around with the "Books" app on the home screen, and found a wealth of free titles! My toddler son will be excited when I show him "The T-Rex who wanted to be a Long Neck," by Carol Stevens and Valerie Harmon.  This book has a music track and a narrator. There were also "distractions" as highlighted on Dr. Lewis-White's PowerPoint, such as a cracking egg and a swimming fish that a young person could touch and make move around the page.  The next book I sampled was called "Brave" by Matthew Ryan.  This book was much simpler, with no animations or audio, but bright, colorful pictures and text. Turning the page on this ebook, however, was not as easy as other selections, as there were two pages scanned to one ebook "page."   Finally, I downloaded "Bibby and the Sea Dragon" by Kopaz.  I found it interesting that each of the free ebooks that I downloaded from the Books app was in a different format.  This book had a button that the child pressed for narration and music, while the T-Rex book played automatically.    One thing I appreciated about the Books app is that it gives you the option to explore more texts but the same author if your child liked one (and this is how they hook you into paying for more ebooks, I assume.) 

Digital Literacy is my "Homer"-Boy

The Earlychildhoodeducationzone.com "15 Best Apps..." article did not work for me, but I assume that the Homer app was on there.  I have a 2.5 year old son, and he has been learning his letters on the app.  I appreciate that the app has digital storytelling features, art, and tracing practice, too.  This app has not replaced my son's love for hardcopy books and story time, but he definitely has been fun.

Ebooks in the Secondary Classroom

I'd like to submit a resource for ebooks that was not mentioned in this module but we all have access to if you're a Michigan resident: MEL.org.  For this assignment, I explored Explorica's "Teen" section.  I looked at a book on landscaping and another on Jane Austen, both are nonfiction ebooks.  One cool feature of Explorica is that you can link the ebook right to Google Classroom!  A downside is that they are PDF files, and do not have the narration  and animation that other ebooks may have.

Ebooks in my Classroom: From Nonfiction Chaucer to Comic Book Macbeth

I have found that nonfiction ebooks are great for giving a background to a piece of literature.  For example, I use an ebook about Geoffrey Chaucer meant for middle grades when I introduce The Canterbury Tales for my juniors.  It's a low-stakes, info-packed book that gets my students information with lots of illustrations.  I find that upperclassmen are sometimes left out of the "fun ebooks" category.  Like their younger peers, they have grown up in an increasingly digital and visual landscape, and there are not necessarily reading content that fits that demand.  

Ebooks are also amazing for finding free graphic novel translations of classic texts.  One strategy that I've used is using graphic novel Ebooks like Macbeth for differentiation. This can also be used to satisfy Common Core standards that ask for the students to learn the same text in different media formats.