Novel Studies with Chromebooks

Hey!

New to the group so just wanted to say hi as well as ask a question.

Is anyone doing novel studies with the chromebooks? I was thinking that one could have students reading books using their chromebook, add comments as they read like a modified dialectical journal and do their reading responses that. It could also be collaborative as students could comment on the comments of other students, etc. I teach 4th grade and found a copy of How To Eat Fried Worms that I was thinking of doing this with. I would copy the text into a google doc, send it out using doctopus and students could read it and add responses using the comment tools.

Is any else doing anything like this or have tried anything like this?

Cheers

Ian

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Erika Smith on July 15, 2014 at 9:48am

Hi Ian!

My students are fifth graders whom were lucky enough to pilot BYOD at the elementary level. I had some chromebooks, various laptops, iPads and other tablets in my classroom. I created a google collaborative unit for literature circles where each lit. group was doing a different novel and could be accessed on any mobile device.

They worked through the google docs each week with both teacher and student created Critical Thinking questions for their group to complete as they read and at the end of each literature circle discussion, google forms to both self and peer reflect on their participation in groups that cycle, and group note pages through google docs for them to share discussion points and ideas, both in and out of school while they read independently.

At the end of each cycle, students also had mini projects that could be completed, shared, and assessed right in google, either through google docs or google presentations. Best of luck with your novel studies. If you are interested, I can share with you the link to our google collaboration unit draft just so you can get an idea of ways to go about a novel study with google.

Best Wishes,

Erika

Permalink Reply by David Miller on August 6, 2014 at 6:57pm

Hey Ian,

Welcome to the group!

In the past, I have used Google Docs in a very similar manner. I teach 8th grade English, and during a poetry unit, I had students read aloud while their classmates gave a running commentary on whatever stood out to them. I ended up with some very insightful looks into how they interpreted the poem, how the reading affected the meaning, and how it made them feel. Using this tool for collaborative real-time commentary is absolutely worth it. Instead of asking the students to remember everything at the end, they can react in the moment and better articulate how they feel/what they think about a particular passage.

The only caveat is that you have to warn them to keep their thoughts brief so as not to run out of time or fall too far behind. That wasn't much of a problem for me, however. I received a standing ovation for asking them to write less, for once.

Good Luck,

David

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