K12 Online Conference: Using E-Books to Motivate Pupils Writing by Colin Hill

This primary school teacher from the UK demonstrates how to creawte an e-book. His students recently created a poetry e-book and an Ancient Greece e-book. Above all, Hill touts this exercise as an opportunity for authentic assessment. Aware that people are going to view their work online, students, he says, work with "that little extra sense of pressure" and pride. In terms of numbers of visitors to his site, the work Hill has done with his classes has certainly paid off. The poetry book has garnered around 13,000 views. The Ancient Greece book, he says, received around 5,000 views since September (and counting).

The e-book is an alternative method for teachers to compile student work and display it. A class Web site can essentially accomplish the same goal. The e-book, however, looks very much like an actual book, complete with cover and the sound of pages flipping as readers browse through. To see a student's work more closely, the viewer can zoom in.

Hill also got his students to read their entries about various Ancient Greek topics -- menus, temples, Olympic games, the Odyssey -- so that viewers can listen to the children themselves. hill found the recording component a great lesson for students to check their own handwriting legibility as well as to check for clarity in their writing.

I applaud Mr. Hill for taking so much time to scan his students' work and for giving the students such a wide audience for their efforts. It really is a great product. You can find the Ancient Greece book, as well as other e-books, at http://www.myebook.com.

This resource seems like a straightforwrard but time-consuming tool. I'm not sure if it makes sense for my literature students, but I could see how such a site could be very handy for a creative writing or an art class.