5 Unique Ways to Use Technology to Celebrate Reading Month

Have fun incorporating technology in the classroom as you celebrate National Reading Month

March is just around the corner and is National Reading Month! Have fun celebrating with your students by incorporating some of these meaningful techie ideas into your lessons.

Create a Website Quiz

Use the free tool CheckThis to have students make interactive quizzes about a book they have read. I've blogged about CheckThis here and here. LOVE this tool!

Students can upload an image and create a poll of questions:

Classmates can visit their website to answer the questions! Since this activity creates a "website", I usually have students submit their URL via a Google Form or paste it in a shared Google Doc. (Students do not have to have a Google account to access and add text to a Google Doc. Just change the settings to anyone with the link can edit.) This is a great way to create a running list of the websites so others can visit later on. *Word of advice: Once students paste their link in a Doc, change the setting to anyone with the link can view.* When the students start clicking on each others' links, this will ensure that nothing accidentally gets deleted. Not a fan of collaboration in Google Drive? Then check out THESE tricks. 

CheckThis is very easy to use. It integrates with Google; however, sign-in is not required. Follow these steps:

• Go to checkthis.com
• Click New Post in upper right hand corner > Create a post online
• Simply click on the text to add a title and subtitle
• Add an image by clicking the +plus sign>Image>Import
  
  I always have students find an image before launching the website. They import from computer.
  
  
• To add the poll, go to Apps>Poll

Add as many questions as you would like!

• Once finished, go to Publish>No edit
  
• Click the share icon to grab the URL or simply grab it at the top of the webpage!
  
                                   

Create a Book Cover

Have students digitally create a book cover! This project idea could be adapted for a variety of activities. Some include but aren't limited to:

★ Book Report
★ Biographies of Historical Figures
★ Autobiographies 
★ Book Idea (Students come up with an idea for a book)
★ Listening Comprehension: Listen to a story, design a cover and write a summary
★ Nonfiction: Create a book about a topic you are learning about in social studies or science
★ Author's Purpose Activity
★ Fiction vs. Nonfiction Activity
★ Different Genres Activity

Many different tools could be used to accomplish this task. Canva's Book Cover Maker, Pixlr, PosterMyWall Book Cover Creator, ReadWriteThink's Book Cover Creator, Microsoft Office and even Google Apps! 

If you enjoy using Google Drive with your students then you HAVE to check out my COLLABORATIVE Book Cover Creation Project 😍😍😍😍😍😍:

Students design a book cover in Google Drawing and save it as a png. Then they jump on a collaborative Google Slides presentation to add their book to one of the bookshelves. Each book will be hyperlinked (directions included) to a slide that the student types a description on. Everything you need is included, even an editable grading rubric!

                      

Design and 3D Print a Book Symbol/Item

I got this idea from @TechwithMatt who is a 3D printing guru! Have students design some sort of symbol(s) or item(s) that would help retell a story. They can use 3D printing programs like Tinkercad, Blender or any of THESE tools. Have them print their item(s) and present their story to the class while holding up each item and telling its importance. 

Don't have a 3D Printer?

Then try it the old-fashioned way😉 You can still have students digitally design their symbols but then make them "come alive" by using PlayDough to mold their creation(s). Or, have students mold their item with Play-Dough and make it come alive and talk with one of the ideas mentioned in the next activity👇.

Talking Books

Use an iPad and a talking avatar app like YakIt Kids, Chatterkid, FaceTalker, Tellagami, etc. to make a book come alive and talk! Have students submit their videos (if you need a quick way to do this, check out my blog post about The Work Collector) and mash them together to make one, big class video! Check out this example using YakIt Kids:

Book Celebration from Julie on Vimeo.

Here is an example of a book summary using the app, FaceTalker:

Book Talk Summary from Julie on Vimeo.

Voting

Have students vote on their favorite book or read aloud and type a comment about WHY it was their favorite. You can easily do this with the free web tool, Dotstorming. I have blogged about Dotstorming here, here and here. 

Set up a FREE account and create a board. Decide on how many votes you would like each student to have when they visit the board (I set the one above to 2 votes). You will share the URL of the board with your students. They first need to enter their name in order to interact with the board. Either have the students upload book covers or have them already uploaded for them. They vote by clicking on the little dots. You can see that Wonder is winning because it has the most dots. Click on the speech bubble to add a comment:

Go ahead, place YOUR votes by clicking HERE.

Do you have your students keep a reading log? Change it up next month and consider going DIGITAL with this graphing genres activity below that will hit a variety of skills:

I'm excited about Reading Month and can't wait to use some of these activities in the classroom. What do you have planned?