Exciting news! We’ve partnered with Book Creator to celebrate Be An Author Month and World Storytelling Day on March 20, 2024.
This year, Be An Author Month revolves around finding, refining, and recording your voice in order to share amazing stories. What better way to do that than with digital media?
Start here to app smash with WeVideo x Book Creator and empower student creativity, voice, and choice.
In honor of Be An Author Month, we’ve also provided five fun and effective ways to teach literacy to your students while also cultivating a joyful, creativity-infused classroom.
1. Book reviews
Explore WeVideo's Bring Your Book to Life video project.
One effective approach to developing reading comprehension and analysis skills is through book reviews. Writing an effective book review requires students to analyze a story for literary devices such as theme, plot, and character development. As they write, they develop their ability to summarize, formulate an opinion, and support it with text-based evidence.
Create book reviews with WeVideo and Book Creator
Students use WeVideo to turn their book review into a video or podcast, pairing a voice recording with images, music, and sounds to transport their listeners into the story. These can then be compiled into a digital book using Book Creator, resulting in a collection of reviews students can reflect on and share with others.
This highly engaging app-smashing technique not only enhances reading comprehension, but also allows students to practice their speaking and presentation skills.
2. Teach poetry
Explore WeVideo's Bring Your Book to Life video project.
Teaching poetry is a great way to build vocabulary and develop students’ understanding of figurative language.
Teach poetry with WeVideo and Book Creator
Students use WeVideo to turn their written poetry into a video, pairing images with a voice recording to bring their poems to life. Pre-made WeVideo assignments like Where I’m From invite students to use video clips and photographs from their life in order to create a window into their personal experiences. This activity is a great way to build community in the classroom, as students get to know each other in ways they would previously be unable to.
Similarly, the ‘I Am’ Poem assignment invites students to write an ‘I Am’ poem from the perspective of a character in a book, creating a video that brings us closer to the characters and promotes greater empathy for experiences that may differ from our own. These videos can then be compiled into a book using Book Creator to create a collection of stories that represent your classroom community or the characters from a book.
3. Put a spin on traditional writing assignments
Explore WeVideo's My View, My Place, My Story video project.
Students can easily turn any piece of writing from any of the genres identified in the Common Core State Standards for Literacy Across Content Areas into a video or podcast.
Create non-traditional writing assignments with WeVideo and Book Creator
WeVideo assignments like Introduce Yourself, Me in Three, My View, My Place, My Story or First Person invite students to share their unique stories and perspectives with the world. A number of other assignment ideas can be used for informational pieces and persuasive writing.
Learn more about WeVideo’s Assignment Ideas Library
Use Book Creator to compile the above media pieces into a book that pairs text with multiple pieces of digital media to create a dynamic digital book!
4. Publish for an authentic audience
Here’s one of many great things that come from using WeVideo and Book Creator to teach literacy — publishing to an authentic audience. Instead of simply turning a paper in to their teacher, students share the media and books they create with peers and others, teaching them valuable lessons about publishing and customizing a message for an intended audience.
Throughout the process, students build confidence as they learn to share their opinions and share knowledge in a more public format.
5. Focus on 21st century literacy skills
In the examples above, students develop all foundational literacy skills connected to reading and writing that they would from traditional reading and writing assignments, while also gaining valuable digital and media literacy skills that prepare them to decode, analyze, and create content in today’s digital age. It’s a win-win!
Additionally, students learn 21st century skills connected to creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. On top of it all, activities like these lead to higher engagement, joy, and connectivity in the classroom.
So…win-win-win-win?
Where to start?
You can get started app-smashing WeVideo and Book Creator right away with this engaging activity built for World Storytelling Day 2024 that promotes literacy and community in the classroom. Have fun!