Sharing My Thoughts: Week 3

     

     At the heart of the Week three content, was this presentation by Jon Smith.  In his presentation, Smith tell the audience about his experiences in creating eBooks with all kinds of students and the effects that it had on them both academically and socially.  When I first clicked the link and saw that this was going to last almost an hour, I have to admit that I was a little dismayed.  The time flew by as I listed to the anecdotes and stories that Smith had to share about his teaching experiences.  My heart melted as he explained how students came to him asking to make these books and how their self esteem soared after they completed their projects.  I also especially appreciated his honestly.  When he explained his special ed class in which he was struggling to get them to write, I felt that the way he explained his thoughts as a teacher as well as their thoughts as students was incredibly accurate! The students that struggle in Language Arts start to just not care after awhile.  I have seen it several times and I felt that Smith's reasons as to why they don't care was on point.

1. An audience of one. Students put so much time and effort into something that is only going to be read and graded by the teacher. 
2. No sense of purpose.  Students work on something just to complete it for a grade of completion.  They are not getting anything out of it.
3. Want to leave a legacy. The students have nothing to leave behind or be remembered for. 

Overall, the presentation was incredibly inspiring! I found myself eager to get a group of kids together to start making a book today! 
      I used to think that I did not have the materials or knowledge base to to try to do something to the extent of creating and publishing an eBook with my students, but now my thoughts have changed after exploring the research.  Hearing how motivated the students were and reading about the impact that it had on them makes me feel as if it is so worth it.  Besides the student motivation, the list of benefits could go on for pages.  One of the benefits that was obvious to me was the collaboration.  To create one eBook for a whole class means that students have to work together and learn how to critique others in a polite way as well learn the responsibility of completing their own parts of the project.  One difficulty is that it requires work on the part of the teacher. Not only do the teachers have to supervise effectively and manage the project but the hardest part I would imagine is staying up to date on all of the information out there. In the article EBooks and TPACK, What Teachers Need to Know, the author mentions that professional development in this area is vital.  Teachers have so much on their plate from their day to day tasks that it is hard to set time aside to do their own research.
      I also think that creating an eBook will improve the writing process.  Most of the time when teachers explain the writing process, it revolves around writing a paper usually with a rough draft written with pencil and then the final draft typed up and then probably edited a few times before turning in for the teacher to grade.  This speaks to all of Smith's reasons above why students don't care about writing.  When making an eBook, the steps of the writing process actually mean something and have an end goal.  Students want their work to be edited and make a few drafts because they want their work to be good for their audience that will read it and the legacy that they will leave.  
     In conclusion, I am in full support of eBooks, I will most certainly be altering my writing assignments to help students care about writing again.