Design and History - Making a Coffee Table Book

April’s spring break always signals that the end of the school year will arrive quickly and that it is a good time for those end of year reflection activities. History teachers and students who have probably been exploring a wide array of primary sources, might want to delve into making a Coffee Table Book.

Cover of Pages Book - Coffee Table History

“Using Apple Pages, students can easily create a reflective “coffee table book” that showcases the historic topics they’ve explored throughout the school year. They’ll select images that define and provide impact around a topic of choice and capture the essence of a moment. Their book becomes a photo essay on their year of study and serves as a primary source “yearbook” full of image selections that solidified their learning.

The process of creating a “coffee table book” also promotes reflection and review. Not only will a learner’s project result in a beautiful tome, but it will promote research and encourage analysis. Learners will create a personalizing a story that connects them to history. In this sample book, I provide a few design and subject ideas centered on primary source images from the Library of Congress. However, using images from other curricular areas can also be a great way to create a reflection book. Designing a book that can be exported as an ePub via Pages is an easy way for learners to share their accomplishments and keep a record of what they have learned.”

This book is a sample for teachers with some resources listed at the end. I’m sure your learners will come up with some beautiful designs and powerful primary source images that have impacted them as they take a deep reflective dive into creativity with Pages.