Using Freeform and Pages for Creation

Many of our teachers feel like they are tied to our state-mandated curriculum in a way where they cannot veer away from the scripted lessons provided. As the Instructional Technology Facilitator in the building, I am constantly trying to find creative ways to increase student engagement with technology integration into the curriculum they must use. After working with a team of first grade teachers, we created end of unit book templates in pages that directly aligned with not only their first-grade state standards but also the exact content and curriculum they are charged with teaching. An example of the pages book template is linked below.

The goal was to have students be authors, illustrators, and publishers of their original work; and along with pages, we found that Freeform was the best way to achieve this. On a collaborative Freeform board, first grade students accessed their individual blank book template from the bookshelf to complete as a class.  

After the book was complete with students writing and illustrations, we published the books as EPUB files and placed them back on the Freeform bookshelf to share with the class.  

You can see that we have created two unit books and are starting a third soon. It's been really inspiring to see the students publish their books and to read classmates work. Sometimes they even get to read them to the entire class.  

First grade student sharing his book with the class.

Attachments

1st Grade Fossils and Dinosaurs Book.pages

Download  (6.6 MB)