Today, we were given the task to use a child’s book and create an e-book of said book which is interactive and can be used to enhance a lesson. This was an assessment task where our end product was evaluated by our lecturer. I worked in a pair for this task, we decided that we were going to use the story ‘Room on the Broom in Scots’. Therefore, this could be incorporated into a literacy lesson where the children would be able to develop their knowledge of different languages. Additionally, there are elements of rhyming which can be developed into another lesson in the future.

‘Room on the Broom’ is about a witch and her cat that are flying on her broom when suddenly her hat flies off her head. She then flies to the ground to collect it where she finds a dog who asks if there is room for him on the broom. They then continue to fly and lose a bow which is found by a bird who then joins them. Finally, she drops her wand which is found by a frog who joins them on the broom. The broom then breaks in two and everyone falls off except the witch who keeps flying into a storm. She then hears a loud roar which is a dragon that is trying to eat her, it is scared off by the other animals and the witch and the other animals use the witch’s cauldron to create “the most fantoosh, fabulous broom” with space for everyone. In the Scots version there are some words replaced including; broom becomes bizzum, frog becomes puddock and most becomes maist, along with many more.

There are many reasons to teach Scots in Scottish primary schools, for example, it can help children gain a better understanding of the world around them as it is likely that they will hear people using different Scots words, it is also highly likely, that they will use some Scots themselves and not realise. This will, in turn, help their communication skills and language skills develop. Additionally, it can help them realise the importance of learning about different languages as explained by Reid, “More and more parents want their children to learn English from a young age…speaking English will help their child ‘get ahead in a globalised world’” (Reid, 2015).

An e-book is defined by Collins (2012), an electronic version of a printed book which can be read electronically. Nowadays digital technology is very important as recently stated by the Scottish Government, “Digital technology can enrich the learning experience for all of our children and young people.” (Scottish Government, 2016, p. 8) Additionally, A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland (2016) is structured around four essential objectives: Develop the skills and confidence of teachers, improve access to digital technology for all learners; ensure that digital technology is a central consideration in all areas of curriculum and assessment delivery and empower leaders of change to drive innovation and investment in digital technology for learning and teaching. Therefore, the use of e-books can be very useful and effective in the classroom.

Research shows that there are many benefits of the use of iPads in the classroom. One trial that was carried out by the University of Hull (2012) reported that;

• “Many teachers and students wish to have access to the iPad after the end of the trial and are convinced it has changed learning for the better.” (p. 11)
• “Over 90 per cent of students believe that the iPad has helped them to learn more and to learn more difficult concepts and ideas better” (p. 10)
• “Parents say that greater motivation, interest and engagement of their child with learning have been the single largest benefits” (p. 10)

To create our e-books, we were to use the Book creator app which is ideal for making all kinds of books, such as: children’s picture books, comic books, photo books, journals, textbooks and more. We were using it to create a children’s picture book. Initially, we were given instructions on how to manoeuvre around the application and we were given the opportunity to practice using it before creating our e-book. I felt that this application was fairly easy to use especially once I got used to where everything was. This shows that it would be a useful tool in the classroom as it can be accessed by teachers and pupils with ease.

As we were to make a summary of our chosen book, our e-book was 10 pages long with a cover page. We decided to keep the cover page simple and include the original cover of ‘Room on the Broom in Scots’. I have included pictures at the end of this blog post.

Our second page was an introduction to the witch and her cat with a few sentences lifted from the book along with a picture of the witch and her cat on the bizzum. As this is a Scots version of this book, we considered that many of the children wouldn’t understand some of the words. We, therefore, included a link to a Scot dictionary where the children would be able to search for the definitions of certain words. We also placed audio over the hyperlinked picture of a dictionary, which said “click here to look up Scot words if you get stuck”.

Our third page also included some sentences from the book about how a dog finds her hat. The dog then asks if there is room on the broom for it. At the bottom of the page, we included a task for the children which asked them if they could record how to say ‘dug’. Therefore, the children would be able to use the application and record themselves and insert it into the e-book and make it interactive. Beside this task, there is a picture of the witch and the dog which was hyperlinked, and the children would be able to click to hear how to pronounce the word ‘dug’. Page four is similar to three but it has a bird instead of a dog.

Throughout this e-book there are numerous pages with a red circle at the bottom of the page, this indicates that there is an interactive task for the children to complete.

Page five then includes a picture of everyone on the broom and it discusses how they were going through the storm which causes the witch to drop her wand. We decided to include a storm sound effect to enhance the story even more. Page six is again the same as page three and four and the animal is a frog, however, the children are asked what they think ‘puddock’ means and they can then pronounce it.

Page seven, eight and nine includes more text and pictures from the book. Page seven is of the animals falling and the dragon breathing fire, again, we included a sound effect of a dragon roaring to enhance the story. Page eight is the other animals scaring off the dragon as they disguise as a beast with the children being asked if they can roar like the beast. Page nine is the dragon flying away with a sound effect of this action. There is then a picture of the witch standing over her cauldron creating a new broom with her spell beside the image to which the children are asked if they can help her say the spell. Page ten, is the final image of everyone on the new amazing broom flying off happily.

The final page says, ‘Now write how you felt about this book and include some Scots language you have learned today!’. This allows the lesson to be continued and solidify their learning and understanding of the Scots words and language.

There are many experiences and outcomes that relate well with my e-book. There are ones for literacy, technology and ones for languages as there is the use of scots in my e-book.

• ‘I can use digital technologies to search, access and retrieve information and am aware that not all of this information will be credible.’ -TCH 02-02a
• ‘I understand the operation of a process and its outcome. I can structure related items of information.’-TCH 2-13a
• ‘I can recognise how the features of spoken language can help in communication, and I can use what I learn. I can recognise different features of my own and others’ spoken language.’ ENG 2-03a

• ‘I work on my own and with others to understand text using appropriate resources, demonstrating my understanding by matching written words to pictures and by reconstructing the text in a logical sequence, for example.’ -MLAN 2-08a
• ‘I can read and demonstrate understanding of words, signs, phrases and simple texts containing mainly familiar language.’ – MLAN 2-08b

During my recent time on placement in a primary school, I saw this book being used in a primary one class. I felt that it was slightly too hard for them to handle as they were able to use the Scots words, however, they were unable to complete further learning as they would forget what certain words meant or how to use them. Therefore, I decided that my e-book was going to be aimed more towards a primary three or four age group which is roughly second level. I feel that the older children would gain more from this lesson and would be able to work individually and complete the task on the final page successfully as they would be able to do their own research such as; looking up different word’s meanings. There are also different tasks throughout the e-book that enables the children to use the book creator app. This allows the teacher to evaluate the children’s understanding of different areas such as how successfully they can use this application (TCH 02-02a) and learn from it as well as analyse their understanding of Scots (MLAN 2-08a and MLAN 2-08b) and incorporate their literacy writing skills (ENG 2-03a). Overall this would equate to a very successful and useful lesson.

In conclusion, I found today’s lesson very important as it emphasises the importance of digital technology in the classroom, specifically, the use of interactive tablets which allows individuals to download this application known as ‘book creator’ app and it can be used successfully to enhance their learning in literacy. However, digital technology such as tablets and other mobile devices are important in developing and enhancing the learning in most curricular areas as there are many applications that can be downloaded with the same successful outcome. Therefore, the impute was also useful as it helps me see the true importance of digital technology in the classroom as well as gain experience of working with this application and how it will help me in the future with lessons. I felt that my partner and I successfully carried out the given task as our e-book summaries ‘Room on the Broom in Scots’ well with many interactive elements which can be enjoyable and engaging for the children.

 

Creating our E-book

Cover Page

Page two

Page three

Page Four

Page five

Page six

Page Seven

Page Eight

Page Nine

Page Ten

End Slide with task

References

• Burden K., Hopkins P., Male T., Martin S., Trala C. (2012) iPad Scotland Evaluation. University of Hull. [Online] Available:http://www.janhylen.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Skottland.pdf[Accessed: 7^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Collins Dictionary(2012), HarperCollins, London. [Online] Availiable: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/e-book[Accessed: 7^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Education Scotland () Experiences and outcomes. [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes[Accessed 6^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Reid, S. (2015).Ten ways to support your child’s English-learning at home. [Online]Available: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/ten-ways-support-your-childs-english-learning-home[Accessed: 29^thNovember 2018]

 

• Scottish Government (2016)Enhancing learning and teaching through
  the use of digital technology, A digital learning and teaching strategy for Scotland.[Online] Available:https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/publication/2016/09/enhancing-learning-teaching-through-use-digital-technology/documents/00505855-pdf/00505855-pdf/govscot:document/?inline=true/ [Accessed: 6^thFebruary 2019]