Raz Kids and Bookabi
We live in a
part of the world where Internet is available to all learners. It is even
written as a right in the Social Services Act in Sweden. Younger pupils are
growing up with the technology as a natural part of their lives. The big
question is how to use all this technology in our schools and how to find good,
successful tools among all the more unnecessary games and apps.
According to
the syllabus we are going to teach our pupils to understand spoken language and
text and how to communicate and interact. This year I have been working with
mainly two different electronic materials which complements each other; “Raz
Kids” and “Bookabi”. Both Raz Kids
and Bookabi can be used by pupils from third to ninth grade.
Raz Kids A-Z is a learning site where pupils may practice their reading and writing skills. Raz Kids is quite expensive and costs 90 dollars/10 licenses which can be used on a computer with Internet connection or as an app for iPhone/iPad. Using the app one do not need Internet connection after downloading.
Reading A-Z
contains projectable and also printable books in 27 levels. The pupils can
listen to a book of their choice, read the book by him/herself and record that reading. The books end
with a quiz to let the teachers and the pupils know what they have learned.
Every assignment will give the pupils the opportunity to collect stars which
can be used to build their own space ship. At the teacher corner the teachers may
manage their students and study their achievements and what they need to
practice once again. The teachers decide which level the pupils are going to work
at, but the readers can choose books by own interest at that level.
In my classroom
we often use Raz Kids together, sometimes the whole class and sometimes in
groups. The pupils with English speaking parents and the linguistically advanced pupils use the books by
themselves and that allows them to make progress in their own speed.
Bookabi on the other hand is a free app for iPad (of course with in-app purchase). Bookabi is a tool which gives the pupils the opportunity to write illustrated stories in a very easy way. In this app one will find different characters, backgrounds and objects to build their story or comic. The pupils can also draw their own pictures and use the iPad camera to take a photo to insert. Text can be placed anywhere and they can even be written into bubbles. Each book has a cover and the students are able to create as many pages as they (or the teacher) would like.
Often my pupils get their inspiration to write from what they have read
on the Raz Kids. When they are finished writing and drawing, they have the
opportunity to record sounds to the story and share it via email with their
parents. If the pupils’ don´t know how to write in English they may just record
their voice when they are telling a story about the pictures.
No matter if we are working with Raz Kids or Bookabi I find it most
important to log on to the smart board and talk about the experience together,
about the pictures, the stories, the questions and so on.
Best regards
Martina Petrén
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