Pixton Week 10

This week I checked out Pixton. Pixton is a way to deliver lessons in a fun and engaging manner. I notice how students love reading graphic novels and how they have become so popular as of late. Thus, that is what drew me to learn about Pixton. Children love content in graphic novel form. Pixton is a way for teachers to deliver lessons in comic form. Comics are already produced, or teachers may make their own. Teachers can search for lessons by grade and subject area. All lesson ideas contain clearly outlined objectives and standards met. Teachers may make their own comics to deliver lessons and share it with students. Teachers can also use the ‘story starters’ feature which gives students prompts for them to share ideas. Students can create their own comics and their own avatar. This is a fun and creative way for students to express themselves. They can make comics on their own or based on a teacher's prompt and once complete, they are able to share their comics with their peers. With Pixton, students can learn about graphic novel features such as text/speech bubbles. They can also learn how to tell stories in graphic novel form and students will learn how to tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end. There are some free features, but to get all the benefits of Pixton, you do need to pay a subscription fee. The classroom yearly plan is $99 per year. Pixton can be used in many ways in the library. For research projects, students can choose to create a comic to demonstrate learning of a certain topic. They can also use Pixton when learning about story elements such as characters and settings. They can make a comic and draw the main character in a different setting, or they can create an alternate ending of a story. Pixton is a great way to collaborate and practice storytelling skills.

Epic Week 9

        I wanted to review Epic as it is a competitor of PebbleGo which was a database I reviewed previously.  Personally, my children’s school switched from PebbleGo to Epic, so I was curious to see what the difference was.  Epic offers a free version of their site as well as a paid version.  The paid version is called Epic Plus.  The biggest difference between the two is that Epic Plus is accessible at any point in the day while Epic is only offered between 7 and 3p so teachers would not be allowed to assign articles for homework.  Students also cannot read Epic at home without the paid version.  Some advantages of Epic are that there are eBooks and audiobooks available (unlike PebbleGo which is strictly articles).  In addition, books are offered in multiple languages such as Spanish, French and Chinese which supports ELL students.  Epic produces its own books for its site and Epic is constantly coming out with new titles for kids to enjoy.   

Epic allows educators to assign books and articles to students and they can search by reading level or grade level.  After reading, students can take quizzes for assessment.  Teachers can also assign a theme such as birds or scientists.   

There are so many different ways it can be used in the library.  It is a great tool for research projects as there are so many books available.  Students can use Epic to teach keyword searching or how to browse a database based on what they are interested in. This is also a great tool for those students that prefer audiobooks for independent reading time.  As mentioned, it is a huge disadvantage that students cannot access the audiobooks at home unless they have the paid version.  Students will also be motivated to read as they earn badges the more books they read.  Therefore, it is a great tool for class-wide or school-wide reading challenges.   

Overall, I think Epic is a great tool in the classroom.  I believe PebbleGo is better to teach research skills as it does have the citation generator and seems more engaging.  However, for books (both fiction and nonfiction), Epic is a wonderful choice, and students will be sure to find something of interest to read on Epic.     

Wonderopolis Week 8

                 This week I checked out Wonderopolis.  Previous to this, I thought Wonderopolis was a site where students can just read kid-friendly articles about current topics.  However, I now see it is so much more.  The focus of this site is the ‘wonder of the day’, where they feature a thought-provoking question along with an article and images to complement the text.   Students can also search by topic, or they can type in a topic or question in the search bar.   This feature is great to teach kids about keyword searches and how you phrase a question can result in different results.  By teaching students about keyword searches on this site, compared to Google, teachers can ensure that students will find safe, age-appropriate results on Wonderopolis.                  Some other great features of Wonderopolis are that each article is accompanied by a word wall with challenging words, a quiz to test students’ knowledge and follow up activities.  There are many ways students can interact with the text and deepen their understanding of various topics.  I particularly liked the discussion board.  This made me think of how University of Buffalo students use UB Learns, and we post questions and comments in the discussion board to have virtual discussions.  However, parents and teachers need to be mindful and teach students the proper and safe way to share information online.  Another thing I appreciate is that Wonderopolis always cites their sources for each article.  It is important for students to see that we all need to cite our sources and show where we get our information from.

                This site is completely free which makes it accessible for any educator to use it.    Some downsides to the site are that teachers cannot search articles by reading level and some articles may be too advanced for younger readers or readers reading below grade level.  In addition, I could not find anything that supports ELL students on the site.     

                   Overall, I recommend Wonderopolis. It is great to use for project-based learning and supports inquiry-based learning.  Wonderopolis focuses on asking questions and finding out answers to those questions.  This site is also a great place to start teaching some valuable digital citizenship skills such as posting information online in a discussion board, citing your sources and the importance of a good keyword search.   

Newsela Week 7

         This week I checked out Newsela.  Newsela is a database which is mostly subscription based where students can read and engage in nonfiction texts.  The articles range from giant pandas to the history of popsicles.  Students are sure to find something that interests them on this platform.  The content is updated daily so it is very relevant.  Teachers can assign students to read various articles based on their reading levels or the state standards they are teaching.  Therefore, it is very customizable.  Teachers can also track students' progress and assess their learning based on the quizzes and writing prompts at the end of each article.  The prompts are also customizable, but the quizzes are not. Newsela also offers many of its articles in Spanish which makes it a fantastic resource for ELL learners.  The downside to Newsela is that many of the articles are now behind a paid firewall and the subscription is quite expensive.     

        Newsela can be used in a group setting where students can read an article together and discuss their thoughts on an article or topic.  Newsela is a great resource for inquiry-based learning as they can start asking questions based on a topic that they read about.  Students can create questions and use that as a jumping off point in a research project.  It also can be used to teach students how to read nonfiction texts vs. fiction texts.  Another way to use Newsela is to practice note taking skills where students need to read an article and jot down key takeaways instead of copying entire sentences from an article.   

         The fact that Newsela is a subscription service might be a deterrent for many schools.  If schools are already paying for an expensive database, they might not want to pay for another platform.  However, the fact that you can monitor students' progress is a huge benefit compared to having students read articles from a database such as Gale.  I also see the value in customizing the texts based on their reading level or skill the teacher is assessing. There are databases that can get the same results or even some free resources. However, if it is in your budget, it can be a great addition to a classroom or library media center.