Andrea's Portfolio

Writing a Class Book

M is for Mantis Shrimp is a book that my class authored as part of a project-based learning (PBL) unit on ocean animals and their adaptations (include link to the PBL section of my portfolio to see this PBL). Students first learned about three main ocean biomes: the coral reef, the intertidal zone, and the deep sea. From there, students became experts on ocean animals that lived in that particular biome, and the adaptations they had that helped them survive in that biome. Finally, students focused on one animal in particular, gave a presentation to the class about their animal, and authored a page of our class book. In the culmination project, students “discovered” a new ocean animal, and had to defend how that animal would survive in a specific biome, and what adaptations it had that helped it survive there.

Taking on a Challenge

This book is an example of class collaboration at its finest. As part of the PBL, Ocean Animals and Adaptations, this book reflected the deep learning the students took on in order to become experts. Not only did my students learn the content necessary to write a page about their animal, they also spent several hours revising and perfecting their writing and drawings.

One of my goals as an educator is to bring new experiences to my students, and to provide them a safe space to take risks and experience struggle. With so many online book-making tools available, we chose Bookemon, a tool I had never worked with before, which provided all of us with a steep learning curve. The students were ready to take on the challenge. In addition to providing my students with new experiences, I also encourage my students to learn from each other. Because I was not an expert on Bookemon, students were forced to ask each other, and collaborate with me and each other to figure the tools out.

Deep Learning

Creating this book as a part of the Ocean Animal Adaptations PBL was an impactful learning experience for my students, and for myself as a teacher. My students and I had a chance to work with a new digital tool with little experience. They were empowered both by learning a new digital tool and by publishing a piece of their writing. Several bought their own copies of the book, while others downloaded a free PDF copy. The class copy I keep in our library is still a heavily read book, and students enjoy learning from former students’ writing. I’ve used this for my current class as we were learning about bycatch and turtle excluder devices (TED) in another ocean-related PBL. This book will continue to be a great teaching resource.

M is for Mantis Shrimp is an example of how we can assess students throughout the PBL process, rather than at the end of a project. Not only was I able to use this book to assess scientific content knowledge, I was also able to assess several non-fiction writing skills. Students needed to be able to research, understand and synthesize their learning, plan their writing, edit and revise their work, and ensure their page was consistent with the rest of the book. The process took several weeks of scaffolding and relearning to create a polished final product.

Transforming Traditional Writing

I have created class books with previous classes, however I am most proud of this book. It was truly representative of a collaborative, in-depth learning opportunity for me and my students. The challenges we were presented with were “just right”; they were challenging enough to keep everyone motivated, but not so challenging that students were constantly frustrated. The one main change I would make to the book creation would be to have students complete their final edits in another software editing program, such as Google Documents, before importing the text into Bookemon. This saves them the step of editing within the program, as it didn’t always run as quickly as Google Documents. Otherwise, this is a project I will happily repeat with future classes with a variety of topics.