Some Precious Keepsakes: Class Books!

Last year, my TK'ers published a class book at least monthly, if not bi-monthly.  Each of my littles had his/her own page, complete with his/her writing (You have to love the phonetic spelling :) and some darling illustrations. We authored books for the holidays, re-created some of our most cherished story books, and structured our writing around a variety of thematic learning topics. For each book, I laminated the pages and bound them with spiral rings.

My kiddos each had a turn to take the books home, and families shared comments in an accompanying journal.  Their little hearts swelled with pride as soon as they hopped on board the teacher chair and read their mom's/dad's/grandparent's/sibling's comments to their peers.  On many occasions, students forgot to bring their books back on-time which frustrated the other students who were eagerly awaiting their turn.  Suffice it to say, these class books were quite an undertaking, not to mention pricey. Yep, you guessed it...I had another light bulb moment from none other than Troy Hicks!  This brings me to Wikis...a collaborative platform that I never thought I'd attempt in my own classroom.

I'm going to be blunt, I think that many of the Wikis I've seen to date are highly disorganized, often over-stuffed with text, links, and pictures.  For this organized gal, I'd much rather have a few tried and true resources than a hodge podge of random information that may or may not be applicable.  If it's not visually appealing to the eyes, I tend to stray away... But, I've now noted a practical use for Wikis: class anthologies!

Just as Hicks (2009) suggests, Wikis allow students to share and comment on their work, along with parents, educators, and special friends, too!  In this case, Wikis can be re-purposed as digital class books.  I would also recommend easy-to-use platforms like LittleBirdTales, StoryJumper  or Kerpoof for the younger guys who may struggle navigating the Wiki interface, but I want to stress the benefit of a discussion tab which is unique to Wikis.  Even if my littles aren't able to physically upload their written/digital work to Wikispaces, it might be the ideal "gallery" for parents to view their children's work and maintain a timeless token of their learning experience.

Did I mention that I had to hold a class book "lottery" at the conclusion of the school year, such that each child randomly received one of our class books? Might it be a little nicer if parents could have access to all of their children's work!?  I think Wikis may be the answer ;)  



photo credit: champagne.chic via photopin cc