My partner and I created a unit plan for a second grade class. The goal of this project was for our students to learn about playground safety, write a persuasive essay on how to make the school playground safe, and create a presentation to the school board on ways to upgrade the playground to make it more safe. The project provides the students an opportunity to practice backing up their points with evidence and logic. The unit plan uses mentor texts as examples of how to write. Some mentor texts use very descriptive writing, which teaches the students to describe what they are talking about - don't be vague! Be precise. Another mentor text teaches the students how to form an argument - state your point/opinion, and give logic/evidence to validate what you say. Other mentor texts teach how to write outlines, how to write introductions and conclusions, and how to write to a certain audience.

Illinois teaching standard 6 - Knowledge Indicator 6F says that a competent teacher "recognizes the relationships among reading, writing, and oral communication and understands how to integrate these components to increase content learning." This project shows I have met this standard because my unit outline requires students to research material for their project (reading), write a persuasive essay, and orally present their positions. Standard 6 Performance Indicator 6O says that a competent teacher "teaches students to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and summarize information in single texts and across multiple texts, including electronic resources." I teach my students these skills by showing them "mentor texts," which include books, articles, or videos that students read/watch/listen to in order to learn how to research, write, and persuade. The students take this information and apply it to their own work. The students put their information into both a written format and an oral format. The oral format could include using technology such as a slideshow, pictures, or short video to present to their audience.

This video is a screencast of how teachers can use Book Creator as a resource in their classrooms and includes an example of how it could be used to write a How-To book. For an assignment at Trinity, we had to create an assignment for our "students" that used Book Creator. I had my students create a How-To book. Students would learn to think through the steps of a task and put them in words that would be clear, simple, and easy for others to follow. Students would also learn how to illustrate the book, perhaps with diagrams or a picture that guides the reader in how to follow the steps.

Knowledge Indicator 6D says that a competent teacher "understands writing processes and their importance to content learning." By understanding the process myself, I am able to use tools like Book Creator in my classroom to help my students learn to use the writing process in writing their own books. Performance Indicator 6P says that a competent teacher "teaches students to develop written text appropriate to the content areas that utilizes organization (e.g., compare/contrast, problem/solution), focus, elaboration, word choice, and standard conventions (e.g., punctuation, grammar)." Book Creator is a creative way for students to write short stories, how-to books, or informational texts while participating in the writing process.

By researching and using Book Creator, I learned that students can create their own books digitally. This is an easy-to-use website that students can use to both write a book and illustrate it. Students can also easily share their stories with the rest of the class, either by sharing the books via email or presenting them to the class.