E-books for the Holidays

To ring in the holidays, sixth graders in Jennifer Roble’s English class have been busy creating their own holiday-themed electronic books to share with the Punahou community and beyond. The books will be digitally published ahead of the holidays and accessible via QR codes in the K – 8 Junior School Learning Commons and also the Apple Bookstore, if parents choose to publish them there.

Titles include “Messi’s First Christmas,” which tells the story of a family that gets a surprise kitten for Christmas; “Christmas in the Jungle,” a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas; and “The Christmas Shrub,” a tale about the love and care that allows a little shrub to win a Christmas tree contest.

As a part of this project, the students have learned about writing for an intended audience, creating multiple drafts and revising their work, and publishing stories for others to read. It’s been a lesson on how technology can encourage creativity and connect classroom learning with real-world situations – qualities which Roble, an Apple Distinguished Educator, said inspire her as a teacher.  

“Writing a story, printing it out, posting it in the classroom and having it graded it would be fine, but how amazing is it for them to take that writing, illustrate it and create a multi-touch book that can be shared?” she said, adding that students can’t wait to call themselves published authors. “Students are looking for ways to share their voice with the world, and I want them to know it’s possible.”

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