Media surrounds today's adolescents. They gather information through television, radio, video, film, and the Internet and use a range of technology tools to communicate with one another. Teachers are increasingly finding that they can encourage students to respond to literature by introducing multimedia tools. Not only do students find this engaging and motivating, but it opens the door to creative expression. For example, students can create presentations using programs such as PowerPoint, go on WebQuests, and construct their own web pages.

This section provides information for using multimedia to respond to literature. Select from the menu below:

Presentation Tools

A presentation slide show is a series of sequential electronic pages that can be seen as a "computer book." It usually includes text, graphics, and animation. The software programs most often used for presentations are KidPix and PowerPoint. The Hyperstudio program, while more complex to use, offers the ability to hyperlink pages. These presentations usually involve a summary and synthesis of students' understanding and thus focus on higher-level thinking skills. After reading a book, teachers may break students into groups, each with a different task to create a multimedia product.

Sites That Matter

Check out the sites below for more information on response strategies using presentation tools.

Kid Pix
Students can use Kid Pix to create artwork and multimedia projects for a variety of purposes. Using slideshow features, students can use sound and uploaded images to create animated reports, book reviews, science projects or classroom videos.
www.riverdeep.net/portal/page?_pageid=353,142
029,353_142030&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Microsoft Assistance Center offers tips for how to use PowerPoint.
office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/CH790018081033.aspx

ThinkQuest's web site list of PowerPoints and WebQuests provides many samples of student-made slide shows on adolescent literature with links for those who wish to learn how to create slide shows. (Once at their site, search for "slide shows" within the Library.)
www.thinkquest.org/library/winners.html?year=2002&cid=2

Teacher CyberGuide of "Lyddie," Student Activity 5: Make Hyperstudio Game offers an example of using Hyperstudio as a response to literature.
www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/lyddie/lyddietg.html

Geometry Meets Poetry merges geometry with poetry by having students create an animated gif that reflects the character changes in a novel.
www.needham.k12.ma.us/newman/learningmaps/
WebQuests/new_math_poetry/main.htm

Student-Constructed Web Pages

Student-created web pages mesh well with the study of adolescent literature. Web page creation offers students a way to design a real-world product by combining text, graphics, animation, web design, and hyper links. Web pages can be created by a student, a group of students, a class, or a group of students with adult support. This medium requires students to collaborate, be flexible, and utilize high-level thinking. Publishing work on the Web prospectively enlarges students' audiences from their peers and their schools to millions of people.

Sites That Matter

Check out the sites below for more information on response strategies using student-constructed web pages.

Educational Web Design offers teachers many links to information, resources, and samples to help teachers successfully create dynamic web pages for their students.
www.oswego.org/staff/cchamber/webdesign/edwebdesign.htm

ThinkQuests USA 2002 Winners highlights students' award-winning technology projects. Don't miss Time for Andrew and Behind the Books: A Closer Look at John Bellairs for literature-based projects.
www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html

The Vietnam Anti-War Movement showcases one talented eighth grader's web page responding to the short story "The Things They Carry" by Tim O'Brien.
www.dalton.org/ms/8th/students/Anti-War/Index.html

Mill Girls is a web site by a middle school class based on their reading of Lyddie.
www.berwickacademy.org/millgirls/mill_girls.htm

Poetic Voices Online Coffee House displays a middle school site using a multimedia format to display students' poems. It also allows teachers from around the world the ability to mail their own students' work. It offers information about how to create your own poetic coffee house.
www.berwickacademy.org/Coffee/main.htm

Book Reviews by the 7th Grade of the Kulshan School in Bellingham Washington displays one class's sample work.
wwwkms.bham.wednet.edu/bookrevi.htm

WebQuests

A WebQuest is an inquiry-based and cross-curriculum, web-based learning experience. Teachers find that a WebQuest can motivate students to respond to literature and encourage them to use research skills. In a WebQuest, students are given a complex problem or task, and they must work cooperatively to solve it. They gather and synthesize information from the Internet. WebQuests often require students to play roles that they not only enjoy but also increase their ability to empathize with different points of view. The best way to describe a literature-based WebQuest is to provide an example.

In "Anne Frank—A Timeline Adventure," students play the role of a journalist for the international "Time Line" magazine. They travel through time by going to various historical web sites to report on Anne Frank's life and the Holocaust experience.

Sites That Matter

Check out the sites below for more information on response strategies using WebQuests.

The WebQuest Page offers help in creating WebQuests with students and examples of how to use this great model of Internet integration in the classroom.
webquest.sdsu.edu/

Matrix of Examples presents a collection of evaluated WebQuests. Browse WebQuests organized into Top, Middling, and New matrices categories, as well as by subject area. Check out the English language arts sites by grades.
webquest.org/

A Sampling of WebQuests on the Web offers an overview of many WebQuest sites for all grade levels and subject areas.
www.teachingcompany.com/WebQuest2.html

Middle School.net Language Arts WebQuests provides WebQuests designed specifically for middle school.
www.middleschool.net/less_tut/WebQuests/lawq.htm

The English Teacher's Technology Companion: WebQuests offers links to many literature WebQuests in the secondary Language Arts classroom.
www.educationcentral.org//intech/english/
englishteacherswebquestspage.html

An Internet Hotlist on Literature provides a list to WebQuests and teachers' guides for selected adolescent literature.
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listliteratust2.html

S.C.O.R.E. CyberGuides—Teacher Guides and Student Activities: State of California is a DON'T MISS SITE. This compilation of literature-based "CyberGuides" focuses on often-taught novels and is organized by grades. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, standards, a task and a process by which it may be completed, teacher-selected web sites, and a rubric.
www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/cyberguide.html