Utilising iPads in Library lessons

For several years, the Library has been running information and library skills for all year groups, but especially for years 7 and 8, to introduce them to, for example, how the library is laid out, what Dewey Decimal Classification is, how to search the catalogue effectively.

One of these sessions has always been the Reading Game. We have been using the preprinted sheets from Carel Press to do this activity, which introduces pupils to different genres and books from our fiction library. Now that all pupils have iPads, we thought we would try and use the available technology to make the game more up to date for the app generation.

We are fortunate in having a lovely Learning Technologist who was able to come up with a few different apps which might achieve our purpose, and once we got over the idea that we had to do exactly the same thing in exactly the same format, looking exactly the same, but online, we decided to use Evernote, an app that I had come across many years ago, but never really had the need to use.

So essentially, when you pick apart the activity, each pupil is assigned a different genre. They have to look at the four provided books for that genre and decide which of these has:

• the best blurb
• the best start
• the best cover

Using Evernote, they need to record their decisions.

The advantage with Evernote is the ability to create a Notebook in which to store differently named Notes. So they created a Notebook called Reading Game, in which they created a Note for each genre they encountered. In each note, they type in which book title has the best blurb and which has the best start, then they take a photo of the best cover to embed in the note,

The advantage of using the iPads over the printed sheets is that pupils have their iPads with them all the time, for use in lessons, whereas the printed sheets were kept in the library and often never looked at again. So when it comes to revisiting the information, it is much more accessible and usable than before.

We recently introduced year 7 to Passport to Reading, which is our school reading challenge. They have to read 6 books in different genres and record what they have read, with a short review, in a booklet. Once the booklet is completed, they receive a certificate and can move up to the next level. Each level gets progressively harder, with pupils needing to read 6, then 9, then 12, books from 6 different genres in levels 1-3, then in level 4 to read 6 books in a chosen genre and, at level 5, to read 6 books from specified genres. In total, pupils who complete the challenge have read 39 books - in 2 years.

Now that the Reading Game diaries are stored on the pupils' iPads, pupils can check the genre Notes to give them an idea what to read in each category - they can choose to read a book they liked during the activity, and it helps to reinforce what is different about the genres.

Of course, we could use the iPads for the Passport to Reading as well, but each book recorded must be signed off by a teacher, librarian, parent or guardian, so I think we'll stick with paper for now.