Book Creator for Social Stories
This past semester I taught a class for preservice teachers focusing on topics related to special education. One lesson during class was related to social stories. For those of you who are not familiar with social stories, they depict a situation or task that a child with Autism may encounter. It focuses on skills, events, or appropriate behaviors that are suitable for that specific situation. Some examples include: going to the grocery store, job interview soft skills, riding a bus, going on a field trip, what to do during a fire drill, etc. Social stories are short in length and include pictures if needed by the student. Some social stories use icons, real images, or graphics to depict different situations within the story.
Pro tip: If you can include the student in the pictures it can help to make a more personal connection with the story.
I wanted to find a project that was meaningful for my students to do during this lesson about children with autism. One method that is research-based is the use of social stories in the classroom to help prepare students with autism for new situations. There it was! My eureka moment! I will have my students create social stories for specific situations that a child with autism in their classroom could encounter. Now, that I have the topic how are we going to make it? That is where the technology came in! Enter stage right — book creator! Book creator can be used to make your own digital books about a variety of topics, but I happened to use it for this specific project using the Chrome browser. Book Creator is a FREE tech tool that can be used on iPads or on the Chrome browser. First, students created a free account and I showed them the ropes of the tool.
With book creator you can make a variety of layouts for your book. There is so much that you can add to your book such as images, maps, embed and draw objects, add text and shapes. You can also customize the page background, borders, fonts, and more. But, one of my favorite parts is the record feature. You can record your voice reading the book! How cool is that?
Pro tip: What is even cooler is that you can have the child record their own voice reading the book.
The possibilities are endless. When you are finished creating your masterpiece you can share it, download it, and publish it online. Below are two examples created by secondary general education majors.
What innovative ideas do you have to use book creator in your class?
