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Rootbook - Rootbook

Grades
2 to 12
 
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Rootbook is an interactive story reading and writing program. Without signing up, you can read books in English, German, Italian, and many other languages. Once registered (requires...more
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Rootbook is an interactive story reading and writing program. Without signing up, you can read books in English, German, Italian, and many other languages. Once registered (requires an email, player name & password), you can create your own stories to save. Registering allows you to submit reviews of the stories available on the site. Rootbook says they will soon have filters to monitor inappropriate language. Until then, read stories and branches prior to sharing with young people. Leave a comment if you find anything offensive, and they will remove it.
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tag(s): creative writing (125), digital storytelling (155), interactive stories (22), narrative (16), writing (327)

In the Classroom

To use Rootbook and save work, students will need an email account. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of Gmail sub-accounts, explained here. This will provide anonymous interaction within your class, and you (as the Gmail account holder) will be able to go into each Rootbook account to check progress. Begin by choosing a story and reading it as a class. Give the students scratch paper to create storyboards and have them continue the story. Then collect the papers and have them write their continuation again on someone else's paper. Next, ask students to end the story and switch again, and write their ending on this new paper. Doing this will help younger students understand the "branching" story line. If students are sitting in groups of four, they can just rotate the papers around for this activity. When students want to create their story on Rootbook, be sure to have them upload an image for the cover first and plan the story using a graphic organizer! As subject matter for stories in any curriculum area, tell a science story, such as the life of a butterfly or a history story such as what happened (and could have happened) at the Boston Tea Party.
 

Edge Features:

Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)