Digital Textbooks | News
Rosen Publishing Adds 60 E-Book Titles With Content Creation Tools
Rosen Publishing has released 60 new interactive digital textbooks that are aligned with Common Core standards. The titles, which are available now, are designated for grades K-2, 2-3, and 3-6.
The e-books give students the option of reading the book straight through, or reading the book and then completing activities. Optional tools also encourage students to create content around the materials. For example, students in grades K-2 are asked to write a diamante poem and a book review, and to make a postcard, students in grades 2-3 are encouraged to write a narrative on a digital storyboard, write a blog post, and create a wiki page, and students in grades 4-6 are asked to create a social network profile, design their own Web pages, and write an e-mail.
Other features of the e-books include:
- Informational text;
- Audio narration;
- Word and sentence highlighting;
- More than 20 rich media hotspots, which include maps, images, videos, graphs and charts; and
- A control panel, which features a main menu, auto-page turn on, highlighting on, line highlight, volume, play, replay, turn back one page, and turn forward one page buttons.
The content creation tools are also designed to teach students how to use the Internet safely, and provide access to a library of copyright-safe images students can use in their activities. In addition, the tools include editing functionality and allow students to print out hard copies of their work or create PDFs. Completed projects can then be posted on a class blog, printed out and displayed, published on a wiki, or posted to a school Web site.
In addition, each e-book comes with lessons plans by Shannon Miller, founder of the Van Meter Library Voice blog. Three options are provided: social network profile lesson plan, Web page lesson plan, and email activity lesson plan. These are aligned with Common Core and American Association of School Librarians standards for both small and large group instruction. The plans include links to digital literacy tools, learning targets, activities for the classroom, activities for parents, and assessment rubrics.
The books cost $34.95 each, and site licenses and subscription pricing are also available. Free samples for each grade level are available at Rosen's site: The Sun for grades K-2; Killer Disaster Tornadoes for grades 2-3; and Ferrari for grades 3-6.
For more information, visit rosenpublishing.com.
About the Author
Tim Sohn is a 10-year veteran of the news business, having served in capacities from reporter to editor-in-chief of a variety of publications including Web sites, daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, and wire services. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @editortim.