In the little stories made on interactive whiteboards that review the stories created in class we have:
1. changing images
2. printed words
3. spoken words
4. emotions
When we learn from a textbook or a chapter book/novel, we don’t have all those things. We have no or very few static images, and therefore little or no emotion. So, without the changing images, without the emotions and without the teacher’s narrated words, with only the printed words in the book to hold the interest of our students, overall interest in our classes stays flat unless we feel inspired. Who gets inspired teaching chapter books?
Thus, it makes sense to say that interactive whiteboards may soon rival or surpass the use of chapter books in our comprehension based classrooms. These apps address much more than just the printed word – they bring reading and listening in and are much more personalized – the students created the story, after all! The stories also serve to set up the Step 3 reading process as well, because the students will get a good preview of the reading when the work of the artist is projected on the board at the end of the story.