The best way to teach technology? Look to children's books, Deanna Day says.
When Deanna Day started teaching elementary school 31 years ago, the only computer in the building was an Apple Macintosh with a tiny screen, used by the school secretary.
Day could see the future. “I bought my own Apple with my own money and had it in my classroom,” she said. “I knew I had to teach my kids technology.”
Now, an associate professor of education at WSU Vancouver for the past 15 years, Day still teaches technology to kids, but she does it through her own students, who are teachers or teachers-in-training. They don’t rely on computer manuals. Their teaching tool is children’s literature. “You can teach everything out of a children’s book,” she said, ticking off phonics, parts of speech, grammar, math and art—not to mention technology.
Children’s books change with the times. Day picks a book off the floor and starts paging through it. Called “Tea with Grandpa,” it’s the story of a little girl who has tea with her kindly looking grandfather every day. Not until the very last picture do you see his image on a computer screen and realize they meet daily by Skype.
In her office, surrounded by stacks, piles and shelves of books, with book posters on the wall and more piled on the floor, Day bubbles with enthusiasm for these stories. She knows personally how books can change a life.
Learning to Read
Day struggled to learn how to read until an insightful teacher introduced her to children’s books. “I did not learn to read until I was in the fifth grade, and children’s books helped me become a reader,” she said. “I had a teacher who let us read real children’s books instead of textbooks. That was the seed for wanting to become a teacher. I wanted to help kids who were just like me, who had difficulties learning to read, and use the power of books.”
So she started buying books. And buying more. Her office isn’t big enough for her collection. About 12,000 of Day’s books are stored in the Undergraduate Building. Her dining room at home has more. All in all, Day owns about 16,000 children’s and young adult books.
When she started teaching first grade, she didn’t have a single one. Textbooks were boring, “so I went to the library and checked out books, and started reading to my students.” Then she started buying books. “By the end of the year I had 300 books in my first-grade classroom, and it continued to snowball. That’s where the 16,000 come from.”
Some purchases were inspired by her students. Teaching in Arizona, where water is especially precious, she saw kids waste drinking water and decided to buy books on the environment and taking care of the earth. In Phoenix, where homelessness is rampant, she started collecting books on homelessness and poverty.
“I collect by themes,” she said. “Social justice issues are my passion. I probably have 300 books on immigration. I have books on war, child slavery, children’s rights, civil rights, the environment.” But she also has books that are just plain fun to use, such as her favorite read-aloud books, picture books that help teach art, and award winners, such as Caldecott and Newberry awardees.
“I have all the Newberry winners, and they’ve been around since 1922,” she said. “I wasn’t alive, but I buy them online or at used bookstores.”
Updating the book report
Over time, Day has found more and more uses for books in the classroom. “What I research now is children’s book apps,” she said. “Not all book publishers turn a book into an app, but many do, especially for the primary grades.”
And then there are book trailers. “You can learn about a book from a book trailer,” she said. “There are thousands of them online, and companies encourage kids to make them. So in one of my children’s literature classes, I have all my students create a book trailer, and we post them on our class website.”
To show understanding of what you’ve read, making a book trailer is a lot more effective than taking a test, she said. “We used to do book reports when I was growing up, and they’re boring. This is a new way of doing book reports.”
Pairing up
Partnering college students with K–12 students is her signature teaching method. Each college student has one or two “buddies” from a local classroom.
In a recent class on educational technology, Day’s college students paired up with kindergarteners. Once a month, they attended class in the kindergarten classroom, working to integrate writing and technology. In between, the college students and their buddies wrote back and forth in pen pal journals, helping to establish a relationship.
Using iPads and apps, the college students helped the kindergarteners write stories, showing them how to add videos, music, art and photography, even audio recording their story. They made rough-draft books first and ultimately turned their stories into digital picture books produced with an app called MyStory. The teacher printed the books and made a video for parents. “It was exciting for those 5- and 6-year-olds,” Day said. “They got a college buddy, and they loved having that special time, and the college students practiced teaching technology with children.”
It was an empowering experience all-around. As one college student said, “I’m not scared anymore to incorporate technology into the classroom.”
Day’s teaching specialties include reading, technology and art. She has taught teachers how to make websites and how to create videos about themselves. She taught a unit on photography using cellphones. “I believe art and technology need to be integrated into everything we teach,” she said.
For one assignment, she asked her students to make personal videos and include why they became a teacher. Day picks up her cellphone to show one of her favorites. In just a minute and a half, the student introduces herself, talks about her family and where she came from, finds just the right clip art to add emotional resonance, and concludes that she became a teacher “to inspire and provide tools.”
Which is exactly what Deanna Day does. ■