Autism Through the Eyes of Technology

Students create a new cover design for a book they are reading from the Unique Learning System. A curriculum designed for students with special needs (Hi-interest/low reading level). This project will demonstrate comprehension of the story and explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict.


Procedures:

As a class, we will look at the covers for several books/stories we have read from the Unique Learning System.

Questions the students will answer:

1- Does the cover art reflect the content and mood of the story?

My students will create new cover jackets for some of their favorite stories. The book jackets must include:

A clear title and author name
A graphic design that reflects the book theme
A summary of the plot without giving away the ending
A review (opinion) about the book

Students will use graphic organizers that show characters, setting, and events in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Creation:

Students will then put together a proposal including one to two paragraphs about what the story is about in their own words and submit is to the teacher. Upon completion, students will then research and look at images they would like to use for their cover.

Once my students have collected all of their image resources, they will use Pixie, Wixie, or Share to combine them into a front and back cover design or book jacket with the assistance of the teacher and classroom paraprofessionals.

Collaboration and Sharing:

Upon completion of the cover designs, my students will work in small groups to evaluate each others work using a word processing software and printer.

The teacher will collect all of the evaluations and then distribute them to the students.

The teacher will then print the new cover designs and display them around school to promote reading through the use of technology. Also, the work of the students will be uploaded to the school's personal blog.

Assessment:

Teacher will use the character sketch to evaluate how well students understood the content of the book, as well as their skill at describing the characters and events in the text. In addition, the teacher will use the student's cover proposals to evaluate how well they can translate their content research into a design that shares this information visually.