Book Widgets

Book Widgets

 @https://www.bookwidgets.com

I understand the concept of using technology in new, engaging ways rather than reinventing the worksheet. However, sometimes teachers need to take baby steps in the right direction. Book Widget can be a giant step forward. Is it possible to simply recreate a worksheet to encourage student regurgitation of information? Sure. Are there possibilities beyond "chew and swallow" assignments? Absolutely. Book Widgets is versatile!

In the past 2 weeks of experimenting with my 30 day trial of Book Widgets I have created a crossword puzzle group research activity, played Bingo review for a science test, and created a PARCC test ELA simulation activity so my students could practice with the two column format. I will be purchasing the subscription for next year. Here's why:

1. Google Classroom Integration:

Book Widgets connect seamlessly with Google Classroom. Students can complete widgets, click the envelope icon, and submit completed work easily.

Google Classroom tracks due date, completion, and even student scores. You can assign widgets directly from the creation tool, save assignment drafts, and scroll through the assignments with the forward arrow.

2. Ease of creation:

I found the creation tools to be fairly intuitive. It is important to use the preview option frequently as you are learning each tool, though. Be sure to look at some of the example widgets here first to get an idea of what each tool will do. 

3. Reporting: 

Student results are synced with Classroom. Individual answers can be rescored by the teacher as needed. Students are able to see a cumulative score at the top of their assignment with skipped questions shown in bold print and incorrect answers in red. Individual question comments and assignment feedback areas teacher-friendly. 

4. Variety:

There are 40 different Widgets available to diversify your assignments. Building proficiency with the entire library is part of my summer plans. Some of the widgets will be especially helpful for early elementary teachers who want to use picture matching, jigsaw puzzle, hotspot images, and frame sequencing activities.

My students worked in groups discussing and searching Google for the answers to this Literary Terms Crossword Puzzle that I made to review for PARCC. Here is the teacher link that you can use to copy my puzzle to your Book Widgets account to use with your class. It took my 5th graders two 30-minute class periods in groups of 2 and 3 to finish. I like that once they submitted the first assignment in Book Widgets, the submission process was identical for all of the other widget types.  That consistency is important!

What did I dislike? I accidentally deleted a few completed projects when I was trying to organize the My Widgets page with folders. Creating and naming the folders was confusing to me. You must hit enter after naming the folder. Then you can drag and drop Widgets to the folders. The folders do not "nest" in the way I expected and I deleted what I thought was an empty folder only to find that it was my primary science folder.  The folders really need to have a number next to them showing if they actually contain completed widgets. I keep finding extra folders in my account that were not intentionally created, too. The popup warning before deleting is the same whether the folder is full or empty. This will take a little more practice for me. Once the widgets were deleted, they still functioned in Google Classroom, which was helpful, but I could not retrieve the assignments and add them back into Book Widgets after deleting.