Informational Research: A Curated Approach with Padlet and Book Creator

Are you looking for a simple way to curate research materials for your students and scaffold the process of independent research?

Using Padlet to Organize Informational Text Resources

Consider using Padlet as a tool to organize resources for your students. By linking to informational databases, videos, articles, and other resources, Padlet offers the right balance of choice and structure for students.

In Issaquah, we have wonderful resources for providing students with informational texts. BrainPOP, PebbleGo, TrueFlix, and Actively Learn are a few of the supported resources that teachers and students have access to. Padlet won’t always be necessary to organize these resources (especially in the instances of Actively Learn and BrainPOP which have assignment features embedded), but it is a tool to keep in your back pocket should you be curating across multiple platforms.

Padlet is easy to share with a quick link and doesn’t require a login for students. This example Padlet (below) has broad topics related to the environment, and each column has been organized with a narrow focus for students to explore. This allows students to have choice in what they are pursuing, but ensures that the materials have been previewed and can be accessed with ease. Click here to explore this Padlet in more detail.

Padlet is a free resource for educators – you receive three free Padlets when you sign up. Bonus: Padlet has recently redesigned the dashboard for better ease of use!

Publishing an Informational Text with Book Creator

How will students share what they have researched, once they have answered their most pressing questions?

Book Creator is one choice. It is a digital publishing platform that allows students to think creatively and publish for an authentic audience. Students can customize the style, font, and theme to match the goals of their text.

Best of all, Book Creator offers templates as well as the ability to create books from scratch. Using an informational text template, students can organize their thinking as well as demonstrate their knowledge of nonfiction text features. Once created, students can view each other’s informational texts. With the free account, a teacher can have up to 40 books in one library.