Article Response #6: Make Learning Pop!

“Make Learning Pop!” is an article written by Shaunna Smith that discusses the concept of uniting art and technology. Smith starts with the idea of how pop-up books are a fun and exciting way to engage and motivate student literacy. Smith is approached by a seventh grade English language arts teacher who teaches at a low-income urban school and begins helping her find creative ways to use pop-ups in order to teach creative writing. This is how the Digital Paper Engineering Club at Spring Woods Middle School in Texas was formed. In this club students would cover paper engineering which would then be fused with a language arts activity.

Smith discusses how to make pop-ups meaningful in the classroom. She touches on the importance of choosing themes that go with student’s interests, using hands-on exploration, having students collaborate with one another, and maintaining reflective journalism throughout the project. For English language learners, a teacher integrated language arts concepts into making the pop-ups, such as characterization, flow, critical analysis etc. which allowed students to communicate and express themselves through their pop-up creations.

The group of students then collaborated in making a pop-up book. There was a large amount of collaboration among students in order to communicate one another’s ideas. Poems were written down and then transformed into pop-up creations that were digitally fabricated and designed. Smith adds about the student learning process and says, “as students discussed the writing process and creative writing techniques, their interactions reinforced English language arts concepts” (p. 28). The interesting part was that language arts was not the only topic covered and mastered through this process. Mathematics terms came up with the creation and design process which could have been expanded into further lessons.

Looking at the ISTE’s NETS for students and teachers I noticed that the information in this article could easily fall under “critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making”. I thought this because of the process behind making a collaborative pop-up book with a group of students. It is not something that can just develop overnight, it has to take time, energy, and plenty of teamwork. Students had to first do research and critically review the research, then decide whether or not they could use it and finally come to a decision together.

I decided that I want to look at the various resource links that the author provides in order to get a better feel of the process of making pop-ups and how to really adapt them into your classroom lessons. I think this is something that I could see myself teaching children that are as young as five to as old as fifteen. I also think that with enough creativity they can be used in a wide spectrum of areas from science to math to history to art itself. This is something I definitely will keep in mind when I need creative resources for my future classroom.

Smith, S. (2012). Make Learning Pop!. (39) 8. 26-28. Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learningandleading.