Book Creation And Digital Design With @AdobeExpress #AdobeEduCreative

I am so excited to share this lesson I just created I couldn't even wait for student examples!

My 2nd trimester Digital Design class is starting after Thanksgiving and I've been toying with different ideas on having students engage with design in different ways. I was struck with this idea for students to create different picture books for younger students. One of the cool things about having K12 on one campus is the ability to collaborate across vast grade levels. I am going to try and set up a connection between my class and the 1st or 2nd graders. Here is the lesson and feel free to use/alter/etc for your students. 

Step 1: Great a fill in the blank story that allows students to create their own nouns, adjectives, etc. I struggled with finding the perfect story I wanted to tell, so I used ChatGPT for support. Here is a link to my story. 

Step 2: Students fill in the blanks of the story with as much detail as possible. 

Step 3: Students will switch their stories with other students. 

Step 4: Students will use Adobe Express to create the story based on the descriptions. Each page will be a page of the story and they will add the text to match the imagery they are creating. Students are encouraged to use the text to image feature.

Step 5: Students will finish the book and share it with their partners. 

Here is my book if you want to see what a completed story will look like. 

Update:

Students completed their books using Gen AI and they had a blast. There was so much laughing as they tried to recreate the monsters the PreK students described. The learned about writing specific prompts and how word choice and word order can impact what is generated. They made their stories and worked on their proofreading skills and shared their work at home so they could proofread. They took the writing process very seriously because they recognized that it would be bad to give a book to an early reader that is filled with spelling and grammar mistakes. The changed audience impacted their engagement with the writing process in a wonderfully positive manner. Here are the copies of some of the books the students created. 

      

After finishing their books and going through the peer editing process, the students were ready to go back to the PreK and read their stories to their little partners. The PreK students were so excited to have their big buddies down there again and they loved the stories so much! One PreK student said they get to choose two picture books before bed and this book would be one of the two. My students walked away with a wonderful sense of accomplishment because they were able to see the impact of their work. It was a huge win for everyone. Here are some pics of the reading time. 

If you are able, I highly recommend that you give this lesson a try in your class. The students loved connecting with little students and the Gen AI feature of Adobe Express allowed all of the students to feel like artists/illustrators. I could see the students grow in confidence using Express and how their work can impact others. If you have any questions, please let me know!

NP