Buncee: A Must Have for any ELA Classroom!

My Take

Buncee is great for retelling of stories or events in the language arts classroom. In a recent lesson, students were exposed to a children's book story of A Christmas Carol. A major teaching point for the novel is theme. Using a children's book version enabled time to be saved in the curriculum while still teaching a crucial skill. Students listened to the read-aloud version and then utilized Buncee as a platform for retelling the story with a focus on theme. Students at the higher end produced multiple slides while students on the lower end were able to produce a few. Students were able to then "play" their end results and with an awesome feature of Buncee, the text was read aloud as the "book" they produced played. Overall, there exists naturally within the program several opportunities for differentiation, both in terms of technology skills and curriculum skills.

Getting started with Buncee is also super easy, thanks to their own introductory videos and explanations in text that are searchable. You are able to incorporate a variety of tools - text (some preloaded phrases exist in addition to creating your own), animation, YouTube videos, web images, stickers, Vimeos. Dropbox files, stickers, QR codes, a drawing you create, and you can also search Gooru or add your own list. The only feature that I see missing from Buncee is the ability to collaborate, yet this is not absolutely essential to using it successfully with your students.

From the student perspective, it was interesting to hear from their perspective about how Buncee was a better tool than a Google Slide, a PowerPoint or even a Powtoon. For example, hearing one student say, "Now I can visualize the story better," was very eye-opening. Students also pointed out that the versatility and easy access of the tools made Buncee very easy to work with.

Overall, it is a fantastic tool and a must-have for any classroom.