How Can Teachers Use It?
Use Bookopolis to set up a safe, private social network for your students' free reading or in-class reading assignments. Assign book reports to students and have them submit their responses, then comment on your students' reading logs, reports, and reviews. Recommend books to your students individually or as a class. Keep track of your students' reading as a group or as individuals, including the number of minutes they've read and the number of pages they've completed.
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What's It Like?
Bookopolis is a social reading site (and Chrome app) that allows students to log, rate, and review books they’ve read. With a parent's help, students create an account, choose an avatar, and create lists of books they’d like to read, books they're currently reading, and books they've already read. Kids can browse built-in book lists including curated lists by award winners, Common Core-aligned books, and read-alike ("if you liked this, try this") lists. These built-in lists are available for early readers (grades 1-3), older readers (grades 3-6), and middle school readers (grades 6-8). There's also a Fun & Games section where students can engage in word games, trivia, and puzzles. Students earn points and badges by logging their reading and recording their progress, and their friends, parents, and teachers can view their updates.
Teacher accounts have more extensive features that let teachers create classes, monitor reading progress, recommend books to kids, and create assignments linked to specific books. Kids can then submit book reports directly from the site. Keep in mind that users can link directly to vendor sites where books are for sale; there's an alert that lets kids know they're leaving the site, but it might not prevent purchases.
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Is It Good For Learning?
Bookopolis also offers a great way for students to find new books to read and to reflect on their reading in a fun, safe environment. It's nice that kids can't create an account without their parent's email address and approval; it's a good way to keep adult supervision a key component of kids' use of the site. Bookopolis is like a Goodreads just for kids; it lets students create a record of what they've read, and the more they read, the more rewards they'll receive. Writing reviews lets students practice their communication and writing skills in a safe space where they can concentrate more on their words than on who'll read them. Badges and points may serve as good motivators for reluctant readers, and the charming animated design may keep kids coming back.
Bookopolis's social features would be even better if they let kids engage with their classmates in conversation rather than just in comments. For example, it would be great if kids could respond to their friends’ reading progress and book ratings, allowing for a discussion. Teachers can respond, but it would be neat to have an option for students to dialogue about books in this online setting. It would also be great if the included games promoted learning more explicitly or linked more explicitly to certain books; as it is, they're neat, but they seem like more of an afterthought to keep kids on the site than a meaningful learning extension.
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The homepage offers recommendations and info about the site.
Users can browse built-in book lists, including Common Core-aligned texts.
A reading log lets students track their program.
Teacher-side features let users create classes and assignments and monitor student progress.
