Kindergarten apps-books: a multisensory experience

At the last iPad Education Summit, Lynda O'Connell and Pascale-Dominique Chaayez, from the National Service STORY in preschool, shared the benefits and winning ways of using app-books, interactive tablet books, with young people.

Lynda O'Connell and Pascale-Dominique Chaayez are the representatives of the National Service of STORY in preschool. Tablets in kindergarten, they believe in it! During this workshop, they shared the winning ways of using app-books, especially during story hour which is experienced daily in kindergarten, and also the importance of taking a critical and reflective look at the multitude. applications available on the market.

What is an app-book? It is an interactive book, in the form of an application, that we download to read on a tablet. Qualified as a multisensory experience, reading an app-book allows students to interact with text and images in addition to listening to the narration and, sometimes even, giving the child the opportunity to record his own version of the story.

How do you select an interesting story from the app-books? The criteria will be the same as when choosing a book in paper format: the vocabulary, the values conveyed, the emotions felt, cultural references, illustrations, etc. The difference for apps-books is much more in terms of the added value that the interactions offered in the app will bring. By giving the example of the book The 3 rabbit stories, where from the outset the child's participation is requested to choose the color of the rabbit and the character he will meet, the facilitators presented five criteria enabling teachers to be equipped to choose quality works:

• interaction with text
• interaction with storytelling
• sound interaction
• interaction with objects in the book
• playful interaction

How to animate the app-books in class? On this issue, Lynda O'Connell and Pascale-Dominique Chaayez stressed the importance of reading books and becoming familiar with their content before presenting them to children, in order to prepare for the reading and listening intention and of plan strategic stops to solicit the participation of young people when the application is projected on a screen. While listening, they advise not to hesitate to stop the story to answer students' questions and, above all, to have fun with them!

One of the great advantages of app-books is the fact that the story can be listened to several times on the tablet, during workshops. An adapter like the Belkin Rockstar is an interesting tool that allows multiple pairs of headphones to be plugged in so that several children can listen to the story together in a listening center.

On the website of the RÉCIT national preschool education service, you can benefit from the expertise of the educational advisers who have carefully chosen the best apps-books for kindergarten. These are grouped according to the production companies and some are even free. It is therefore a little gold mine to discover for any teacher wishing to use the app-books in the classroom!