This afternoon as part of a reading comprehension activity in conjunction with their book The Map Trap, the Holden fourth graders were reflecting on a passage of the book in which the main character Alton was thinking about the teacher’s brain. The students were asked to visualize Alton’s description of the teacher’s brain by creating a drawing using Google Drawings, a free, web-based tool accessible in Google Drive. Google Drawings can be used as a very powerful and versatile image creator and editor. The tools within Google Drawings can be used to create a variety of media and projects including drawings, diagrams, charts, maps, brochures, pamphlets, etc. In addition to designing and drawing images from scratch, external images can also be inserted and edited by adding marks, notations, drawings, etc. This afternoon the students explored the various features and tools accessible in Google Drawings to design their own image of the teacher’s brain incorporating details based upon their interpretation of the reading passage.
