Novels on Location

You can see the setting as clear as if you were right there.  You can smell their food as if it were cooking in your kitchen.  Your heart races during the climax as if you were the one being chased.  Novels draw you in.

Have you ever read a book and wanted to look up the location online?  Perhaps you used Google Maps or maybe even LitTrips.  What about having your students use Novels on Location?

http://novelsonlocation.com/

I recently read about Novels on Location on Free Technology for Teachers.  If you are not receiving his feeds, you need to go there now and subscribe.  I'll wait.  Yes, it's that good.

Novels on location is basically a huge hyperlinked map.  Each feather on the map represents a novel linked to that location.  As of right now, there are approximately 600 books linked; hardly all the novels ever written, right?  So, have your students create a feather and pin it on the map!

It's a very simple process.  First, start by searching if your desired book is linked to the map by using the search bar at the top.  If it zooms into the ocean or a vast desert, then that book is not pinned.  Yet.

Teach your students how to pin a book to a place.  You might want to start by doing a few whole class first.  For instance, I pinned Island of the Blue Dolphins this morning.

Step 1: Enter a location in the first search bar.  For my example, I entered San Nicholas Island.

Step 2: Enter the book title.

Step 3: Add a summary.

That's it!  You now have a feather!  Click on the feather to see the pop-up.

I have long advocated for 21st century classrooms to use Amazon book reviews and Weebly blogs in exchange for the old-fashioned book report.  Now, teachers (and students) have a choice.

I love to hear new ideas.  Please comment if you have used Novels on Location!