Gavin Pittman and Hudson Smith have had their creative story ideas included in eSpark’s Choice Texts, a nationwide learning platform. The Fallen Timbers Middle School fifth grade students recently learned that the story elements they developed as a part of an assignment in their reading class were selected in a competition hosted by eSpark.
Their teacher, Sarah LeSage is a member of the eSpark Ambassador program. This allows her to collaborate with other teachers from across the country and to share feedback with the developers to improve the platform. For the contest, students had the opportunity to design a “choice text” - creating characters and settings that related to a common theme and story elements.
Avid athletes and sports enthusiasts, the boys each focused their story ideas on the theme of sports. eSpark liked their work and decided to combine their creative elements into one interactive story titled Animal Athletes.
As a result, Hudson’s characters, King, a basketball playing penguin; Dash a duck who plays soccer; Leon a lizard who likes football; and Theo a Turtle who plays baseball can be the main characters in stories that take place in Gavin’s settings: a basketball court, football field, baseball diamond and soccer field.
Developers modeled the digital elements after drawings submitted by the students, and now others across the country can use their ideas to write stories in the Choice Texts section of eSpark. As an additional reward for being selected, Sarah’s class also earned a Rocky, a plush toy of the eSpark mascot to display in their room. She explained that the coveted reward is seen as a badge of honor for students.
About eSpark and Choice Texts
eSpark is an online learning platform designed to enhance students’ reading comprehension through interactive and personalized modules. Before using eSpark, students take a pretest to determine their reading level. The platform then provides a variety of reading materials—both fiction and nonfiction—aligned with state reading standards.
“Students can be working anywhere between the second and eighth grade reading levels,” Sarah explained. “The material is linked to authentic texts and aligns with the state reading standards.”
She said the program's interactive format helps students to engage with the text.
Hudson shared how students use eSpark:
“We can read articles or stories and even write our own, depending on the assignment. It gives us options for characters, settings, and prompts to build our own stories.”
This is where the Choice Texts feature comes into play. Similar to a choose-your-own-adventure book, students craft their own stories by selecting characters, settings, and developing plots based on their preferences. The stories are tailored to each student’s reading level and include follow-up comprehension questions.
Students earn progress awards called “high fives” for demonstrating growth between their pre- and post-test assessments. They celebrate their accomplishments by adding their reward badge to a progress wall in the hallway.
Sarah said she uses eSpark’s monitoring tools to track her students’ ability to demonstrate understanding of the state standards. Students who need extra reinforcement have the opportunity to practice and strengthen skills by working below grade level. Those who have already mastered a skill are challenged to work above grade level. The reports also allow her to identify areas for improvement and keep parents informed about their child’s progress.
Congratulations to Gavin and Hudson!