QR Codes & the Iowa Teen Award Books

Each year language arts classes get a preview of the Iowa Teen Award nominees, and this year, students used iPads to learn about the 15 titles. Rather than sit and listen to a presentation about the books, students took control and moved about the library to scan QR codes linked to book trailers, presentations, and interviews related to the books.

The free QR code generating website Kaywa was simple to use and generated QR codes that could be screen-shotted and included on a document along with an image of the book cover and a permalink to  the code itself.

With each code/image/permalink was placed on a piece of card stock, and students were then able to move about the library to different tables to scan for information about the books. As they moved about, they were asked to make a few notes for themselves to track which books they found interesting.

At the end of our class rotations, nearly every 6th and 7th grader will have passed through the library to participate in the activity and learn more about our Iowa Teen Award books for the year!