I want to share a new find, and that is the website www.storylineonline.net.
On this site, actors and actresses such as Betty White, James Earl Jones, Robert Guillaume, former Vice President Al Gore, and more read aloud some favorite children's books. As they read, the text of the book is shown beneath the video and the illustrations of the books are perused.
Books like Thank You, Mr. Falker, Enemy Pie, Harry the Dirty Dog, Stellaluna and more are read by these excellent readers, who put emotion and enthusiasm into the reading. We all know how vital good read alouds are to inspiring students to read, and this is an excellent way to have a reading center for students where they can hear the book from another passionate reader.
I can also see huge potential for students learning English as a new language. They can, as individuals, see and hear the same story many times, which will build better connections to the text. The books are all picture books, so they have built in support for understanding the story.
Watching Jane Kaczmarek (from Malcom in the Middle fame) nearly choke up with tears as she reads Thank You, Mr. Falker will be all you need to be sold on this site.
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Wow! This site is fantastic. My son loved "Gugi, Gugi." He watched it several times. I hope they keep adding new ones. We are probably going to burn through the ones they have up pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! This could be very beneficial for students who do not have adult figures in their home willing or able to do read alouds with them. On this site, the student is able to find a book they love as well as a famous person they look up to read their favorite book to them. It is exciting to combine two great things into one site.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome site!!! I didn't know anything like this even existed! You're right, this would be wonderful for ELL's and it could even be a literacy center followed with an activity. What a great way to motivate students and make reading interesting!
ReplyDeleteMy class watched THANK YOU, MR. FALKER on Friday and wrote/drew book responses in class. They were highly motivated.
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