With my class, I had students select their favorite book they read during the school year. Then they wrote a book review based on a set of features we developed as a group. Before writing, their book review, they looked for an image of the book or drew a cover of their own for the book. After they wrote their book reviews, they had peers help edit and revise, and then practiced reading their book review aloud for fluency. I then set them up to audio record their book review in VoiceThread, which had its trails due to the microphone not picking up sound. The result was not thoroughly edited but I am proud with my result and first attempt at using VoiceThread with my students.
My ultimate goal is to have this particular VoiceThread grow beyond just the books I have here. I would like to continue to add books or remove book reviews. I would like my incoming sixth graders to write their responses to these sixth graders and share what they liked about the books, if they choose to read that book based on the review.
Eventually, I would like to create leveled book review VoiceThreads. Since I have a diverse group of readers at many different reading levels, I would like to create VoiceThreads for struggling reluctant readers and VoiceThreads for my advanced readers. I can see this happening during the next school year.
This sounds like it was a fun project. The images were cleared and the voices were cleared and great intonation. Book reviews could be fun or some cases, boring for many students. Telling the students that they would have to present their book review orally through voicethread I’m sure made them more excited and eager to present their best finished product. You did a great job and I have taken this idea for my class next year. Some of my students would be assessed not just on written book reviews, but they could present their review visually. This will be great for my ELL students.
ReplyDeleteLove, I just LOVE this idea! Wish I had thought of doing this. but I will certainly be stealing it for next year. Using VoiceThread for book reviews touches upon SO many different standards and objectives like technology, writing, speaking and listening, and reading. I can totally see the typical book report flying right out of the window with this digital tool being made available. Your students voices were so clear, loud, and crisp. I used VoiceThread for my literacy project but didn't feel like the sound quality was as good. Did you do anything in particular? Thanks for sharing.
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