Blog Post #4

Langwitches 1st Graders Create Own Read Along Book

Ms. Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano has many interesting ideas on her website. The post I read is, 1st Graders Create Own Read Along Book. This post had information about how she helped her students make their own read along book. It is amazing how involved her first graders were in this project. They were eager to read, and record themselves doing so. Ms. Tolisano made this project fun, and her students loved it. She made learning to read something to look forward to. Her first graders loves recording themselves reading, and then listening to themselves read.

Ms. Tolisano would record each of her students reading the story. While she was recording them, her partner was continuing reading the same story to the rest of the class. Ms. Tolisano created a booklet for the students to follow along with as they were listening to the podcast. She noticed her students were following along as the recording was playing. The podcast was a creative way to make reading fun for 1st graders.

Langwitches Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

This post was about teaching her students how to listen and comprehend material, and then put it all in order. Ms. Tolisano thinks if her students hear a word, and the context the word is used in, they will comprehend how the word is being used. Hearing the sentence makes more sense than sometimes only reading it. Students sometimes do not think about these things, and think they understand the material.

This activity consisted of students being recorded on Garageband. Each student had a sentence to record. The sentences were recorded completely out of order. Then, the students had to edit each podcast file and move each sentence into the correct order to tell the story the sentences came from. They used the SmartBoard to organize each sentence to its correct spot. This lesson was completely about comprehension, speaking skills, and fluency in language.

Langwitches-Flat Stanley Podcast

The Flat Stanley podcast was a neat project to complete for the students. The students had to pick a place to visit, how they got there, what they done there, and how they got back home. They had to research the location they picked with either the internet, or a book from the library. They then recorded themselves, with the help of their parents, and made a story. They had to use emotion in their recording to give the recording feeling about the story.

I think this assignment is very creative and fun as well as the others. The students enjoy these type assignments, instead of dreading ordinary, and boring assignments. I hope to one day be able to use some of these ideas in my classroom. I want my class to be fun and entertaining. Technology really spices teaching up A LOT!