My grade-level partner came up with a new idea to mix up our book groups this spring. We had several Playaways and book CDs available, so we decided to try audiobook groups. (Side note: This is a perfect example why veteran teachers should always be willing to try suggestions of less-experienced teachers. Always keep trying new things!)
I knew that the students would probably need something to do while listening. When I do read-alouds, many of them draw or do other quiet things at their desks. I made a simple page of story element doodles that they used while listening. You can download your copy by clicking the image.
We ordered a few things from Amazon (affiliate links) to set these up. First of all, these groups were interest-based, and we knew that we could have groups of up to eight kids. We bought these splitters so that everyone could listen at the same time. Since we were able to chain them together, we could adjust for every group size.
We also decided to let the kids use gel pens to immediately up the buy-in. I decided to only put out a third of them, though. In retrospect, I should have emphasized that they were to DOODLE and DRAW, not COLOR. Many of the pens ran out since some kids were coloring everything.
So now we were ready to listen. Since I had never read any of the books that were chosen, I listened along. I discovered that it was kind of hard for me. I've always been the one reading aloud and having the words in front of me. Or when I'm listening to an audiobook, it's while I'm doing something else. I'm glad that I decided to make the doodle pages because I needed something to do while listening.
While we were listening, the kids tended to watch what I did on my paper since they weren't sure what to do. It didn't take them long to get the idea and soon they were able to add their own thoughts to their papers. Many ended up going onto the back of the paper or onto another blank paper when they ran out of room on the front. Here are the examples of my sheets from the groups:
They were five or so hours long. We listened 15 minutes at a time. We added to our sheet each time. Along the way, we also discuss the plot, make predictions, and other reading strategies.
How long were the books you used for this? Did they doodle for an entire novel? Or a picture book?
ReplyDeleteThey were five or so hours long. We listened 15 minutes at a time. We added to our sheet each time. Along the way, we also discuss the plot, make predictions, and other reading strategies.
DeleteI LOVE this and I bet the kids LOVE the doodling part ;)
ReplyDelete