COURSEKEEPER.COMReader Theater–The Sequel
This unit is an extension of Reader’s Theater activities. Reader’s Theater is a popular instructional approach in which students read a scripted version of a book or story. Readers Theater is characterized by minimal props, costumes, or sets; reading as opposed to memorizing; an inclusive approach to student participation. Readers Theater motivates students for engaging in texts and repeated readings, and improves fluency and comprehension. By adding creative elements of digital audio, you can simultaneously enhance the fluency and comprehension of the students as well as introduce new creative and meaning-making skills. This is an audio play based on a Grimm Tale, The Ungrateful Son.
Ideally, students will get a prose version of the story and then a script in made (typically with the narrator’s part divided among many students).
If you want to do this or another Reader’s Theater project, here are 5 pieces of music that can work well as background. Letting students vote on a musical selection for the class or choose one for group or individual productions can be a very rewarding experience. It can open up discussions on tone and atmosphere.
Music Sample Pack for Readers Theater
Click here to listen to student example of Grimm story Reader’s Theater.
NJAET Conference
I’m giving a presentation on Tuesday October 14 at the New Jersey Association of Educational Technology–21 Projects for Student Podcasters. The ideas are generated from this course. If you attended the presentation and have any questions, please post them here.
NJASL Conference
I had a great time presenting at NJASL. Contact me if you need extra handouts from the presentation.
Chris
Bonus DVD
In this activity, students create a ‘bonus’ audio track for a movie. They simply instruct the listener where to cue the movie on a DVD player and then start the audio simultaneously. The student’s commentary can be informational about the movie’s background, about the plot, or historical significance of the scene. You can have students do ‘color commentary’ or ‘play by play’. Here are two examples.
This one is from donnab and focuses on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
This one is from doodahpod and focuses on Mean Girls. There is an interesting use of the left/right stereo that lets a listener control the sound from the movie clip and from the commentary.
Fanfiction
Fanfiction is an trend/phenomenon/genre where fans of movies, video games, TV shows, comics create original material based on the characters and events of the entertainment that they are fans of.
Teaching with fanfiction is extremely helpful because it gives students familiar material to unleash their creativity. Student can create prequels, sequels, missing scenes, alternate universes, and retell stories from other characters’ perspectives.
Just go to fanfiction.net to see the variety of material that fans (many of them kids) are writing and reading about, or check out my growing collection of fanfiction links–sites of and about fanfiction.
Below is a fanfiction scene (started by a student and redone by me) in which the world of Rocky and Star Wars collide.
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