Renee Johnston

Rewriting stories as a readers theater was a new experience for my students. Some enjoyed it and, naturally, others did not. Students were then given the choice to use their script for a Garageband project or not. All students, however, were required to work on one of the Garageband projects. All the students enjoyed this aspect and in fact, most students worked on two projects.

This project was a great success and we will probably attempt one more this year or perhaps it will be an option that students may select. However, we learned several things. One: Don’t assume the version in the lab is the version on the classroom computers! This presented quite a headache. Two: We somehow need to find a quiet area in which to record. Our projects are flooded with background noises.

2nd project:

We have been working on making inferences in 5th grade classes. So far most of our practice has been such that we read a passage and I help them come to an inference. Then as a small group, a pair, and finally alone students find clues in the reading to support their inference. Additionally, they add some personal knowledge that has also helped them come to their inference.

Students read “Yang the Second and Her second Admirer. At several sections in the story we stopped to come to an inference. The 2 selected recordings were from the same section and the same inference.

The children were successful on this activity. “Yang...” is the second selection in which we have completed this recorded activity on Mobile Studio. I, however, have had difficulty. We never could locate the first recorded inferences from a previous story. On this selection I could only locate 2. Hopefully I will become more successful.