Dramatic Readings

When I say, "A book can take you places you'd never dreamed of visiting," I think most of my students imagine something like this picture I just found on Dollar Photo Club. I was there looking for something to help me write about the Secret Garden, and it made me think of my 6th graders this past couple of weeks. 

They are reading The Secret Garden for school, and just could not get into it. Reading that Yorkshire in their minds was confusing, and they couldn't make sense of it. I had my mom (fantastic dramatic reader) read a couple of chapters to them, and I gave it shot. Let's just say, you DO NOT want me to read in Yorkshire dialect to any of your students! It was like a train wreck for sure!

My 2 youngest needed to finish this book over break, and I desperately wanted them to appreciate the story. So I set out on a mission and searched for dramatic readings. I remembered the days in middle school that we would do a readers theater, and how engaged every classmate was. I wanted to see that same excitement on my kids' faces. And I wanted to talk about the story, knowing they were really grasping the things that were happening. Peanut even decided to add it to her reviews!

I found this site Librivox.org There are public domain readings, and dramatic readings of so many pieces of literature. The second half of the book, they followed along while the characters told the story. They would laugh or sigh, and then pause the recording to discuss what was happening, on their own. The experience even caused my 11 year old son to watch the movie on his own Friday evening! I have full confidence that these dramatic readings helped them enjoy their book, and they felt what I always tell them, taken away to Misselthwaite. Here's a link to several versions of The Secret Garden if you'd like to use them with your class!

I know several teacher/authors who have created some fantastic reader's theater packages for the  middle grades, if you have one to share, please feel free to post a link in the comments below!

What's the Story behind the Logo?

I saw this linky and just had to join in. What perfect timing, since my logo has recently changed!

To really understand the story behind this logo, I have to tell the story backward. I have a 15 year old daughter who has an entrepreneurial spirit and artistic skills. I've been trying to encourage her to develop her skills of digital art so she can start making some money now while she's young, develop a fan base, and have a ready-made business when she needs it to support her.

LunaBear Designs is in its infant stages, and most of her work is done on a by-request-basis from creator friends of mine, or me. This logo is her first venture into marketing art. I am not to keen on the cartoonish people as logo images, I think its a little weird to see a cartoon of myself. So as she was making this, while yes she had several photos of me, I had a completely different idea of what I wanted the "cartoon me" to look like. Big eyes like the Anime characters, fluffy braided hair like the Disney Princesses, and a thin, but "rumply" shape unlike the rounded unpleasantly plump reality.

This is how this image came about, but it is not the whole story. Before condescending to an avatar image, I had hopes of a fun loving animal character. The one LunaBear designed for me was cute, but didn't fit.

Cute? Yes, to me anyway. But it didn't fit. I love the fox/wolf version of Miss Stefany. She only became a wolf, when my darling budding artist forgot the poor foxes tail...and when her crazy momma wanted a black fox instead of a red one! Why did it have to be black? Because I had already picked out the colors for my logo and blog design, and the red of a fox just wouldn't do. Wolf Miss Stefany may still appear in some younger resources I create. 

That is about it, unless you want to hear the story behind the change in my store/blog name. I think I'll save that for another time!

Want to know the story behind more logos? Hop on over to Jenny K's blog for the link up!

Jumpstart January

Well, that break was nice, wasn't it? Now we get the fine privilege of wrangling our students after two weeks of sleeping in and staying up late. The first few days back after break can be defining moments for our class, so let's make the best of it! 

This hop is all about jump-starting the learning after a long winter holiday. The sooner we get these young minds engaged and instep with the program, the happier they will be (and the happier we will be also).

So, how do you do it? How do you take your students from this:

 To this: 

For me the answer is simple, it's what is the hands of the group of students who are happy and excited. Interactive Student Notebooks, we've come to call them ISNs or INBs. This note taking strategy is effective for many reasons. 

First: When given the opportunity to get creative with the display of the content, kids think about the material. They make it their own. This creates inroads to their stored memory and makes it easier to retrieve the content later.

Second: It is SO much more fun than boring old Cornell Notes! Don't get me wrong, there is a definite advantage to the basic Cornell Notes, however, adding interactive elements brings those boring T Charts to a whole new level.

Finally, and certainly not the least significant: Interactive notebooks are easily differentiated to meet the needs of all at least most of our students. A simple template with blank lines to fill in helps our struggling students make sense of the content. Most creators include another version of the same template with more room for the student to write out their own responses. To add difficulty for our advanced learners, simply provide them with the paper, scissors, and markers, and they can get creative making their own flips and flaps. 

If you are new to notebooking, or you've been at it for a while but want some new ideas, I have a page for that! Click on the tab "INB Hacks". I'll be adding new items to this page regularly. You will find videos, links to free templates, shortcuts, and more. If you have a great resource you'd like to share on the page, post a link in the comments below, I'd be happy to put it up for you. 

Would you like the opportunity to win $10 worth of resources from my Teacherspayteachers store? 

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This post is one of many included in the Jumpstart January Blog Hop, so click on that sled below and take a peek at another teacher's tips to help you jumpstart your January! Make it all the way to the end, and land on our collaborative blog The Lesson Deli for an opportunity to win a $50 Target gift card. 

Happy Hopping!

Interactive Learning Hop: and a Grand Re-Opening Celebration

Welcome to the new design!

I am so excited to start this new adventure. Over the past decade, I've dipped my toes into the interactive side of learning. These last few years, however, it has grabbed a hold of me and taken me to new places I never thought I'd go.

It has always been a goal of mine to insight a love of learning in my students. To me, the best way to do that is make the learning fun, engaging, and memorable. How do you make your teaching stick?

Let's get interactive!

Below you will find three fabulous giveaways with the interactive learning spirit at heart. First up is $25 gift card to Teacherspayteachers.com. The winner will be able to spend that on whatever resources are needed right now. Next is a Resource bundle for grades 3-5. 9 teachers have contributed resources for math, reading, writing, and more. Then you'll find a second resource bundle for the older students, also chalked full of math and reading/writing resources.

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An InLinkz Link-up