OVERVIEW

Activity Overview:

Students will use an app of the teacher’s choosing (I prefer Voice Recorder with the red speech bubble) to record themselves reading a book aloud. Once students have successfully recorded their book with the app, they will share it- either in small reading groups- depending on reading ability, or whole group. Students may choose to hold the book up while playing their voice recording, or they may choose to create an overall picture to correlate with their book.

Meta description

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Reading/Language Arts, Technology
• Grade Level : K-2
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Computing Systems, Data Analysis
• Computer Science Principles:
  • Collaborating Around Computing, Creating Computational Artifacts
• Materials:
  • iPad app- voice recording device, student book of choice
• Considerations:
  • Provide additional support to students if they are hesitant about reading aloud or if they are emergent/struggling readers.

Lesson Plan

Overview

Students will use an app of the teacher’s choosing (I prefer Voice Recorder with the red speech bubble) to record themselves reading a book aloud. Once students have successfully recorded their book with the app, they will share it- either in small reading groups- depending on reading ability, or whole group. Students may choose to hold the book up while playing their voice recording, or they may choose to create an overall picture to correlate with their book.

ASSESSMENT PRE/POST-TEST

How do you decide the most important part of a book? (This will be answered with the picture they choose to draw/book page they decide to share). Why do you like to have books read aloud to you? (Various answers accepted) What is your favorite book? (Various answers)

OBJECTIVES

Students will: record themselves reading 1 book aloud using the voice recording app. Create a matching picture(s) to go with their book. Share their final product with the class or small group.

CATCH/HOOK

Have you ever listened to a book read aloud to you, closed your eyes, and imagined you were there?

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

Start by reading a picture book aloud to your students, one of your favorites, I like to start with The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis. Encourage students to close their eyes and enjoy the book. As you read, place emphasis on character voices and the meaning behind different words.
When finished, ask students for feedback, what did they like about the book? What did they notice? Make sure that students pick up on the different character’s voices and the emphasizing of words in the story.
Next, introduce them to the voice recording app that you have selected for this lesson. Show students how to use it. If time allows, have students play with the app for 5 minutes. Let them get to know all of the different settings the app has. Students love to record themselves and having additional time to discover different pieces of technology within the app allows students to take ownership of the technology and not become overwhelmed by it.
Now, read another story to students as your demonstrate how to use the voice recorder app to record yourself reading the story. As you do so, make sure to read fluently, using different voices for each character, and place emphasis on bold words as needed. If time allows, you can also do a demo of reading a page with no expression at all and playing it back for student’s to listen to. Ask them for feedback- which one did they like better?
Explain to students that over the course of the next few days, they will be able to select a book at their reading level and record themselves reading it using the app. They will need to focus on reading fluently and not like a robot. They will need to use voices for their characters and good expression when needed. As a class we are creating an audiobook library! Work with students to pick good fit books- some students might be hesitant about reading aloud, it is important to encourage and help them find a book that they will be successful and confident in. As students complete their recordings, allow them time to think about the drawing they would like to create (main idea standard tie in).
This project should take 2-3 30 minute sessions to complete before all students have had a chance to record their books and draw their pictures. Once completed, schedule a time to allow students to share their recordings either in small groups or with the whole class. Offering an iPad in the reading center that houses all of the student’s audiobooks provides a rich resource throughout the year and allows students to create more books as time allows.
Closure: When wrapping up this lesson, ask students why it would be important to record books for others? (Possible answers include- for younger siblings/students who can’t read yet, for blind students, for students who are working on learning the English language (it is especially great if you have an ELL student who can record a book in another native language to share with the class). Ask students to provide examples of other forms of technology that they know about that help students who can’t yet read, who are blind, or who may be trying to learn another language.

Supplements

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REVIEW

An educator would need to first introduce the technology, demonstrate it to students, and follow up with small guided support as needed.

STANDARDS