Exciting News!!! Book Blogs Have Begun

I am excited to say that the students have started their book blogs!!!! Shane, Alison, and Emily wrote short blog post about the books they are reading during Read to Self. You can check them out by going to 3B Student Blogs and clicking on their names. Due to our lack of typing, don't expect very lengthy post at first, but we will get there. I encourage the students not to type their blog post like book reports. Instead, share a few events from the book and then share your thoughts about it. This could include connections, questions, favorite parts, etc. I am using iWeb for their blog pages and at this point it does not allow for me, or anyone, to comment about what they have posted. I am looking into how we can change that because I would love to pose thoughts and comments to each student about the book blog they post. It would be like an online book discussion. So, students are schedule to book blog once a week! Better than an old fashioned book report I'd say!!!

We have also made a recent podcast post to share with our Podcast Pals from Luther. For this reading, students were all given the same passage and had to orally read and retell the passage without practice. The Luther students will be podcasting back suggestions and comments for their 3rd grade pal to apply, practice, and record the same passage again, hoping there will be improvements in various areas. After that, students will be recording readings of passages at his/her guided reading levels. The goal is to make an oral reading podcast weekly, give and take some weeks with vacations, building not only reading fluency and word attack, but comprehension through retelling and responding. So far we have been doing them right on the computer using a program called Garage Band, but we will also start recording our readings and retellings on iPods. I have to say, I was very pleased with the students and their ability to get started on their podcast, record, and save without a lot of help from me. Next week. . . .they should be able to do it all on their own! Yippee!!