Photo of 1st Grade - Reading Analysis from Leanne Windsor

1st Grade - Reading Analysis from Leanne Windsor

By Leanne Windsor

Description

This VoiceThread was a culmination of a project we did in library to get the children thinking about the books they were choosing to read and why they liked them. They were also learning about story structure (i.e. plot - problem and resolution) and identifying main characters. The VoiceThread provided a means for the children to articulate their learning visually, in writing and orally. We used this project to introduce the children to VoiceThread as we planned for them to ultimately use VoiceThread to create their own electronic portfolios.

Assignment

The steps were:

  1. Have the children choose their book
  2. Photograph the children with the book
  3. Use photoshop to manipulate the photos
  4. Create a worksheet for the children to fill out
  5. Upload photos in to VoiceThread along with illustrations for first and last page
  6. Record children

Goals

Overall goal was to have the children thinking about the books they were choosing and why.

Main objectives were to have the children:

  • Think about the books they were choosing to borrow from the library and why
  • Identify the title, author and/or illustrator of their book
  • Learn about plot structure (i.e. introduction, problem and resolution) and main characters
  • Articulate in writing and orally their understanding of the book, it’s structure and why they chose it
  • Learn about VoiceThread in preparation for creating their electronic portfolios on VoiceThread (Grade 1 is now using VoiceThread to upload photos and samples of their work to create electronic portfolios to share with the school and their parents)

Easy Parts

The easiest part of this project was taking the photos and recording the voices.

Challenges

The most difficult piece was coordinating all 48 children (three classes) to get the whole project completed.

Tools

Books, Camera, Photoshop, Worksheets & Microphone.

Tips

This was a fairly simple way to use VoiceThread. Perhaps the only piece of advice would be to not spend so much time on playing with the photos!

Variations

Have the children exchange comments about each others books.