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Bringing the Outside In - Visual Ways to Engage Reluctant Readers

Based on a post in Anne Davis's blog - http://anne.teachesme.com/2008/02/11/visual-or-virtual-think-alouds/ - I just ordered Sara Kajder's new book Bringing the Outside In. For teachers who are under pressure to justify any diversion from a scripted English/Language Arts text, how about this for a starter (from Anne's post):

"Sara uses the time line in iMovie. Her students use the visual lines by creating digital images of their own drawings or through the use of digital images. They are making a mental movie that encourages a great deal of rereading. They reread to determine what kind of images the reading projects to them. She really has them thinking with this process.

The second line is the audio track and it is the read aloud of that text.

The third audio line is where the student performs the think aloud."

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Permalink Reply by Mathew Needleman on February 18, 2008 at 8:32am: Thank you for sharing the links, I'll check them out.

I've seen in my own second grade classroom that there are students who do not write very much of anything unless they know that they're writing for a computer project. Once you see this in your own room you don't worry about taking time away from the core curriculum. In addition, you have to be clever and educationally sound in your planning as these examples are.

I look forward to meeting you at CUE.; ▶ Reply to This