On the myelearning site there’s a link to weread.org. Even though it’s a kids’ site, I decided to have a look. I did not leave it until I had read all of the books there; it was so very interesting. The stories were short yet wonderfully narrated and the pictures were colourful, cartoonish and highly interesting even for this adult. This site is excellent for students; for encouraging listening and skills such as intonation and enunciation. It motivates one to read, to interact with the material, to identify with the content and generally feel good when using the site.
Stories are one of the most effective ways of teaching human values and thus ebooks can be used to get messages across to students even if they cannot read on their own. Ebooks allow for oral comprehension as well as picture reading. It can be one of the solutions for problem readers in the lower levels.
3 comments:
Jody i totally agree with you on the values that our students can learn through stories. What I want you to think about beside the conventional story is how we can use music Videos which our students are very interested in. I know you might be thinking what music videos can be appropriate for class but there are many artists whose videos are excellent when looking at themes at the element of characterization and setting. I have been able to link the theme of "Runaway" to a past CSEC short story and a music video by Mary j Blige and Ludacris. the students were interested when i used the video to look at themes and they were better able to write descriptions of the characters when they were able to see it visually. When linked to the print story they were excited to see if they could make the same connections. I am sure that we can integrate different types of technologies to teach the same concept thereby reaching a wider student population.
I agree that stories are an effective way of teaching human values. I have used stories during elective period to teach values and life skills. I have also used stories at the start of many of my classes just to get students attention and to help them to focus. I am a content area teacher and even though the stories I have read do not have anything to do with the content they helped to grab students attention and get them to focus. Imagine then what ebooks will be able to do. It will not just grab attention but get them really intrested and eager to learn. The voice and pictures will definitly motivate them and allow them to interact with the material. The site you have identified will make my job easier since I can use the stories that are already developed in my classes.
Jody,
Why limit this wonderful medium to the lower levels. I think that with some creativity it can be used as an effective tool at all levels.
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