Love this Hate That Cat Conversation

Friday, March 16, 2012

The 5th Grade Sharon Creech Author Study continues.

Once again my library looked and sounded like awesome. (See blog post: What Does Awesome Sound Like?)

Here's the scene: the four groups are scattered around the library reading and discussing the books.

Hate That Cat

With about twenty minutes left in the period, the first Sharon Creech Readers' Group finished their book, Hate That Cat.

What to do?

I decided that I would have them begin reflecting on the book.  I grabbed my flip camera to capture the discussion, but the students now knew what I was doing and became self conscious.

I put the flip camera away and grabbed my laptop.  I logged into VoiceThread,  went to Sharon Creech's Website to grab an image of the book (mine all have the barcode label right through the title), and uploaded the image.  I brought this group into the "recording studio," an entry way off the library.

I reminded them how to use VoiceThread, handed them my laptop and went back out into the library to check in with the other reading groups.

The recording studio in action

The only thing I told the students is that they should comment on a connection they made with the story or the characters or talk about a part of the story that resonated with them.

I didn't have an opportunity to listen to the VoiceThread until this morning.

Cool beans.

Have a listen:

Coming up next...the groups reading Heartbeat get a chance to reflect!