Audioboo - a fluency practice tool from me to you!

I set out to find a fun and easy way for my 2nd graders to record some fluency cards about the Winter Olympics I had found on TpT.  I have always found great success with fluency when students can listen back what they have read and then discuss what was good and what could have been better.

Audioboo was suggested to me by a trusted colleague as simplistic and easy to use so I went online to check it out. As always she was right. It was very easy to set up and with a few clicks I was up and recording with my 2nd graders. I did have some problems with keeping them all recording, not worrying what the person next to them was doing while I was making sure everyone was set up, and some background noise of the person next to them recording, but that is not the fault of the technology :)

Once we had our practice run and decided we needed to record individually to get the best result it was very easy to get logged in and to the point where they could push record and then pause recording when done and I could be working with the rest of the kids in the room.

I was also able to have the kids pick a picture from our Iowa AEA Online iClipart Site to put with each of their boos too. (If I would have had more time I think we could have done a lesson on reading the directions aloud to each other and adding the clip art to the the boo. It is a fairly easy process of saving the picture to your computer and then uploading to the boo in edit mode.

The site is a public site and is meant to share your boo's with others, so be aware they do have an age limit of 13 for use. So I only created an account for myself and had the kids record under it. I also have a student who does not have permission to have his picture online so I had him use Audioboo to record and then I saved the file to my computer to listen to later. I did contact Audioboo about this and they suggested their app on Edmodo as that is a closed environment for students. I looked into it and the app is $4.99 on Edmodo. At this point I am not sure how much we would actually used it, but it is an idea for the future if we continue to make boos and we want to share with each other in a closed environment.

You can also make boards of your boos to keep them organized. In this case I created a Winter Olympics Board and put all of the boos on the board.

You can then share the board with a link on the social media sites of Facebook or Twitter or via email or QR code.

You can also embed the link like I did below and it will put it on your website or blog -

What I really liked about Audioboo was the simplicity of recording, adding a picture, and sharing. It is just what we needed for a quick and easy fluency check in with the kids. If you want sound effects, music, and bells and whistles this is not for you, but that is not what I was looking for so I was happy with what I found as I did not need those distractions with my kids at this point in time. If your kids get used to Audioboo you could use it at anytime to record the kids and then save the .mp3 and load into Garageband, iMovie, Movie Maker or online sites like WeVideo or Loopster if you are looking to add those bells and whistles at a later time. But for my 2nd graders this was enough.

The fluency cards I picked turned out needing more practice than I first anticipated, the mid-west winter happened, and we required a practice and final recording (which I should have anticipated but had too much wishful thinking I guess) so we only got one set of cards recorded. I hope to make this a weekly part of our lessons so we get in the routine of recording and listening each week and hopefully 'hear' our growth over our time together. I would also like to share them with parents, teachers, and other classmates so they can listen as well. I might also look into having a page on my website with the fluency cards so kids can pull them up to listen and follow along on the cards to 'hear' how they did. Or I found this Fluency Evaluation Freebie that they can fill out when they listen to their recordings and we can discuss together.

Before you close the 'page' comment below about programs you use to record your students and what you do with the recordings.

Create a story bot and more!

I cannot say enough good things about a collection of apps from Storybots on the iPad. I stumbled across Starring You Books on Facebook one day and knew my girls would love it. This app allows you to create a character with your child's name in the story and a picture of their face placed on the body of the main character in the story. They essentially become the story. Even my two year old laughs and giggle when she is part of the story.

The apps are free in iTunes and you have access to one book about dancing feet to try out, which we did for a month. I wanted to see how much my girls would use it because the subscription is $4.99/ month which is about $60 a year so I didn't want to jump in without trying first. With the subscription you get access to all their great apps like Math Racer, Starring You Videos and Books, Coin Flip, Share Timer, Learning Videos, Kid Quoter, Tap & Sing, ABC Videos, Kids Radio, and Beep and Bop and a couple holiday specific Starring You Family Videos. If you think about it that is about 40 cents per app, which is not such a bad investment for a child's education.

I was ready to jump in after watching my girls have fun reading with the app, but I also just bought a Kindle for my daughters so wanted to know if the apps were available in Android version. I emailed Storybots and not only did they give me a quick response that they are working on Android apps, but they also let me know as an educator that I could get a free subscription - yes I said free! I just had to fill out this form - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/educator-network-referral I filled it out and they sent me an acces code to get started. They also followed up with an email to see if everything worked and was going well. It was very great service. So big props to them!

Here are some ideas on how you could use the apps in your classroom, library, or at home with your kids.

Take pictures of your students and show them how to add to Starring You Books. Then they can read the books during free reading time or read aloud to other students during center time. Or you can read the books together as a bedtime story. My 2 year old even likes to watch her character dance across the screen even though she can't read the words.

Take pictures of your whole class and put them in the Starring You Videos and show the videos on your Smartboard (or even just your screen or whiteboard if that is what you have.) I guarantee there will be giggles! 

Start your circle time with a different ABC video to grab everyone's attention. Share the learning videos to compliment your curriculum. Turn on the kids radio during work time as an incentive to help keep the class quite and working. 

I have not had a chance to use some of the apps, but this is how I think you could use them. Use Mather Racer as a center during Math time. Use the Share Timer to keep track of rotation during centers if you rotate. Use the Coin Flip to decide who is your helper for a certain job or where students will go to centers. Use Beep and Bop to keep track of classroom behavior. Use Kid Quoter to keep track of fun things students say to share in a newsletter or at conferences. Create a book at the end of the year for the class or each student. 

Just have fun and play around with all the apps and see what you can do! The possibilities are endless.

This is my toddler enjoying the ABC song video on the Storybots website. (She was giggling before I made her stop watching to look at me for the picture.) 

Before you close the page - how could you use these apps in your classroom? Please share below. 

May the Odds Ever be in your Favor - Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games

Unless you were unlucky enough to be reaped into The Hunger Games, I am sure you are aware of the trilogy by Suzanne Collins about a society that places two children from each of the 12 districts in an arena to fight to the death on live television in order to keep the citizens from rebelling against the all powerful Capitol.

For the second time we have decided to bring this book to life for students and the second Hunger Games Competition was held as a joint event with the middle and high school students who chose to take the challenge.

I went to a competition about four years ago at the college I attended and had a blast helping with the first aid station, so I came back and told my fellow high school librarian that we needed to have one too.
After we did one a few years ago when the first movie came out the kids told us as they left we needed another one when the next movie came out, so here we were happy to get them engaged again!

For the first competition we went to work searching the book and many websites to come up with the activities for the games. The announcement and posters hit the hallways and teams were formed. As part of the competition the teams were asked to bring school supplies to donate to our Back to School Fair for an entry fee. We had seven teams sign up and participate in the Cornucopia Challenge followed by these stations -

• Trivia
• Face Painting (Camouflage)
• Poison Berries
• Scholastic Online Hunger Games
• Dark Room
• Obstacle Course 

As we tallied scores to see who won the students decorated cupcakes in honor of Peeta. The winners left with some movie tickets and posters and door prizes were drawn for more posters or books. It was great to hear them talk about all their adventures as they left.

This time we again went to work searching the book and websites to come up with activities. Teams were formed and as part of the competition were asked to bring canned food to donate to the local food pantry as an entry fee. We had fourteen teams sign up and participate in the Cornucopia Challenge followed by these stations -

• On Fire Trivia
• Duct Tape Doll Dresses
• The Human Knot
• Water Drop
• Dark Room Pool
• Paper Airplanes 

The students were treated to a survival mix as points were tallied and winners left with their choice of  movie tickets or a book about the movie and door prizes were drawn for t-shirts, bookmarks, or posters.

Here are some pictures of the students who came through my trivia station and the prizes at the end of the competition -

A digital slideshow by Smilebox

Of course this competition could not have happened without the students interest, the teachers and volunteers who came to help run the stations, and the students who participated as design team leaders to help lead the teams around to the correct station. So we thank all of them for taking the time to help. It is wonderful to see a community of readers excited by their love of the story. We already heard some comments about next time...

If you would like any information about the stations or how they worked feel free to contact me, I am happy to share!

Before your close the page - Does your school have any competitions to help bring books to life? What are they? I would love to hear all the ideas! 

Ask a librarian?

As  I have mentioned I am currently taking a class on the last leg of finishing up my reading endorsement and part of the class was to pick a research topic (related to reading) and look at ten articles about the topic. As a former teacher-librarian I am aware of many studies on the positive impact of libraries and librarians on reading scores, yet (as I am a casualty of budget cuts) it is one of the first positions done without when schools have declining enrollment and can't keep up with increasing budget cuts. So I decided to do my research on the impact of school libraries and also reading incentives (as this is something the librarian is often involved in) on reading scores in schools.

Twenty-one states, including Iowa where I live, have done studies on library impact and reading score. Every study showed a positive impact on reading scores and a quality library program with a certified librarian. So why is this a position that is often shared between buildings or in some cases done without? It made me wonder even more about all the things that can not be done in my former building because one person is now doing the job two used to do. So I created a Prezi (if you haven't tried out this online presentation site, I highly recommend it to any visual learners!) to show what my school was possibly missing with only someone in the library part time. You can click here to check out the presentation by clicking here.

I was not surprised of the information out there about the negative effects of just using Accelerated Reader (AR) or Reading Counts as reading programs. I, myself believe that these programs are not the best way to track reading progress and felt very frustrated when I was student teaching and spent time book talking books with students and having them turn it down because it was not AR or not at their color dot. I am also a horrible test taker, so would probably (and have) done poorly on a multiple choice test over something I just read, but could write, create, or talk endlessly about it.

I was more surprised about the research out there about the negative effect of rewarding reading, as it is suppose to be a pleasant experience for us. I have to respectfully disagree as even though I loved my job as a teacher-librarian I could not make it in society without a paycheck, which in a way was my reward for working. I have also seen reading incentives work with reluctant readers. Not everyone loves to read like I do, but like it or not everyone does read. Even my husband who would never read a book 'just for fun', takes time in the barn each week to read his farm newspapers and pours over manuals to fix equipment almost daily. It is ALL about finding what interests each student. Reading is like any other skill, you are only going to get better at it if you practice and if I can provide a little something extra (be it a bookmark or a small celebration to celebrate reading or even some food) to get a student to take a little extra time to read, I am going to do it.

Before you close the page do you have a full time school librarian at your school and what do they do to promote reading with your students?