When the students came to the media center, the classroom teacher read aloud Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner. We discussed with the students the different voices she used to portray each character and how the voices helped us to understand which character was speaking in addition to making the story more interesting to hear.
Before the lesson, I created a video with clips of different characters. The video included John Wayne, Grandma from Mama's Family, Tommy from The Rugrats, a drill sergeant, and Simon Cowell. After reading Skippyjon Jones, we showed the video and asked the students to describe the voice of the character. We discussed how the actor changed his/her voice to portray a character and how the scene would not have been as effective without the voice change.
The classroom teacher and I adapted several short stories from a book of reader's theater scripts in advance of the lesson. Then we explained to students that they would be receiving one of the stories. They would have time to practice the script before coming back to the media center to record themselves reading. Before distributing the scripts, we talked about the characters in each and how they might talk. The stories included The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs.
The classroom teacher provided time in class for students to practice, and they returned to the media center to film themselves about a week later. We gathered Flip cameras from other teachers and divided the students in groups of three. The students took turns holding the camera and reading their stories. The teacher then uploaded the videos to the class blog for parents to see. The students enjoyed watching the videos and comparing the different versions of the same story.
