Inspire young readers. Experience the power, delight, and endless possibilities of learning through fiction and non-fiction books in our virtual read aloud series.
For use in the classroom or homeschool, each video is standards-aligned and accompanied by discussion questions and activity ideas.</
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Ways to Use Our Off the Shelf Videos
- Discussion Starters
- As you transition from the Off the Shelf video to students talking in small groups and then into a whole-class discussion. Use the author generated questions at the end of the video and/or some of the discussion starters below, which allow for a more creative flow of ideas and increased participation:
- I’m thinking…
- What stood out to me was…
- A question I have is…
- I’m wondering…
- A connection I made was…
- I feel…
- I disagree with…
- I can relate to…
- I would change…
- Reading and Writing Mini-Lesson and Workshop
- Use the read-aloud text as a model to demonstrate a reading or writing strategy during a planned mini-lesson. Take, for example, the goal of encouraging students to include setting details in their writing. Provide students with copies of the read-aloud text. Next, students collaborate in small groups to highlight, analyze, and discuss the passage’s setting details after watching the video.
- Provide students with a copy of the read aloud text before showing the Off the Shelf video. As the author reads, have students highlight specific vocabulary words, synonyms, or other themes from your lesson.
- Playwriting and Performances
- Students reenact or create new situations based on the chosen Off the Shelf video. Groups use the guiding questions below to plan out their ideas before drafting their skits.
- Describe the characters in the scene. How do they look? How do they act? Decide which group members will perform each role.
- Will your scene have a narrator or be told from a first-person perspective? (use other ET videos to show examples of first-person perspective)
- What problem does a character or characters face?
- What’s the theme or lesson? What message should your audience take away from your performance that will leave an impression?
- What props and/or creative elements will you include?
AND REMEMBER! EACH VIDEO IS STANDARDS-ALIGNED WITH DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITY IDEAS SPECIFIC TO ITS CONTENT
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Off the Shelf is part of the Educate.Today family of first person, real world, expert-driven video resources.
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