The other day, my professor mentioned Storyline Online, a nonprofit website where celebrities read children’s books. I say celebrities, but to be more precise, they are members of the Screen Actor’s Guild. As I went on there, the first thing that I noticed is that I know most of them. It was nice to see popular actors like James Earl Jones (the bad guy from Conan The Barbarian), Betty White (from Golden Girls) and Sean Austin (from Lord of The Rings).
I watched a some of the readings and was really impressed. Every actor brings his or her own unique touch to the story. When Betty White reads the story, her voice adds that wholesome lighthearted touch that makes the reading much more entertaining. When Sean Austin reads A Bad Case of Stripes, it feels like a father is reading the story to his daughter.
Some of the stories are slightly animated. For example, in Harry the Dirty Dog. The original illustrations from the book are displayed, but the dog might move or perform some kind of action. Unfortunately, they are not all animated. Also, the videos would cut back and forth from the reader to the illustrations in the book.
In most of the videos, the actors would tie the book to their personal life. For example, Betty White read Harry the Dirty Dog and at the end she showed and talked about her puppy that she had rescued from a dog shelter. For another example, Sean Austin talked about how he likes reading A Bad Case of Stripes to his daughter. Some actors like Lou Diamond Phillips and C. C. H. Pounder do not tie it to their personal lives and just read it. I was disappointed that Lou Diamond Phillips did not have anything personal to say about The Polar Express, but I still really enjoyed his reading. All of the actors emphasize all the right words and pronounce everything clearly like voice-over artists. There are also sound effects added in that make the readings more colorful.
What is really great is that they read popular children’s books that you can find in schools and in bookstores. The Polar Express and A Bad Case of Stripes are displayed on the shelves in the school where I do my practicum. I am sure that if my teacher would play a video of a celebrity reading a book that it might provoke more interest in the book from the students.
I counted 25 stories in the index. That’s a lot of stories that you as a teacher could use. For each video there are also suggestions for activities that can be used in a class such as “retell the story in your own words.”
The only major problem that I have with this website is that most of the actors that are in it, are not the type of actors that young students would be familiar with. Most of them are actors that are familiar to older generations. I am more than sure that 90% of young students do not know who Annette Bening is. This website would have been a lot more popular if celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) read those stories.
Here is what some other websites have to say about it:
On the UNC Teacher Education Technology Innovations Collaborative Wiki, Storyline Online is described in detail. It goes over a lot of the points that I mentioned and it also provides lesson plans and additional activities that a teacher could do in an ESL class using Storyline Online.
Here, a teacher blogs briefly about how she loves to use Storyline Online. There is also feedback from other teachers who describe how they really like to use it in their classes, and this makes me think that it is a useful tool for a teacher.
On this blog, a teacher describes how she likes to use it in her class. She mentions that every story is closed captioned (which I forgot to mention) and that the story can be paused at any point if the students cannot keep up. She also describes that one of her follow up activities is reading a children’s book in unison. She also mentions how Storyline can be used on Smart phones, so students can watch stories on their phones.
Overall, I find Storyline Online to be a somewhat useful tool. As a teacher, I can see myself using it in class, but I am not sure about how often I would use it. It would depend on how much the students would like it. I think that here in Quebec city, a lot less students are familiar with these celebrities and would not enjoy it as much as American students.
igorgoren 