Readers' Theater with Flip - Lori Metzger and Karen Morris

After watching our colleagues demonstrate how easy a Flip camera is to operate we thought we'd give it a try. What better way to show your students work with fluency than a Readers' Theater? We found the perfect play to read on election day in our social studies book. The message was about working together as a community to take a stand against something you don't agree with. In this case, a movie theater was going to be built on the children's soccer field.

Students were put into heterogeneous groups and asked to read the play three times out loud. Each time they were told to practice using inflection in their voices and pay close attention to the punctuation marks. We chose this particular group of kids and taped their first and third reading. Wow! What an improvement! Not only did their expression and pace improve but they read over a minute faster!

When we reviewed the video with the class their success was obvious to us all. It really demonstrated the power of re-reading!

Flip Video-Maria Mallon & Cheryl Dillard

Dear Fellow Geeks,

The Flip Video is easy, convienent, and fast. It allows you to video from 30-60 minutes depending on the memory size. It runs on 2 AA batteries and fits in the palm of your hand. The best part of the the Flip Video Camera is the ease of use. To record, you press the red button, to review what was recorded you press play and if you want to delete the video you simply press the delete button. Like we said, "It is so easy even a caveman can do it." We have used it to video songs, skills block activities, writing conferences, and Readers' Theater. After recording the video, you can download it to the computer using the attached USB port or use the AV cords to view your video on the TV. If you choose to add a video to your blog or the Ning, you will need to upload the video to TeacherTube or Google Video. Other features include the ability to make a custom video with music or capture photos from your videos. We suggest you try the Flip Video Camera for yourself by checking one out from the Media Center.