Daniel developed the "listen, pause, echo" method in an attempt to improve the reading fluency and expressiveness of a group of Grade 5 students that he was teaching in an extended substitute teacher engagement in late 2010. It taps into the potential of using YouTube videos inside and outside of the classroom. For the exercise, students were given the following homework instructions: This evening, we are again making a video of ourselves reciting poetry using another famous Robert Frost poem: The Road Not Taken .
(If you have lost your printed copy of the poem, you can find it in
Dropbox in the "Poetry" folder that is in the "How We Organize
Ourselves" folder.) This homework serves at least two purposes: one
being to introduce you to the work of the famous American poet, Robert
Frost, and the second being to further develop your oral presentation
skills. Please use the following method of practice that we used in class today: STEP 1: PRACTICE (for at least 15 minutes) (1) Use the YouTube video of Mr. Vimont reading the poem ( http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=4xqIcgXmi3s )
to do "listen, pause, echo" practicing of the poem. (Listen to Mr.
Vimont recite a few lines of the poem, then pause the video and recite
[echo] those lines yourself.) (2) After practicing with "listen, pause, echo", try reading the
complete poem on your own, using your own ideas for expressiveness. STEP 2: MAKE A VIDEO After practicing, please
logon to the Grade 5 YouTube account to make a video of yourself doing
both (1) "listen, pause, echo" and (2) reading the entire poem. To see an example of what your final video should be like, you can
view Sara's video that she did for "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy
Evening": [link was given here] As we discussed today, those of you who do not have a webcam at home
may make your video in the morning at school (but please do your
practicing this evening). The results that the students produced from this homework exercise were quite good! Some students who were very reluctant to express themselves in class did wonderful things in the privacy of their own rooms in front of a webcam. The following videos show (1) the original video that Dan produced, reading "The Road Not Taken" for his students, and (2) the audio portion from the video that one of his students produced for the homework assignment. Judge the results for yourself. |