Forever in the Middle: Distance Reading

What a crazy few weeks it has been, right?

A couple weeks ago when we heard of OMSD school closures, though not surprised by it, I was sad because we are currently reading my favorite book of all time: The Giver. We were only about halfway through on that Friday and there were so many amazing discoveries and questions coming up for this week's reading. It is the unit I look forward to the most every year and I was disappointed it would be cut short and the students would miss out on class discussions about the book as we read.

My last period of the day is my Honors group and they asked if I could make recordings of the reading for them while school was closed. They like to be read to and that's fine because I don't mind connecting with them that way. My own children love to be read to as well and they are quickly nearing the same age. The struggle, however, was in what program I could utilize to make this happen. I wanted to project the text while reading so they could read along since many students didn't get to take a book home since everything was such short notice. I tried Screencastify, but the free account limits videos to only five minutes, which wouldn't work for what I needed. After making four separate Screencastify videos for one chapter, I was almost to the point of paying for an account that would not have time limits because parts 1-4 for each chapter was already driving me crazy after one chapter. I mentioned it to a colleague who had a genius idea: Zoom! (Thanks, Lisa!)

Since then, I schedule "Story Time with Mrs. Valverde" over Zoom at a specific time of day so that whoever wants to be part of the reading can join us and we stop and discuss at certain points. I then have the recording of the session to share on Google Classroom for students who just want to listen and not participate. The great thing is that they can also hear the discussion of the events as well as the events of the story. The discussion is what brings deeper meaning to any book. Not everyone attends, but that's okay. Whoever is there gets to participate or at least listen. This coming week we will finish the book and I'm hoping to have a few more kids join us each day. Here are some tips that I have learned along the way.

1. Say hello to everyone but then mute them when you start reading. Some families have TVs on really loud or just general background noise that is distracting.
2. Turn off the messaging feature. This can be a distraction when kids should be listening.
3. Record the session to post for those who couldn't attend. It will automatically format and download to your computer hard drive then just needs to be uploaded into Google Drive and shared.
4. Prepare questions to ask ahead of time. I'm going to share these with students prior to each chapter this week and see if that helps deepen our discussion.
5. Share your pets and check in with your students. They need to feel connections and love to show off their pets and in some cases, toys. Yes, even seventh graders.
6. Ask for publisher permission to read their books aloud. Luckily for teachers, many publishers have amended their copyright laws for the next few months to make allowances for teacher read alouds. Please reference this article before reading and posting videos: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=publishers-adapt-policies-to-help-educators-coronavirus-covid19

Here's a clip from our second story time discussion.  Note: my five year old was a bit distracting here but the students and I were still able to talk about quite a few important points for this part of the novel.

We are all taking things day by day in this unprecedented time and I am impressed every single day with the flexibility, determination, and heart of all of my teacher friends.  Thank you to all teachers for being such amazing human beings in this very difficult time. Your students will always remember you being there for them to create some sense of normalcy during an uncertain time.

Keep the magic alive,

Kandyce Valverde