Back to End-of-Year Lessons

Create a Book on Tape

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Literature
• Educational Technology

Grade

• 3-5
• 6-8
• 9-12

Brief Description

Record favorite books on tape or onto a digital file so others can enjoy them too. Included: Ideas for turning this activity into a community-service project. Many computers have built-in microphones and free audio programs like Audacity (read our overview here) can easily be used to do your recordings. Many digital music players also have a record capacity.

Objectives

Students

• read with accuracy and feeling.
• consider the audience for whom the tapes are being made.
• include sound effects where appropriate (optional).

Keywords

books, audio, books on tape, read aloud, tape record, reading

Materials Needed

• tape recorders and blank recording tapes

Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read-aloud favorite books and record their readings of them. Note the suggestions below for turning this activity into a service-learning/community-service project with which to conclude the year

Young students might record books for their teacher to use with younger students at the start of the next school year.

Elementary-grade students might record books that young children will like. They might give the books on tape to teachers in the younger grades or to the school librarian. Or their books on tape might be donated to a local homeless shelter or children's home.

Older students might record books on tape for younger children. Or they might record books or magazine articles that are of interst to older people in the community who are visually impaired.

More Ideas

• Students might gather sound-effects recordings -- or create their own -- to include as they read aloud.
• Students might survey young readers to learn about the books that are their favorites.
• Readers might use different voices for each of the characters in the books they read; this might require some rehearsing. Students might work in teams to create these recordings.

Assessment

Assess students based on the quality of their readings and the things they did to make their recordings special.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Theatre
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-T.5-8.2 Acting By Assuming Roles and Interacting In Improvisations
NA-T.5-8.4 Directing By Planning Classroom Dramatizations
GRADES 9 - 12
NA-T.9-12.2 Acting By Assuming Roles and Interacting In Improvisations
NA-T.9-12.4 Directing By Planning Classroom Dramatizations

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.11 Participating in Society
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

Updated 5/30/11