I have never met a teacher who didn't find reading skills to be one of the most important skills needed to educate a learner. I have also heard countless times about the struggles of engaging all students in their learning. When it comes to reading we see some of the most challenging aspects of teaching. Students are constantly being assessed at so many levels of their ability to read. But reading isn't just seeing words on a page and being able to say them. It involves many skills such as fluency, comprehension, expression, and so much more. As a teacher I find reading to be a challenge but not an impossible mission. After watching the Crazy Professor video, I was refreshed to see how to break down the walls of frustration and make reading fun for the teacher and the students.
Chris Rekstad show his 4th graders completing the mission of engaging and motivating students to read and question text based on the way he delivers the message. Rather than standing in front of the classroom and telling the students to open their book and partner read, he presents a game where students read in partners.
Level 1 of the Crazy Professor game shows students how to read using dramatic voices. This includes overemphasizing their reading, adding appropriate and inappropriate vocal changes and gets students to have fun by making these over expressionistic voices. Each student is clearly engaged in the reading is obviously having fun...reading from a textbook.
Level 2 of this game is to have students read using expressionistic voices and gestures to allow for movement of hands and arms to interpret the meaning of words and phrases. This allows students to be able to build comprehension of the text. My favorite part of this is how students are able to move, we all have those kids who NEED to move, and this adds to their ability to read rather than hindering it. Students who need to move are in fact some of the more talented at this game.
Level 3 of the game is one of the hardest in my opinion to teach my students but his students seem well trained. Students begin to ask each other questions as the other partner is finished reading. The partnership continues to ask questions about the sequence of what they read and the story elements such as characters, setting, and plot. My students will not always dig deep in their questioning so I have to make sure I am walking around and prompting with deeper level questions to model my expectations.
Level 4 is one of my favorite levels to watch. Students remain in their partnership and they orally summarize the story while one student acts as the eager student and the other student acts as the crazy professor giving information along the way. Both students are engaged in the eager delivery of this information but this level encompasses one of the major skills of reading, summarization. The student begs the crazy professor to keep telling them more and the crazy professor adds dramatic voices and deep meaning of text.
As I continue to add more to my classroom I video recorded the students at the beginning of their crazy professor journey and we continue to watch and video more sessions of this game to be able to see how they improve their reading abilities, questioning skills, and excitement for this game.
This is a MUST TRY Whole Brain Game!
Here are the links to the eBooks and Chris Rekstad's incredible video.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=8xFcUPQ_z_8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8xFcUPQ_z_8
http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/index.php/license_result/19-the-crazy-professor-reading-game.html?bid=19
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