Storyline Online

I LOVE this website, Storyline Online. It is a place to find great books with a video stream of famous actors and actresses reading the stories while showing the actual illustrations from the book.

We used this website in our reading group when we read Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco (my favorite!). After we watched and listened to the story being read aloud, we talked about fluency. When you read with fluency, the words come alive and start to make a picture. Instead of reading each word, one by one, you group the words together in a way that makes sense. That is what happened in the story when Tricia learned to read. She started with letters and sounds, then she was reading word by word. Finally, words came alive and she chased the knowledge through the pages of the book.

We also talked about how, just like soccer and playing the piano, reading takes PRACTICE. The more you practice a story or passage, the more fluent it becomes. Stay posted for future fluency tales...