Storyline Online – a site to encourage reading

Yesterday I was introduced to Storyline Online, an on-line streaming video program starring members of the Screen Actors Guild reading children’s books aloud. Each book has beautiful animations and has ideas for lesson activities. I don’t recognise a lot of the names of the actors – I’m not a particularly star struck sort of person – but I did recognise Elijah Wood and Ernest Borgnine (now in his late 90s) so I had a “read” of their stories.

Both books would work well being read on a computer or laptop screen in school or at home but they would also work well on an Interactive Whiteboard with the opportunity to pause and discuss the story, the pictures, etc. There are some good activities suggested and a downloadable activity guide. Some of the pronunciations are a bit American but I think this site could provide quite a bit of inspiration for reading. Why not put a link to this site on your school website or VLE?

If you would like suggestions for other literacy websites visit my website links page, and if you have recommendations for particular sites do please let me know.