Storyline Online (http://www.storyelineonline.net ) is a great website for many books that are read aloud. Even better, all the books are read by celebrated actors and actresses. The website is open to teachers, parents, children, and caregivers. Story Online is a program under the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, a nonprofit organization that relies on gifts, grants, and donations to fund the website and produce its videos.
Storyline Online uses real life actors and actresses to read aloud books in all their videos which really makes it interesting for children. The production of each of the videos really has a high value which also includes simple animations that makes the stories come alive. When comparing to other literacy websites, there are a limited number of books. You’re able to sort the books that are available by author, reader, title, run time, and publisher. Books are also alphabetically ordered so that you may easily find your favorite titles.
What is great for teachers and parents is that each book includes a supplemental curriculum, a Teacher’s Guide. These were developed by an elementary educator. The goal of the curriculum is to strengthen comprehension, verbal, and written skills for all learners. Each book also includes run time and suggested grade levels, so that you can plan lessons accordingly. There is also a brief synopsis and themes in the story, that way it can be paired with themed lessons. It includes some interactive portions of the book as it is being read loud, which is great for English language learners.
The Teacher’s Guide also includes ELA common core standards and lesson objectives that can be used for the story. There are activities provided for before, during, and after reading. It also provides suggested activities for Social Studies and Science as well. The suggested activities also give step by step directions that can be done with students that connect to the story. At the bottom of each video, there are also suggestions of other stories that can be connected to the story you’re working on.
At first glance, it seems that the website may only be tailored for elementary grade level students, but the stories may also be used for students in middle school as well. For the elementary students, the teacher may use the videos for simply exploring the basic elements of a story. For the older students, the books can be used to find the theme of a story and make connections with the authors. They can also be used to practice the dramatization of the story, just like the actors do in the videos.
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