Barnes & Noble Storytime

Website: This site used to be found on Barnes and Noble's website, but some of the videos can now be found on YouTube. Here is a playlist of the read aloud videos.

Company: Barnes and Noble

Cost: Free

Device: Internet browser on an Internet capable device, tablet or smart phone

SAMR Model: Substitution

Description

Barnes and Noble had some online stories on their website that now reside on YouTube. These videos are some well known stories that are read aloud. While listening to the story being read, the video shows the illustrations.

Differentiation

These videos are support opportunities for differentiation. For student who can not yet read independently, this is a great way for them to build reading and comprehension skills. Students who are reading independently can listen to the story and build comprehension skills based off of the story's events, characters, setting, etc. These story videos could be meaningful for students who are English Learners, have reading or learning disabilities, Autism, or a range of other needs.

Comprehension

This resource will help students build comprehension skills by listening to a story being read fluently and with expression. The illustrations help students use a picture to understand what is happening in a story. Students will not get caught up on unknown words or letters, or lose focus of the story, because they will be able to hear the content being read to them. They will then be able to focus on the text instead of individual words.

Possible Downfalls

This resource is nested on YouTube which can lead to students clicking various other videos and ending up on inappropriate or unintended sources. There also may be ads that are inappropriate. To avoid this, teachers could search for the videos on Safeshare.tv (or create them if unavailable) and then create and print QR codes for easy access with a QR code scanner app.

This resource does not show words or text as they are being read. While reading and comprehension skills are being built, adding text and having it highlighted as it is read has been shown to increase word recognition and other important literacy skills.