When teaching about Egypt, I always enjoyed reading the book Into the Mummy’s Tomb to my fourth graders. With two, 45-minute class periods each week, it was easy to find the time. Then, our time got slashed in half! No time for reading. Must. Make. Art. So, I got tricky and paraphrased the entire book into a series of notes.
This was actually a blessing in disguise.
Instead of rote reading, students were able to immerse themselves in my own storytelling voice. By telling the story in my own words, it seemed much more exciting. Of course, I left each class period off on a cliff-hanger, and the students just couldn’t get enough!
The next time you want to save time and engage students in a new way, try paraphrasing a book that would otherwise be too long to read and become a master storyteller!
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What timesaving tricks do you have to share?
How do you fit everything in when you have short class periods?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
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