Magic Tree House Club: An iPod Success Story

Submitted by: Mrs. Williams, 2nd Grade Teacher at Byron-Bergen Elementary

As winter tends to be long and our students begin to tire in February, I was looking for a creative way to motivate my 2nd graders to increase their reading. What better way than implementing IPOD shuffles into my classroom as an end of the day activity which replaced their end of the day free time (they didn’t mind at all). After researching from media library and found Magic Tree House books I had a wonderful idea of starting a Magic Tree House Club.

Thanks so much to Betsy for getting us started with 16 Magic Tree House iPod Shuffles and a wonderful spreadsheet that I used to keep track of which story each child was listening too. I also found copies of books so the children had the option of listening and following along with a book. Most children preferred having the book to follow along with.

The Magic Tree House Club started with a lesson on the author Mary Pope Osborne. We looked at her wonderful website to learn all about the author. Next, I taught the students about each of the features on their IPOD shuffle. There were minimal issues with the students learning how to use them. At the most 1-2 issues arose each day and it was related to the play/pause button, students would hit the button too many times. Now we were ready to begin! My students chose their title from the excel sheet. Each child was given a Ziplock bag with their name on it, book, iPod shuffle and ear buds. Children did not share ear buds they were left loose in their bags the entire 4 weeks. Students also completed a Magic Tree House notebook page that had them list 5 facts they learned.

As children finished their story we would post the excel sheet up on my SMART Board and the students would choose a new book from someone who had finished at the same time. Charging the iPod shuffles was manageable. I charged them all before we started the books for about 25-30 minutes. Getting on a routine of pulling 5 bags a day to charge eliminated students having any issues with the batteries when it was time to start. Organization and management were key to a successful experience for the children.

This experience enriched my students in so many ways. My students loved having the choice of selecting each Magic Tree House book that they had an interest in. Utilizing new technology in the classroom spurred their interest in reading. The conversations they had about how good their book was, and telling another friend “you have got to read this” was very powerful. They were engaged in their learning and focused the entire time they were listening to the stories as you can see from our photos. A special thank you to Betsy for her help with this project.

Have a Media Library success story to share? Contact Liesl Toates at ltoates@gvboces.org for information on how your classroom can be featured here!