Using a TOOBALOO to

EDIT our Writing

Editing is a really hard thing to learn.  It’s difficult to see your own mistakes and kids often re-read their writing without finding a single mistake.  Huh.  Well, in order to help them hear these mistakes, we have always read our pieces out loud.  When read out loud, they can better hear the mistakes they’ve made.  On Friday, we used a new tool to help us hone into our writing a little bit more than before.  It’s most often used in the lower el classrooms, but we LOVED using it and will continue to use it all year long.  It’s called a Toobaloo (in the catalog I use) and it’s a phone-like device that magnifies the voice, allowing it to be heard clearly while speaking softly.  This allows kids to focus and clearly hear the sounds that make up words and if the sentences make sense.  Kids read what they’ve written while listening to themselves in the toobaloo.  It works!  The toobaloo added a little boost and allowed them to really concentrate when editing their letters on Friday.  Thanks to Madeline for reminding me about this cool tool…that I happened to have in a drawer!  YaHOoOO!