In this guest blog post, certified special educator and Chief of Education for Novel Effect Melody Zagami Furze introduces Novel Effect, a free voice interactive storytelling app that can “add music, sounds, and even characters’ voices, simply by reading a book out loud” to enrich the storytelling experience with kids. Lee & Low is excited to have soundtracks for several of our books available now on Novel Effect!
As an early childhood educator and now a parent, I know how exhausting it can be to squeeze in all the classroom activities you need in a single day. We created Novel Effect so that story time can be an achievable daily goal for you and your students, especially the ones who may find it extra hard to sit still until the end of a book.
Novel Effect is an aid for those of us who don’t like to read out loud, for those of us who are too tired to make “choo-choo” train noises or roar like a lion, or for those of us looking for something to jazz up the old classroom routine and get the wee one’s attention back to the basics of listening to a good story – all with a little magic thrown in for good measure.
If you’re newly discovering Novel Effect in this blog post, you’re in for a treat. Novel Effect is a completely free mobile app that will respond to your voice as you read out loud. It will follow where you go and at your own pace, and along the way, you and your students will be entertained by sound effects, theme music, and even character voices that will bring the story to life. You can download the app for free on iOS devices. If you want to be one of the first Android users, email us at droid@noveleffect.com and we’ll add you to the list.
Once you have Novel Effect on your device, it’s easy to use, but if you want to maximize the learning experience in your classroom, I thought I’d share a few tips that I use in my own story times.
- Get a nice blue-tooth speaker.
This isn’t crucial when reading to one child. You can simply use your device by itself for smaller audiences. In the classroom though, you want to use something that the whole class can hear. I recommend a speaker that doesn’t stand out so that no one is distracted by all those fun buttons and flashing lights. There are plenty of great speakers out there, but my personal favorite is this economical option.
- Take your time.
We’re following you in the text! If you don’t hear sounds right away – give it a few words, and it’ll find you. If you want to skip around the story, or stop to ask comprehension questions or talk about the illustrations, you can (all of which I highly recommend doing to increase comprehension – use the Lee and Low teacher guides for some recommended questions). We’ll be ready, listening for the text as you pick back up again. Once I’ve read a story a few times, I know where all my favorite sound effects will be, and it helps me to slow down and pause for those moments.
- Get the students involved.
Have the children read lines to trigger sound effects and music. The students can participate by reading their favorite parts or lines aloud and get instant positive reinforcement with a fun sound effect or musical note. This promotes an even deeper engagement with the text, asking students to remember their favorite parts to share with the class. For younger classes, you can have students dance along to the music in certain parts or mimic the sound effects they heard (I bet you have some great monster roars in your students!!).
Every time I read to a group of kids with Novel Effect, I’m reminded that storytelling is about the possibility of something new. It’s about the wonders and mysteries in life, those new experiences that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to share. Stories allow us to learn things about ourselves and the world around us. What a joy it is that we as educators get to give that gift to our students. Join us in sharing the Novel Effect magic on Instagram (@novel_effect) and show us the wondrous ways your students are joining in the story.
Lee & Low Book Soundtracks That Will Be Available on NovelEffect:
Baseball Saved Us
Giving Thanks
The Story I’ll Tell
Baby Born
My Teacher Can Teach…Anyone!
Black All Around
How Far Do You Love Me?
Parrots Over Puerto Rico
Rainbow Stew
Sparkle Boy
Melody Zagami Furze is Chief of Education for Novel Effect and is a certified special educator with an emphasis on early childhood populations with blindness and visual impairments. With over a decade of education experience, Melody does research and development on Novel Effect’s application in educational settings. She lives in Olympia, WA with her husband, toddler, and fluffy white dog.
