With school closings and the shift to online learning, we want to ensure all teacher candidates have the necessary understanding of how to make your own read aloud material that complies with copyright as well as provide you with links to access to some carefully curated, free and available online resources. That that end, this post includes:
- Information about copyright including temporary changes to support COVID remote learning K-12
- Links to open online books including ebooks and video read alouds
- Tutorial or how to info to support making your own video or screen casted read-alouds
Read Aloud Canadian Books Guidelines
In response the Association of Canadian Publishers has formed the Read Aloud Canadian Books Program with Access Copyright “The Program will allow, on a temporary basis, a waiver of license fees related to the reading of all or part of select in-print books from participating publishers and authors, and the posting of the video recording online”, they ask that you follow the Read Aloud Canadian books guidelines of use when doing so. Please note that it is important for you to review up to date information to support your understanding. The following is an excerpt only:
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- At the beginning of the reading, please credit the author, illustrator and publisher. State that you are presenting your reading “with permission from Access Copyright on behalf of the Publisher”. Separate permission from the Publisher is not required.
- Post your reading through your school’s password-protected platform or within closed group or password-protected platform. If this is not possible, uploading to YouTube is permitted if videos are marked “Unlisted.”
- Delete your reading or, if your platform does not permit deletion, disable access to the reading by no later than June 30, 2020. We will assess the need to extend this license on that date.
- The reading may not be retained as an archive or saved beyond June 30, 2020.
- By posting a reading, you agree to abide by the above terms.
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It is crucial you understand that this temporary waiver of license fees for reading aloud in-print books, and the posting of the video recording online, only applies to a list of participating publishers and authors. You can look here for the current list of participating Read Aloud Canadian Books Program publishers and authors, and the in-print titles that are available for use.
In case you can’t find the book you were hoping to do “online story-time” of, you can email the Access Copyright’s permissions team at permissions@accesscopyright.ca, and they´ll look into obtaining permission from the copyright holder. Be sure to provide the title, publisher and ISBN of the work, when sending the email, and allow two to four business days for them to process your request.
A selection of available resources
The following resources may support ‘virtual read aloud or read along’:
- Ontario Library Association, member Lynn Goodwin assorted a list of high quality resources focused on the following categories: Author Readings/Book Readings, eBooks/eAudiobooks, Classroom Instructional Textbooks, Virtual Tours/Field Trips, and Resources for Library Staff: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17XdIytiDRGFltPJDi5wEH3WKbvmp3e_0qoAp2U0EGGE/edit
- UBC Education Library Booklists: https://blogs.ubc.ca/educationlibrarybooklists/2020/03/18/open-access-electronic-resources/
- Vancouver Public Library´s digital children &teen eBook, and audiobook collection: https://vpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?custom_edit=false&query=audience%3A%22teen%22+formatcode%3A%28EBOOK+%29&searchType=bl&suppress=true
- Indigenous Storybooks: https://indigenousstorybooks.ca/
For those teaching English Language Learners, we invite you take a look at both our Digital Dual Language Books post, and Audible´s free children’s digital stories collection.
Youtube can also be a good option for read alouds presented by celebrities and authors. Check out the following playlists/channels:
- Storyline Online Stories channel (Celebrity read alouds presented by the non-profit SAG-AFTRA Foundation). Students might like the opportunity to listen to a story from a choice of one of their favourite actors!: https://www.youtube.com/user/StorylineOnline/featured
- UPDATE: Audible is offering free listening to online children’s books in multiple languages during COVID 19. (at the time of writing, login and/or free trial sign up was NOT required)… simply click “Start Listening”). Visit also their ‘tip sheet’ for listening to learn about how to use their stories including switching between languages, searching for stories and more.
- For younger learners HarperKids´ read aloud playlist is fantastic: https://www.youtube.com/user/HarperKids/playlists
For those teaching middle school students I suggest you take a look at Bringing the Joy of Read-Alouds to Middle School Students for some useful advice on the benefits of using read-alongs with older students (including strategies to support this activity).
Parents and teachers might choose to set up a youtube kids account or teachers uploading their own videos may wish to use ‘Famous Voice Changer” app pretending Elmo, Darth Vader, Kermit the frog, and Iron man came to read for their students.
If you are thinking of creating your own online read aloud click here to look at the Scarfe Sandbox Digital Storytelling resource post to learn about a few different tools and resources. You might also consider using Camtasia, a proprietary software to which you have free access as a UBC student. Camtasia supports video editing and screen casting (perfect for read alongs, read alouds and explainer videos)
Once you have found the book and the technology you will be using for your read aloud, if you are still unsure of how to start your own recording, I suggest you take a look at the Strategies for Reading Aloud to Young Children. Never hesitate to check-in by emailing scarfe.sandbox@ubc.ca
I wish you all the best! And encourage you to tag Access Copyright (@AccessCopyright) and the Association of Canadian Publishers (@CdnPublishers) in any Instagram, Twitter or Facebook posts affiliated with your readings so they can see your efforts in action.
I remind you to delete your reading or, if your platform does not permit deletion, disable access to the reading by no later than June 30, 2020.
Below is an embedded read aloud you might enjoy! Selected by us for you (from FableVision’s Youtube Channel… (NB: to embed a video in your wordpress blog post, simply paste the URL to the video and WordPress will display the player. In some cases, you may need to copy the ’embed code’ from the video source).
(Guest post by Belen Guillermin, Project Assistant, Spring 2020)
