Winning Teaching Ideas

We're looking for great ways to use Orca Soundings by holding a teaching idea contest. Here are the winning ideas—why not take advantage of them?

March 2008: Kelly Campbell from Stillwater Area High School writes:

"For the end of the year project my students will be creating a book trailer of the book they read. Many of my students are reading books from the Orca Soundings collection. Something Girl by Beth Goobie is a favorite among the girls and Overdrive has been read by many of the boys in my class. This is a great collection for students who normally dislike reading, THANKS! The book trailers they will be creating will be one and a half to two and a half minutes long and will focus on the characters and theme of the book."

January 2008: Chris Arnstead, of Balfour Collegiate in Regina, Saskatchewan writes:

"We are planning a treasure hunt using the Orca Soundings books for our annual reading contest. Students in our school (population 850) are encouraged to read the Soundings books. For each book they read, their name is entered in a draw for prizes; in each book, we taped a review of another Soundings book and a question that can be answered by reading that next book. They can enter the prize draw for each question they answer correctly. We are promoting the contest using a pirate theme with gold "chocolate" coins, treasure maps, treasure chests and parrots."

November 2007: Dawn Brown, of the Rockefeller Alternative High School Program in Iowa, writes:

"Students in the Rockefeller Alternative High School Program have discovered my Contemporary Novels course, which consists of reading their choice of eight Orca books and completing work from the accompanying study guides. When they are done reading those books, they must then choose any two additional books to read. More often than not, they choose two more of the popular Orca books. They have the choice to complete the study guides I have provided or to develop their own. This course works! Students are reading willingly and relating to what they read. They identify life lessons. I and my classroom associate find out a lot about the students through their responses to the reading--what they have gone through, what they are thinking, and where they are headed. I am one of Orca Books biggest fans and promote these books among my alternative educator colleagues in Iowa. Thanks, Orca!"

October 2007: Russell Stokes, of MacArthur Junior High in Arkansas, uses Battle of the Bands to start conversations with his students about their goals. He teaches them to reach for their dreams and talks about what it takes to achieve dreams... and how to deal when they don't work out.

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