90 Second Newbery Comes to Seabury!!

Seabury students had a special treat on Thursday with a visit from author James Kennedy, author of The Order of Odd Fish! Mr. Kennedy came to tell us more about a fantastic and super fun program he created called the 90 Second Newbery (http://90secondnewbery.com/). This program asks students to create ninety (or thereabouts) second films that summarize the plot of a Newbery Award winning novel. Students are asked to be creative, jumping genres and telling the story in a new and intriguing way.

After telling us about his brief stint as a classroom teacher, with an uproarious story of the time a snake got loose in his classroom, he showed us some examples of great 90 Second Newbery videos. He showed us of Charlotte's Web done in superhero style and also as a horror film (remember all those baby spiders at the end of the book?? Yeah, not so cute when they're crawling all over the house!) We enjoyed a portrayal of The Whipping Boy done as a Star Wars movie (The Whipping Droid!) and laughed through a hilarious puppet portrayal of Frog and Toad Together.

This project encourages kids to read and think about the story line. It gets them creatively engaging in film making and cinematography. It encourages collaboration and creativity as students figure out how to take a detailed plot line and condense it into ninety seconds. Because they are limited to Newbery Award winning books, students also get a chance to explore a novel that they might not have otherwise read on their own. It is also a great example of differentiated learning at its best- students can contribute to this project in their own, unique, and individual ways. They are encouraged to use their strengths and individual talents in the creation of their final project.

You know you've got a great and engaging speaker when lunch time hits and students don't want to leave. But, that's exactly what happened- students asking engaging questions about how they could do one of these videos, asking to watch more examples, having a great time. We could see the wheels in their brain turning and full speed and it was wonderful to watch!