We know the importance of literacy and music and the importance of getting children involved in learning through movement. What if we paired the two together, no matter the age of the students?
That’s what Susan Chodakiewitz is doing through Booksicals, creating musicals from picture books for some fully immersed learning. And what she’s discovered as a result is more confidence and more engagement from children of all levels.
Educational professionals have long tried to encourage children to build their literacy skills while getting the community involved in education. The idea that a picture book can be acted out helps children explore characters, plot, and backstory, and it allows both pre-readers and older students to work together on a common end goal. And who doesn’t love the idea of hiding some of the learning during a fun and interactive lesson?
Listen in to Susan talk about how to bring any picture book into an interactive classroom, why improvisation and acting is such a powerful way to learn, and how to bring literacy into the community. We also talk a bit about the benefits of being multilingual and how Susan got to where she is. I love the idea of Booksicles so much that I’ve invited Susan to work with us at my micro-school, LEADPrep.
Susan Chodakiewitz is an author, composer, and producer. She is the founder of Booksicals children's books and Picture Book Musicals. Her passion for igniting a love of reading in children has led her to create the Booksicals Literacy Through the Arts program, an interactive performing arts curriculum where theater and the arts become a teaching tool for literacy and social-emotional learning.
Susan is the author of seven children’s picture books: The Alphabet Thief, Selah the Peach, Master Davey and the Magic Tea House, Wobegon and Mildred, Mr. Snoozle's Exquisite Eggs, Too Many Visitors for One Little House and soon-to-be-released Mother Nature ABC verses.
Susan partners with brands and businesses to promote literacy and a love of reading and has created books and literacy projects for brands such as the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Westin Hotels Kids Club, and the Gap Kids.
Susan Chodakiewitz is a frequent author presenter at schools, museums, book fairs, and libraries and has presented both in the U.S. and around the world. She is a graduate of the Academy for New Musical Theater and a member of the New Musical Inc, advisory board.
Susan holds a degree from the University of Miami in chemistry and French and a pharmacy degree from the University of Florida. She was born in Havana Cuba, raised in New York and has lived in Florida, North Carolina, Toronto, Israel, and southern California. She speaks fluent Spanish, Hebrew, and French. All her books are available in Spanish. Susan currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and is blessed to have three sons, a daughter, and three amazing daughters-in-law.
