Listen to Learn: Audiobooks in the Classroom

Dear Educator,

Can you believe it's that time already? The holidays are fast approaching. This year, we're offering a gift with purchase to help make your gift-giving easier. From now until the end of the year (or while our supply lasts), you'll receive a FREE set of Geoblocks with every puchase of $200 or more on our website--a $65.00 value! Give them as a gift to a child in your life, or use in your classroom. It's our way of saying "thank you" for your business this year.

During the last few years, we've noticed more and more schools using book and audio sets in the classroom to help develop fluency and comprehension. This month, we're looking at the research behind this trend. We hope you find these resources useful as you build your own classroom library.

Best wishes,

Rosalind Iiams, Editor
editor@primaryconcepts.com

What is the benefit of reading aloud to children? The Commission on Reading's "Becoming a Nation of Readers" notes, "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children." Reading aloud fosters phonemic awareness by connecting the sounds in words to their written form, provides a model for fluent reading, and helps children develop vocabulary. Reading aloud also increases students' involvement in a story and allows them to enjoy books at their interest level rather than being limited by their ability level. Hearing books read aloud is especially useful for reluctant readers and ELL students.

Why audiobooks? In today's two-career families, many children are being read to less than ever before. Audiobooks, especially when paired with written text, can help bridge the gap. Research shows that reading along with audiobooks, hearing and seeing the words simultaneously, improves fact recall, vocabulary, fluency and automaticity, and comprehension. For pre-readers, listening to audiobooks improves listening comprehension, an important skill for developing reading comprehension. Listening is an especially effective learning mode for boys. One study found that while girls' recall was the same whether they read books silently or listened to them, boys' recall was better after listening and reading along. Children who are permitted an audiobook option read more books and often enjoy reading more. Once a child identifies reading as "hard" and unenjoyable, it is difficult to overcome that resistance. Audiobooks can make reading fun and "start the movie" in the student's head that good readers enjoy.

Using audiobooks in your classroom. Teachers often find it most useful and economical to buy a multi-book audio set of each title, with one cassette or CD and multiple book copies. Many classroom media players and listening centers have connections to plug in multiple headphones, allowing teachers to set up a quiet reading center. Teachers also send paired book and audio sets home in "Book Backpacks" to involve parents and family members in the child's reading. This can be especially useful for reading practice in limited English proficient households. The whole class can listen to an audio selection together, and discuss what they have heard. Many school libraries are setting up book and audio libraries, to make the most of a school's resources and offer a wide range of genres and levels to meet the needs and interests of all young readers.

Reading Prompts are a great way to get more from any reading program. Here are downloadable prompts for four kinds of tasks: fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and reading strategies. (Source: Primary Concepts Primary Reading Prompts).

Spirit Media Player Audiotape or CD? Both are popular in the primary classroom, although we are seeing an increasing number of titles coming out on CD. Audiotapes are easier for young children to start and stop repeatedly without losing their place. CDs are more durable. Happily, both formats are still widely available in picture books and readers for the primary grades, so choose the format that works best for you and your students. Buying a Media Player. Whichever format you choose, here are a few tips to keep in mind when you buy a media player. First is the warranty. If you use a product sold for consumer use in a school setting, you may void the warranty. There's a simple reason for this: generally, products made for school use are more durable and stand up to the heavy use they will get in your classroom. They are likely to have steel grille coverings over speakers and be made of sturdier plastic than home players. Headphones, often the "weak link" on home electronics, are also made more durable for school use. As you move up in cost among school media players, you get even more durability. Again, it depends on how heavily you will use the product, and the age of the children in your classroom. Ever wondered why so many school media players are a boring beige, and a clunky shape? Manufacturers do this deliberately, to make players less attractive to thieves. This may be another factor to consider in choosing your next media player.

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What is your favorite way of using audiobooks in your classroom? Let us know, and we'll share with our readers.

Why use a word wall? How do you get the most out of your word wall? We'll talk about it in our December newsletter.

The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you cannot comprehend them.

— Anatole France