Copyright National Education Association Feb 2001"Of all the things I did in my classroom, audiobooks made the single biggest difference in increasing reading ability in my students," says Janet Allen, author of Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12 (Stenhouse). Audiobooks, says Allen, bridge the gap between adolescent reading vocabulary and listening vocabulary, which is actually higher for struggling readers.
How can you increase reading comprehension with recorded books? Just listen:
* Let students use audiobooks during sustained reading time. Allow them to read along with the written text at their interest level.
* Content teachers can use recorded books to help struggling readers with research. Even works of fiction can give students background knowledge. For example, an audiotape of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 can teach about the Alabama bombings and civil rights.
* Stock your media center with audiobooks that reflect core literature, so students can listen and follow along. Just hearing helps understanding more than reading silently, because there's another layer of meaning that comes from the voice. Even advanced placement students can benefit.
* Many recorded books are available at two speeds. The slower speed is perfect for students just learning English. Such tapes let students absorb the language without being monotonous.
* Make audiobooks and their companion texts a part of your in-- school suspension program.
Students can read an entire novel each day they spend there.
"Audiobooks replicate that shared reading experience that younger students get from readaloud time," says Allen.
"They can take older students back to the early stages of reading engagement, which many did not have."
| [Author Affiliation] |
| For more: E-mail Janet Allen at jallen3219@aol. com or visit www.stenhouse. com. |
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