Guest Author - Valerie Shoopman

Audio books have been around a long time. Decades in fact, but just recently have they become widely available and new uses found and accepted for them. One of the best uses for audio books is using them in conjunction with teaching children reading and comprehension skills, particularly students with special needs.

Audio books can increase language skills and reading literacy. They do this by allowing students to hear our spoken language, which is essential for building up a large vocabulary and for stimulating the imagination. No one reads aloud very much anymore. Not parents or teachers either. They simply do not have the time. As a result, children are missing out on hearing how words are pronounced, and how sentences are structured, in addition to a long lost art of storytelling.

Audio books can make reading more accessible and appealing. Reading can be very intimidating to a lot of students when they are first learning our language. Reading can be especially intimidating to students that have language learning issues such as dyslexia, or who are not fluent in English. Audio books can become a source of pleasure allowing students to expand their knowledge and diversify their interests.

Audio books are an outstanding classroom tool that provides a medium where all students comprehend written words much more easily while satisfying multiple reading levels and allowing active classroom discussion of characters and plots without the pain and embarrassment of having to read out loud. You see, many special education students can comprehend much higher level reading material than what they can decode word by word. Audio books allow them to feel successful in an area where they have never been able to keep up with their peers before. Talk about a shot of self-esteem! It is great to see them actively and excitedly participating in classroom discussions about books they can understand and comprehend, but could never read on their own.

I like to use audio books in the classroom in a variety of ways. I love using them for a reading literacy group where everyone is listening to the same audio book, then discussing the characters, plot, predicting what might happen next, even writing or recording their own alternate endings. Using graphic organizers, such as Inspiration, to help organize their thoughts and ideas works really well when it comes time to write chapter summaries and book reports or study for the comprehension quizzes. Every student feels as if they are a part of the group and has a real chance for success, plus you are limiting any chances for embarrassment such as having a poor reader read out loud.

Using audio books in conjunction with the printed book works wonders as well. When the student follows along looking at the printed text as they are hearing the words pronounced, it helps them by having what is called multi-sensory input. They are hearing and seeing the words at the exact same time. I like to have my students also say the word to themselves or out loud quietly as they look at the words and listen to them, which adds another sensory component to the word. Students can also listen to a chapter and then read it on their own. Doing this helps them understand the main ideas before they have to expend so much brainpower trying to decode the words.

Enrich and encourage visualization skills by playing short audio books or audio book clips while the students have their eyes closed. Tell them to try to visualize what the characters might look like and where the story is taking place. Then give them a piece of drawing paper and have them listen to the short audio book or audio book clip again, except this time draw what they saw in their mind the first time. You can even take it a step further and have them listen to it a third time while looking at their picture they drew and encourage them to write out in their own words what the book and their picture was about. This is an excellent way to get younger students or struggling students to comprehend what was read and to write book summaries or reports in their own words.

There is a variety of places to get audio books these days. I prefer to download audio books because they are cheaper (no packaging or shipping costs), and you have one file that is all together. No worrying about where all the tapes or CDs are. They also can easily be played on a computer or MP3 player.

If you’re new to audio books, I suggest you try out some free audio books to see what you think and what kind of successes you can experience. If you are already familiar with audio books, experiment and see how many ways you can come up with to integrate them into your language arts program. Then sit back and watch in awe as all of your students soar to new heights!

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