Cynthia Graves & Deb Locke

Deborah Locke has been Library Media Specialist at Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine, for over 20 years, following 6 years at Woodbury Middle School in Connecticut. Deb has an M.A. in Children's Literature in addition to her M.L.S. The W.H.S. Library, which serves 900 students in grades 9-12, was recently selected to receive the James C. McCampbell Award as Exemplary School Library Program for the state of Maine.
 
Cynthia Graves is newly retired from teaching English at Westbrook High, where her room was located strategically across the hall from the library! Cynthia's teaching career spanned every grade level, including adult education, and was enhanced by a background in theater and her interest in what's magical and mystical in our lives. Read about Cynthia's first exciting experiment with audiobooks in the May, 1998, issue of AudioFile magazine.

Deb began by purchasing 20-25 new audiobook titles of interest to young adults using selection guides and reviewing media such as AudioFile magazine, Kliatt, and ALA's Notable Children's Recordings (now supplemented by YALSA's Selected Audio Books lists for young adults).
 
IT WORKS!
Using rolling library carts, Deb visited study halls to introduce the new audiobook collection and Walkman-for-loan program, distributing title lists.
 
IT WORKS!
Deb attended an English department meeting in order to promote utilization of books-on-tape in the classroom.
  
IT WORKS!
A browsing bin marked "Heard Any Good Books Lately?" captured the attention of anyone entering the library and still continues to draw students to new and popular audiobooks.
 
Follow-up surveys indicated that for 73% of the students, this was their first experience listening to a book on tape. 82% enjoyed their listening experience. 72% said they finished the entire set of tapes. 77% expressed their intention of trying another audiobook and, best of all, 45% showed interest in reading books written by the same author. The locations chosen for listening to their audiobooks differed widely; the teenagers listened in study halls, cafeterias, at home, and on long bus rides. Students often have a long commute! The best proof of success? Steady circulation of the audiobook collection and demand for tape players for loan.
 
The new audio collection might merely have been a novelty, however, without the efforts of an enthusiastic and inspiring teacher. Always eager for new strategies for bringing good literature and young adults together, Cynthia Graves is a librarian's best ally. Finding herself challenged by an unusually diverse class that ranged from advanced readers to foreign students and girls interested only in painting their nails, (a situation compounded by being scheduled after lunch and at the end of the day) Cynthia planned a unit that would immerse her students in audiobooks. She claims it was the most successful thing she's ever done, finding that listening to books in audio format effectively unified the instruction for the whole class. By provided listening time in the context of 80-minute class periods, she also had time to conference individually with students about their listening experience.
 
Following the success of her first experiment, she developed a variety of assignments and projects to fit a range of ability ranges and desired learning results. Students choose freely among unabridged YA and adult audio titles, but Cynthia sets a minimum number of hours of listening required, determined by ability levels--5 hours for first-timers, 15 hours for advanced students.
 
Here are a few of Cynthia's assignments using audiobooks in the secondary English classroom:
 
IT WORKS!
Listening Journals: For each in-class session, dated and timed, students record and describe new characters as they appear in the story line, as well as major events as they unfold and what they surmise are the motivations behind those events. Effective with both honors and remedial students.
 
IT WORKS!
Audiobook Reviews: Students prepare two styles of book review, one modeled on a conventional book report format exemplified by New York Times reviews, and one on the AudioFile review format, which assesses the quality and success of the audio production in terms of characterization, vocal color, tone and pace.
 
IT WORKS!
Character Letters: Students write a letter from one character in the audiobook to another, a letter that might have been written in the context of the book and which might have changed the outcome of the story. This is accompanied by a 3x5 card for the teacher which explains the context and justifies the letter's contents by what was inferred from the story and how the student has interpreted the character.
 
IT WORKS!
Art Day: Having shared their first experience of a work of literature transferred into another medium, students now experiment with translating the story they've heard into a new medium through art in the English classroom! Some choose to create original covers for the book; many have wonderfully creative ideas and all levels can succeed.
 
IT WORKS!
Vocabulary Lists compiled from the tape. This seemingly mundane exercise is highly effective with students who read haltingly themselves or for whom English is a second language. They hear skilled readers introduce unfamiliar words with fluidity and a natural tempo and can be confident that they are learning how to pronounce the new words correctly. At the same time, the drama created by an effective narrator draws them into the book, which may become the very first positive experience a student with weak reading skills has ever had with literature!
 
Of course, nothing succeeds like success, and a number of teachers have followed Cynthia's lead, integrating audiobooks into their literature study. Students in Dick Burns's English class discovered that listening to the same audiobook, while writing response journals as different characters from the book, was an excellent way to explore point-of-view.
 
 
TIPS FOR LIBRARIANS:

	Set a loan period that's the same as for the printed book and allow renewals. Students can't listen faster than they read! Listening is a slower, more leisurely process, like reading aloud.
	Concentrate on acquiring unabridged titles. Abridged titles have their place for recreational and informational listening, but you'll have an easier time convincing teachers that listening is not "cheating" if you remind them that students will be hearing the book in its entirety, increasing their comprehension of the work, and that audiobooks make it difficult to skim.
	Buy personal tape players without AM/FM radios to ensure that they will be used for your intended purpose. If acquiring players to circulate seems extravagant, remember that at $15.00-$20.00 each, they are significantly cheaper than most unabridged audiobooks.
	Buy nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries ($8-$10/pair at Radio Shack). Although initially twice as expensive as the more common nickel cadmium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries last much longer and can be re-charged when only partially discharged, guaranteeing that your patrons have fully charged batteries in the tape players they check out. Spend a little extra to get a recharging unit that charges quickly and accepts two or more pair.
	Take advantage of tape replacement services. Major audiobook publishers usually provide replacements for lost or damaged tapes for free or for a small charge. Inquire about warranty and replacement policies.
	Rental programs can help to meet on-the-spot needs. Rental charge is based on the length of the audiobook and typically ranges from $8.50-$15.00 per title.
	Caution: Some library security system check-outs can erase or permanently damage magnetic tape. Make warning labels and signs in vivid colors!

The Maine Association of School Librarians web pages begin at:  http://www.MASLibraries.org/
It will be getting a major facelift this summer.
 
Cynthia Graves may be reached at cynthia80@hotmail.com
Deb Locke may be reached after September 1 at dlocke1@maine.rr.com
 
 
EDUCATORS:
If you make good use of audiobooks in your approach to education and feel you have some good tips and inspiration to pass on to others, would you like to be considered for our Educator of the Month feature?
 
If so, contact Heather Frederick, Publisher at Audio Bookshelf at 1-800-234-1713 or audiobooks@prexar.com
We want to honor you!