JANET ALLEN - SUCCESS WITH AUDIOBOOKS

Janet Allen (EdD, University of Maine) spends her time researching, writing, and consulting with schools and teachers who are changing their literacy practices. An award-winning teacher, she taught high school English and reading for twenty years in rural Maine, eventually leaving her classroom to teach English education courses as an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. 'Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and guided paths to independent reading 4-12' is the most recent of her four professional books.
 
 
 
Shared Reading and Independence -
Why am I talking about shared reading in the context of independence? What I want to reference here is the use of audio books to give the support of shared reading during times of independent reading. For many of my students, the engagement with books they experienced during our shared reading classes was lost when it was time for them to read independently. Each Monday and Friday (our independent reading days) there were always a few students who could not find a book in which they were interested that was also at their independent reading level. Those students would report reading everything from Golding's Lord of the Flies to Stephen King's Dark Tower series when I checked the status of the class, but after a couple of days, they abandoned those books in favor of some less difficult but also less interesting to them. These same students were also the ones who typically caused the most problems during this time of silent reading.  
 
Fortunately, I found several companies that were producing audio books. These recordings, together with the accompanying texts, afforded all readers the opportunity to read books at their interest level in spite of their reading difficulties.
 
excerpted from p. 62-63 - Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12, by Janet Allen. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted with permission of Stenhouse Publishers.
 
Using audio books with Independent Reading
I was recently observing in a high school in southwest Florida where teachers were implementing a literacy workshop. The teacher was doing a shared reading of a short story, but one young man was sitting with headphones and the book and audiotape for Chris Crutcher's Ironman. The teacher asked if she should make him stop to participate in what everyone else was doing. "I kind of hate to make him stop. This is the first thing he has done all year."
 
I recommended that she just let him continue with the novel. Halfway through the period, she took the class to the media center for some instruction on computer-based research. The young man brought along his book, tape, and tape player, sat away from the group, and continued reading his novel. When the media specialist tried to bring him into the group, the teacher told her not to disturb his reading. After about twenty minutes, he came to where we were seated and asked permission to go to the rest room. I took the opportunity to ask him about the book.
"What are you reading?"
"Ironman."
"That's a great book. I love Chris Crutcher, don't you? "
 He looked at me with a somewhat sullen look on his face and replied, "I hate to read."
 "You're kidding. You don't look like you hate to read."
He seemed surprised and a smile lit his entire face as he responded, "I guess maybe I don't hate to read this book." The teacher said it was the first time she had seen him smile the entire semester.
 
For many readers, saying they don't like to read has become an acceptable response to allow them to escape many reading activities. Not wanting to appear to be schoolboys or schoolgirls, even students who like to read often won't admit it. Once readers say they don't like to read often enough, it becomes a habit and a belief. I found audio books to be the most significant factor in overcoming that belief system in my own classroom and in the literacy project classrooms I visit around the country. Kyle Gonzalez and I wrote extensively about the logistics of using audio books in There's Room for Me Here. It was amazing for us to see students develop such language fluency from reading books with audiotapes that they were able to wean themselves from the recordings. We watched them use the tapes for support as they chose increasingly more difficult texts, thereby compensating for the difference between their listening and reading vocabularies.
 
Keeping Track
I'm sure many of you are thinking, "This sounds too chaotic for me." Actually, after the initial confusion over where books/tape players/batteries are kept and after students get accustomed to how they (and you) are keeping track of their progress, students will quickly beg for extra independent reading time. Contrary to what you might expect, classrooms where books on tape are available for students who need them tend to be quiet places.
 
excerpted from p. 108-109 - Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12, by Janet Allen. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted with permission of Stenhouse Publishers.
 
Audio Books
I doubt that we would have met with the amount of literacy success we experienced in our classroom had it not been for audio books. Audio books allow students to experience the magic of a good book they are unable to read independently. Using unabridged audio books as a form of assisted reading allows students simultaneously to see and hear both new words and commonly used words that may not have made it into their sight vocabulary.
 
Portable Tape Players
In order to use the audio books during independent or sustained silent reading (SSR), I needed portable tape players. These can be purchased at any department or electronic store as well as through companies [that sell audio books]. I purchased portable tape players (without radios) rather than tape recorders because they are truly portable and go where the students go when they read, which is not always next to a plug in the wall. Individual tape players also cut down on the distractions and allow for more choice during independent reading. The tape players are stored in a locked cabinet when not in use, and we count them after each independent reading session. One student is in charge of the tape players each week, and no one is permitted to leave the room until they all have been accounted for. The students and I reached this decision after a few of our tape players disappeared never to return. As time passed, however, and the value of the portable tape players became clearer to the students, they were more careful about making sure that they stayed in the classroom.
 
Rechargeable Batteries and Chargers
In order to use the tape players most cost-effectively, we purchased rechargeable batteries and battery charger. Again, when some of the batteries left our room and never came back, the students and I agreed that counting them at the end of each independent reading session would be the most effective way to keep track of them. Students take turns assuming this duty each week, which also includes charging the batteries. The batteries are usually left to charge overnight, and the student in charge in the morning block returns the charged batteries to storage. The batteries and chargers are stored in the cabinet when not in use.
 
Headphones
It might seem odd to waste space talking about headphones, but trust me-it will save you a lot of time, money, and headache to store them properly. After months of storing headphones in a bin in my cabinet and having to deal constantly with tangled and broken ones, I finally purchased small plastic hooks with adhesive backs. Hanging the headphones on these hooks preserves them. The cords don't get bent or damaged, and we always have enough to go around.


excerpted from p. 31-32 - There's Room For Me Here: Literacy Workshop in the Middle School,by Janet Allen and Kyle Gonzalez. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted with permission of Stenhouse Publishers.
 

For more information about Janet Allen's books - check out www.stenhouse.com