Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Listening To Audio Books, Links





Preparing for this fall!  It's only a few weeks away and I have some things I am "making changes" with.  Figured since I was already doing some "searching on the Internet" I'll just share it with you all as it might be a help.   Hope so anyway!


Something we only did here and there last year was listening to books on tape/cd or computer.  Often it was the preschooler's activity and then the others wanted to listen also. However, at times, I would just find a book that the 1st grader was reading on Youtube so he could listen to it first and follow along before reading it to me.  :-)  


I've always felt that a listening center is a lovely component of a classroom. Granted, I've seen some that weren't so profitable and the kids didn't enjoy it much but I've seen others that were very much enjoyed.

My goal for this year is to incorporate a few moments of the day for the children to spend listening to an audio book.  However, instead of trying to use cassettes that I have here and they get pretty frustrated with and can't be all that independent with, or depend on the library's limited selection, I am going to provide a website each week that has several books that they can choose from.  I am NOT going to try to connect the story to their course work. This will be a free choice-pick your own story.  I really think they will enjoy it immensely.
Our $5 headphones that I purchased at the beginning of the school year last year that I didn't think would hold up all that well but did!  None of them broke and I can't say that the kiddos were all that gentle with them!  We used them all the time!  A necessity for having several students doing schooling at once!
Purchased at Amazon.

Quick reminder of a few of the benefits of a listening to audio books:
*  It's relaxing...and causes most students to become more positive about reading.
*  They hear correct pronunciation of words as well as receive a model of how to appropriately read aloud.
*  Introduced to new vocabulary!
*  Typical improves concentration, active listening, and comprehension.
*  For new readers, it helps build confidence in reading.
*  Helps children become familiar with a variety of genres.  Sometimes elementary aged students get in a rut with the types of books they will choose on their own but are willing to listen to many types of books.
*  Often they will listen to books ABOVE their reading level.
*  Studies are out there about the benefits of listening without a visual aid for all these kiddos that are part of the "digital age".  Reinforces them to use their imagination to picture the scene and characters.

Here are several of the links I have come across already that have several audio story options!  Plenty enough for a school year!  I'll just have the choice of website as a tab that comes up on each laptop.  :-)  

Cobb Schools Literacy Centers Page had K-2 talking books selections!

Storynory

Kids Audio Books (Lots...just listening...no pictures)



PBSKids

TumbleBooks

Light Up Your Brain (Some very LONG ones!)

Audio Book Cloud

Barnes and Noble (There isn't very many here but the neat thing is that the author themselves are reading their own book!)

Online Audio Books

Robert Munsch (His books with him reading.)

What I plan to do is provide a daily response sheet for the "listening center". Each day will touch on a different skill.  Perhaps a Monday would be good for just listening, writing down basic info and drawing a picture about the story. Another day they will respond to the book with the focus of making connections to the story, day three may be to tell about the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and yet another day will be stating the components of the story, like setting, characters, etc.  Here are some freebies I have come across on Teachers Pay Teachers that you might be interested in!

My favorite so far...
Spotlight on Listening

Others:

Differentiated Listening Response Sheets

Common Core Listening Response Sheets

Listening Center Worksheet

Listening Center Reader Response Sheets

Listening Center Reader Response Sheets2

Listening-Center-Response-Form

Listening-to-Reading-Response-Sheets

Reading-Connections-Listening-Center-Response-Sheets

This one would be nice for upper grade level!
Listening-Center-Fluency-Center-Response-Worksheet

No comments:

Post a Comment