Recorded Books’ “Sound Reading Solutions”
by Mitchell Levine

Like Classic Illustrated comics and grainy videos of literary adaptations, we all know students love “books on tape.”
For a generation—or maybe the third or fourth one—uncomfortable with the verbal medium and raised on film and television, the common wisdom is that audio books are simply a palliative: a shortcut cheat designed to take the pain out of parsing classic lit for slackers phobic of verbal decoding. They couldn’t possibly have serious education value for the practicing teacher or reading specialist, right?

Wrong: thanks to Recorded Books’ Sound Reading Solutions curricula and Balanced Literacy Toolkit, both mainstream educators and special ed instructors can provide solid benefits to their classroom through audio books. If you don’t believe me, let statistics be your guide. In a recent research study, thirty teachers in fifteen middle and high schools in Boston, San Diego, and several schools systems in Florida, students using the Recorded Books program gained a 34 percent edge in reading comprehension against a control group, read 77 percent more pages, and had improved fluency gains of 65 percent. Nor are those positive outcomes limited strictly to mainstream education: according to research exhibited at the 2002 IDA conference, secondary special needs students showed an almost 20 percent gain in comprehension from pre-test to post-test.

Although the company makes available a vast selection of fiction and nonfiction titles and class guides for grades K–12, of particular interest is their Balanced Literacy Toolkit. The package includes 45 titles for young adult readers and teacher mini-guides, a combination cassette/CD player and eight Walkmans for individual listening, class sets of print guides, vocabulary building exercises, and even a steel cabinet to store the materials. With selections like Go Ask Alice, The Chocolate War, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Rumble Fish, the discriminating teacher can be sure of garnering maximum student interest as well as research-based skills improvement. A diverse set of varying “core collections” are offered as well, including selections of Newberry Award-winning titles and titles chosen by distinguished reading teacher, Janet Allen.

Even better Recorded Books suggests a number of tested teaching strategies for classroom use, including plans for independent “sustained silent reading,” small group reading, whole class listening, and even encouraging family participation. For struggling and special education use, the SmartReader product is emphasized, designed to be played at varying speeds to support appropriate rates for LD and remedial students.

Really, the best thing I could do is simply direct you to the company’s catalogue, so you can appreciate the broad range of materials and programs that can be found there.#

For more information, log on at www.recordedbooks.com.