Listen to a story a day from an "Apple" (iPod) a day!
Our school district has a low-income rate of 48%.
We have slightly less than 300 students at our school. 60% of those students are low-income. What I love the most about my class, is they are hungry to read! I have a great classroom library, however, for struggling readers, it can seem intimidating. They can get very frustrated that the only books they are able to read have big print and very few words on each page. They will pick up a harder book to carry around so they can "feel" important. I have many books on CD and have, in the past, used CD players for students to listen to stories. However, the CD players have broken, are being held together with tape, or don't have batteries. Batteries are EXPENSIVE to keep replacing!
My Project
I want to transfer books on CD to the iPods so students can listen to them during our listening stations. Without supported reading, students have to struggle to decode each word. Because of this, they often lose the "big picture" of what they are reading. It's not that they can't understand, they just have a barrier in their way...the printed word. With this barrier, learning is stopped. Remove the barrier and learning is possible. Supported reading is reading with the support of recorded materials. Individuals read along with the books while they listen to the verbatim recording of the same material. When students are engaged in supported reading, they no longer have to labor over every word. Instead, they can read at a comfortable pace that allows them to enjoy the story.
When the barrier of print is removed individuals, who use supported reading, experience many benefits: improved listening skills, increased vocabulary, improved word recognition skills, improved comprehension skills, and more exposure to the proper pronunciation of words.
Supported reading provides a model of fluent reading. It enables students to read the same grade-level material as their peers. There is no watering down of the words students are expected to read!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Neels and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.