Our school serves K-5 students and strives to empower all students with twenty-first century skills that they will use throughout their life. My first graders walk through my door each morning with a smile on their face and a twinkle in their eye that says, "I'm ready to learn!" We spend a great deal of our day thinking and problem solving. Each student is different with a variety of prior experiences and strengths that make our classroom ready for twenty-first century learning!
My Project
Children take great pleasure in listening to stories. CD's that come with a copy of the book are particularly valuable, because my student can follow along as the narrator reads. These books can enrich my students' multi-sensory experiences with books.
Hearing a book read on CD helps students see how the words on the page can come alive in a fluid, expressive way.
It helps them focus on the sounds of words read without interruption and provides a model of fluent reading. Audio books also give them an important introduction to listening; a skill that they must master in order to learn to read.
Many books on CD have interesting sound effects, music and multiple narrators that are especially motivating and fun for young children. Through embellishment and silly voices, narrators demonstrate reading as a source of pleasure rather than a skill, and makes students eager to learn how to read.
Beyond their sheer enjoyment of audio books, my students also develop a sense of narrative structure and understanding of language. Listening to reading can help them grasp the rich and various ways in which language distills and conveys meaning and serves as a stepping stone to every other kind of reading experience.
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