My students need a listening center to provide a model of what good, fluent reading sounds like and give access to the story in order to practice comprehension.
Do you remember the old books on cassette? They were great for listening and following along with a story and really making the story come alive! My students need to have this experience but with updated technology that is more appropriate for this century!
My students are the sweetest bunch of seven year olds who attend a Title I school in California.
They are second graders, which is a crucial time for mastering the fundamentals of reading fluency and comprehension. As is the case in any classroom, I have a variety of reading abilities from struggling with phonemic awareness and decoding to reading above and beyond the second grade reading level. I am doing the best I can to meet the needs of all students by bringing the struggling readers up to grade level while challenging the advanced students. It is a lot to juggle! This reading and listening center will be a wonderful addition to my classroom instruction.
My Project
The listening center I am hoping to get for my kids consists of an iPod touch, a five way headphone splitter, and five cushioned pairs of headphones. The iPod is a device I can use in a multitude of ways, but I plan to use it in my listening center. All of the books on CD can be loaded onto the iPod, in addition to ebooks (that are often free or very inexpensive) and can be used in addition to the paper copies of the books. I will have access to a variety of leveled books that my students can use in small groups. Listening to and following along with a story while it is being read gives students a model of what good, fluent reading sounds like and gives students access to the story in order to practice comprehension.
This project will be such an asset to my whole class.
Hearing fluent reading helps build fluent readers. This will impact all students from English language learners, to struggling readers, to advanced students. It will also serve as a rigorous learning station that students can facilitate independently while I work on other skills with students who need it. The possibilities for using this listening center are endless!
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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. Lack and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
