Press PLAY and Bring Life to My Readers' Reading Experience!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

A listening center is an important component to a successful reading program. We need a listening center in my classroom to further enrich our reading curriculum. Students love going to the listening center! This year I am "looping" with my students. I am taking my first graders from last school year, and we are moving together to second grade. I am very excited about this opportunity! Having already worked with the same group for one year, it is especially important that I supplement and build upon the resources and materials that we will use in our classroom. A listening center is an important resource that we need for reading instruction. A listening center is a listening station that allows two to four students to listen to a story together. The center comes with a headphone set for each student. Students rotate through the listening center during reading workshop and English Language Development instruction. The listening center is a very popular center because my students love to listen to stories! A listening center is beneficial for many reasons. First, the center helps students practice listening skills. Listening is a very important skill that students need to practice and master in order to be successful students. Second, the center offers students the opportunity to have literature come to life before them as they listen to excellent models of fluent and passionate reading. Third, the center provides my students with excellent models for English oral language. Fourth, students learn new vocabulary by listening to stories. Fifth, the center allows students access to a multitude of diverse works of literature. I will never have the necessary time in the day to read aloud all the wonderful stories and books that my students need to experience. With a listening center, I can expose my students to many more stories and tales. For English Language Development, I want to focus on providing my students with access to traditional American folktales and stories so that they can build a common knowledge base. A listening center will benefit my students' instruction in many ways, and it can be used to enhance all the subject areas. My goal is to help guide future life-long learners, and I believe that a listening center is an important tool that can support this goal for my students.