The Better to Hear You With My Dear!

My Students

Dr. Stephen Krashen, a leading expert in the field of language acquisition, says, “Language acquisition proceeds best when the input is not just comprehensible, but really interesting, even compelling; so interesting that you forget you are listening to or reading another language.”

The elementary students who I work with come from homes where a language other than English is spoken.

The majority of them speak Spanish; however I have children from other language groups as well. My job is to help ELL students (English Language Learners) acquire both social and academic English language. One way I do this is by having them listen to, sing with, and read great children’s literature. I have compiled an extensive library of books and CDs with songs, nursery rhymes, folk, and fairy tales along with some more recent literature. They are able to enjoy hearing language while looking at the words and pictures which helps with their understanding of what they are listening to. On Mondays I supply each of my 40+ kindergarten and first grade students with a Ziploc bag containing a personal CD player with a book and CD to take home and listen to every night as part of their homework. These are returned on Fridays. They love this practice and eagerly await a new selection.

My Project

I am requesting 60 headsets to replace the ear buds that often come with the purchase of personal CD players. One of my reasons for doing this for them is that the ear buds are too large for these young children’s ears. (In fact, one first grade student began having a lot of trouble hearing. When his parents took him to the doctor to have it checked, the doctor found that the foam cover on his ear bud had gotten stuck in his ear and was in too deep for the parents to see on their own and extract. His “prescription” was to only use headsets, rather than ear buds, for such young students.) This has become a very real concern to me. A second reason (and the reason I am asking for more headsets than what I need for my 40+ students) is that there often is quite a bit of "wear and tear" on anything that gets sent home in backpacks with children this young. I sometimes use duct or electrical tape to be able to extend the life of the machines and their accessories by a few more weeks.

Having headsets, rather than the ear buds, when listening to their stories and songs at home would be such a blessing for each one of them.

Each child would be able to be able to listen to their stories safely and have fun with wonderful English literature at home. This also allows them a major opportunity to expand their English vocabulary in a very real and enjoyable way. Thank you for your consideration of being a part of this project.